Boekverbranding terug in Amerika

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Volgens Foxnews is de boekverbranding weer in de mode in de UNITED SA.

Groet / Cees

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/17/notre-dames-standing-catholics-risk/
Obama Honor Puts Notre Dame's Catholic Standing at Risk

Long after President Obama leaves South Bend, along with the graduating
seniors he'll address on Sunday, Catholics and members of the Notre Dame
community will debate the president's 2009 commencement address and the
university's awarding of an honorary law degree.

But what will be the lasting effect regarding the school's standing within
the Catholic community?

According to organizers of ReplaceJenkins.com, a Web site critical of
Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins' decision to host President Obama,
more than 1,400 pledges have been received from alumni and donors
promising to withhold future donations, a tally of nearly $14 million.

"Most of the donors were at least loosely aware of the University's trend
away from its Catholic identity," spokesman David DiFranco said in a press
release issued on Tuesday. 'But the invitation of President Obama to speak
and to receive and honorary degree, combined with the weak responses
presented by Father Jenkins as a defense to those have criticized the
decision, is what drives most alumni to our site."

In "nearly all cases," DiFranco said, alumni who contacted the group had
already decided to cease donating.

University spokesman Dennis Brown declined to comment.

"Our conversations with alumni benefactors and others about their plans to
give or not are confidential," Brown wrote FOXNews.com.

In a letter to graduates on Monday, Jenkins acknowledged the debate
surrounding President Obama's visit and reiterated both his and the
university's stance on abortion.

"I am saddened that many friends of Notre Dame have suggested that our
invitation to President Obama indicates ambiguity in our position on
matters of Catholic teaching," Jenkins wrote. "The University and I are
unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its
protection from conception to natural death."

Jenkins, who cited Notre Dame's "long custom" of conferring honorary
degrees to sitting U.S. presidents, praised Obama's policies on
immigration and health care.

"Ultimately, I hope that the conversations and the good that will come
from this day will contribute to closer relations between Catholics and
public officials who make decisions on matter of human life and human
dignity," Jenkins wrote. "There is much to admire and celebrate in the
life and work of President Obama."

Fifty-six percent of U.S. voters, including 60 percent of Catholics,
believe Notre Dame should not have rescinded its invitation to President
Obama, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
Observant Catholics, meanwhile, were less divided, with 49 percent
supporting Obama's presence, compared to 43 percent who did not.

"My strong hope is that serious Catholics will not let this particular
incident drive them away from Notre Dame, which remains very important in
the life of the Church," Professor Garnett wrote FOXNews.com earlier this
month. "But, Notre Dame has allowed itself to get into a very unhealthy
adversarial relationship with many bishops, and lay Catholics.

"The University is going to have to find ways to demonstrate its Catholic
character, to reassure those who think that the invitation to President
Obama revealed a lack of commitment to that character."

Graduating senior John Souder -- a member of ND Response, a coalition of
student groups who oppose the university's decision to bestow an honorary
law degree to the pro-choice president -- said the answer is much clearer.

"Notre Dame's standing within the Catholic community will lessen," Souder
wrote FOXNews.com. "For many years, Notre Dame has stood as a symbol of
American Catholicism ... This invitation has been perceived, and
understandably so, of a betrayal of this identity."

Others close to the Catholic controversy said they plan to punish Notre
Dame financially.

Jeannette Niezgodski, of South Bend, Ind., said the decision will have a
lasting and immediate affect on her family's previously close connection
to the university.

"My mom, we buy her Notre Dame tickets every year, and that's not going to
happen anymore," she said. "And when we get home, we're going to burn all
our Notre Dame apparel and there will be no more funding from any of us or
anyone I know."

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