Notre Dame University recently invited President Barack Obama to give their commencement speech and receive an honorary degree just like George W. Bush and many other presidents before him.  After the initial invitation was extended and subseqently accepted by President Obama, Ten Priests from the Holy Cross Religious Order (The order of priests that founded Notre Dame University) spoke out strongly against the invitation and called on the University to withdraw the offer.  The president of Notre Dame went on to say in response that they couldn’t simply withdraw an invitation to the President of the United States after he accepted.  Although this is an understandable response, he has gotten an unanticipated amount of backlash.

Websites such as www.stopobamanotredame.comand calls from organizations such as the American Life League for withdrawal of Notre Dame from the list of official Catholic Institutions has sent a cold shiver down the necks of many progressive Catholics throughout the country; including those students at Notre Dame.  A recent poll of the student body shows that 73% of enrolled students and 97% of graduating seniors approve of the invitation.

This again shows the cultural and generational divide within the catholic faith and the student poll could prove promising for the hopefully progressive future of the catholic religion.  This video of Hardball from this last week shows the two sides of the argument when it comes to the political parties and the catholic religion.  Pat Buchanan and Lawrence O’Donnell show that Catholics should disagree with aspects of both parties and thus base their party loyalty based upon issues that effect their everyday lives and not wedge issues that the legislature has no power to control.