Their has been recent backlash towards Notre Dame University resulting from the invitation of President Barack Obama to give the commencement speech and receive an Honorary Degree.  Although this has been a recently established custom with presidents at Notre Dame, Obama’s stance on Abortion is one that is creating an uproar among many Orthodox Catholics.

This again shows the divide between traditional and Orthodox catholics throughout the United States and the world.  Issues such as female priests and the celibacy requirement for male priests have resulted in an extreme drop in vocations to the priesthood and the maintenance of the catholic religion in rural and urban areas alike.  Due to the drop in number of priests and the inevitable retirement of some priests, my hometown had to close 3 out of the 5 catholic churches in the area.  The money was available but the number of priests needed to maintain the churches just weren’t available.  Pope Benedict understands this issues but is ignoring it and trying to stay true to the classical ways of the church.

A recent Zogby poll though, shows that only 6% of progressives think that it is important to keep the tradition of priest celibacy and only 6 think that it is important that the priesthood stay all male.  Within those who consider themselves Orthodox, though, 69% say that it is important to keep the priesthood all male and 61% say that it is important to maintain the requirement of priest celibacy.

Even within regions of the country there is a deep divide within the religion.  Bishop Joseph Martino of  the Diocese of Scranton (the diocese that covers my hometown of Williamsport, PA) and Cardinal Justin Rigali of the Diocese of Philadelphia seem to differ greatly on the activist nature of the church when it comes to Pro-life stances.  Bishop Martino was one of the Bishops who sent a letter of condemnation to Notre Dame University for the invitation of President Obama to Notre Dame.  He also sent a letter to every church in the Diocese directly before the election professing in essence that every true catholic needed to vote for those who upheld the catholic religion’s stance of Abortion.  Cardinal Rigali, though, sent a letter to every church in his Archdiocese to profess the fact that voters needed to take in all the issues and consider for themselves which were the most important to their personal lives and their faith.

This division in neighboring diocese has much to do with the makeup of the areas that the diocese encompass.  the Diocese of Scranton encompasses much of Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania, which is considered a conservative and Orthodox Catholic stronghold.  The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, on the other hand has to deal with the vast urban plight of philadelphia and a majorily progressive Catholic and liberal viewpoint on the activism for issues such as Abortion. Although it is absolutely true that catholics ultimately believe that life begins at conception and that Abortion is wrong, many issues arise in urban settings where professing beliefs isn’t enough to effect real change to the reality of many families.