By John Jalsevac
NOTRE DAME, IN, April 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The University of Notre Dame’s student-formed coalition, Notre Dame Response, has announced plans for its first official demonstration in response to the Obama scandal. The prayer rally will take place at 2:00 PM on Sunday, April 5, 2009 and will be held in front of the University’s Main Building following the noon Palm Sunday Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
The student coalition was formed in response to the University’s announcement, earlier this month, of its selection of President Barack Obama as its 2009 Commencement speaker. The University also plans to award the President an honorary doctor of laws degree during the Commencement exercises.
“These faithful students need the prayerful support of everyone who is concerned that the damage done to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity by honoring President Obama will be irreparable,” said Patrick Reilly, President of the Catholic education watchdog, the Cardinal Newman Society.
The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) launched a website and a petition shortly after the news broke that Obama had accepted the university’s invitation. The petition has been signed by more than 225,000 individuals, and can be found at NotreDameScandal.com.
The main speaker at this Sunday’s rally will be nationally recognized attorney, Harold Cassidy, who has litigated prolife cases that have advanced the rights and interests of pregnant mothers. He will address the human rights violations of abortion and the role of Catholic institutions in the abortion debate.
Notre Dame Response says that it hopes that through a prayerful and public demonstration on Palm Sunday, the University community will be reminded to celebrate its Catholic character and to defend the principles for which Notre Dame stands, including the inherent dignity and value of all human life.
The event is also being billed as a response to University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., who last week expressed the hope that the invitation of President Obama will present an authentic “basis for an engagement with him” on those key issues that “we care so much about.”
Earlier this week, however, in an opinion piece for the Notre Dame student paper The Observer, Dr. Charles Rice, emeritus professor of law at the University, suggested that Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins resign. He wrote, “The invitation should be withdrawn. It implies no personal animosity to suggest that Fr. Jenkins and the other Fellows and Trustees responsible for this fiasco should resign or be removed.”
Echoing the students’ call for a prayer rally, Professor Rice also expressed his desire for a similar response to the Notre Dame scandal on the day of commencement. “You can petition or write to our leaders. But the appeal should be made instead to a higher authority,” he said. Professor Rice recommended that, during the time of Commencement on May 17, students, faculty, staff and friends of Notre Dame “pray a continuous Rosary of reparation at the Grotto.”
“The objective is simply a union of prayer to make reparation and to petition Notre Dame, Our Lady, for Notre Dame, our University,” Rice added.