The Irish Are Fighting
Today the president of Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins, CSC, announced that the Fighting Irish filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana regarding the contraceptive mandate now being imposed by the Obama Administration.
Father Jenkins' action is significant in more than one way. For one thing, Notre Dame is bigger and more prominent than almost all of the other colleges and universities that have also sued. For another, Father Jenkins' account of what led Notre Dame to this decision is well worth reading; manifestly it is the result of frustration with the Administration's failure to come up with any workable accommodation.
It is, of course, also noteworthy in that Father Jenkins used so much of his own political capital to honor President Obama as a commencement speaker and bestow on him an honorary law degree.
I've disagreed strongly with Father Jenkins in the past. This, however, is a gutsy move, bound to set him against many in the faculty. It will be as interesting to follow what happens on campus as a result as what happens in the courtroom.
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May '11
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
Just so everybody is not distracted by all this talk about Jesuits, The University of Notre Dame is not Jesuit. It is part of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
The CSC, like most of the Catholic church, has been scarce on priests the past couple of decades. When my brother was ordained, the ceremony was for him only, when in past decades there would have been dozens. The CSC has been trying to sell its property in the Maryland mountains where it used to have one of its novitiates for those wishing to be priests. Both their Maryland and Colorado properties used to be filled with novitiates, but now they can only get a couple people every couple years to go through.
So, even ignoring the Jesuit/CSC confusion here, the fact is that it is very difficult to get enough priests to run schools today, let alone those with the talent to run first rate universities. Complain all you want about secularizing Georgetown, the truth is that there simply is little alternative.
But the church can still control, as Jenkins shows here.
Notre Dame '85
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
There is a reason for the precipitous decline in the number of Jesuits and CSC priests. When these orders lost their way and spent more time pushing leftwing politics than preaching the Gospel, next to no one was willing to sign up. The same is true in the "liberal" dioceses. Up in the diocese of Portland, Maine, there are ten diocesan priests under the age of fifty. In Lincoln, Nebraska, however, where the Gospel is preached, there is a surplus of priests.
Some years ago, I was a job candidate at Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. When I mentioned that I had attended a Jesuit high school and that one of my grandfather's cousins was a Jesuit, the Dean decided to show me the Jesuit presence at Holy Cross. He took me to the graveyard.
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
Doublet.
Edited on May 22, 2012 at 12:45amNov '10
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
Paul A. Rahe: There is a reason for the precipitous decline in the number of Jesuits and CSC priests. When these orders lost their way and spent more time pushing leftwing politics than preaching the Gospel, next to no one was willing to sign up. The same is true in the "liberal" dioceses. Up in the diocese of Portland, Maine, there are ten diocesan priests under the age of fifty. In Lincoln, Nebraska, however, where the Gospel is preached, there is a surplus of priests.
He took me to the graveyard.
I'm a graduate of Loyola High School in Los Angeles (oldest still existing high school in all of LA). I've been out of touch with the place for almost 20 years. Recently ran into a fellow alum. He told me there are only two -- two!! -- Jesuits left at the school.
I couldn't believe it. In my day -- the late 80s -- there were at least 30.
Edited on May 22, 2012 at 12:59amDec '10
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
Back in the late '50s when I was an ND student, the joke was CSC stood for "Come Sweet Cash." After reading the Rev. John Jenkins, CSC, statement -- especially paragraph 2 -- I believe it's about the money. Notre Dame would not be joining in this suit if the cost in dollars and cents would not be so great.
Jan '11
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
No, that's way too simplistic. There are lots of reasons for the drop, and politics is hardly the major one.
Besides, the Jesuits' public persona was highly political long before the dropoff started occurring in haste around Vatican II. If people were repulsed by left-wing politics, you wouldn't have seen that bottom drop out all at once like it did, since the political stance hadn't changed much at all.
Nov '11
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
I find this letter to be "weak sauce".
Please, someone, explain how a woman's conscience is offended if she has to pay for her own birth control? Her own tubal ligation? Her own Ella?
I don't have a problem with the first sentence, but the second two are screaming "it's no big deal if Catholics use contraception". It is undoubtedly true that many Catholics use contraception, but is it too much to ask that a priest DEFEND THE TEACHINGS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? Here's how I would put it:
Nov '11
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
I'm sure it could be worded much more strongly, as some of the bishops' letters have been.
Apr '11
Re: The Irish Are Fighting
Tommy De Seno: Father Jenkins is the kid who killed his parents and is now looking for sympathy because he is an orphan.
I have no sympathy for Notre Dame. ·
I agree with you. Coming next: signs and wonders in the sky, fish swimming out of the sea, wolves seen in churches. Film at 11.