Cheers, Protests Greet Obama At Notre Dame

President Praised For Principles, While Demonstrators Condemn His Stance On Abortion Rights, Stem Cell Research

(CBS/AP)  President Barack Obama, wearing the blue gown of the University of Notre Dame, joined commencement ceremonies Sunday at the nation's leading Catholic university amid protests over his support of abortion rights and stem-cell research.

Mr. Obama received a lengthy ovation from students and spectators when he walked onto the stage, and later when he was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, citing him for inspiring a healing of divisions of religion, culture, race and politics.

His commencement speech is expected to touch on the debate that has roiled the campus for weeks and divided many.

CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports that as his motorcade left the airport, about 100 friendly people waved at Mr. Obama from across the street, their banners reading "We Love Obama" and "We Support Our POTUS."

Knoller said Mr. Obama encountered no protesters as he entered the Joyce Center via the back way.

In recent days, protests over his appearance and the honorary degree to be conferred on him built to the point that police arrested 19 demonstrators Saturday and at least another five on Sunday.

Those arrested Sunday included Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff identified as "Roe" in the Roe v. Wade case that led to the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. She has since opposed abortion and was part of a 200-person protest at the university's gate.

"Shame on Notre Dame," read one sign at the university's gate. Another declared "Stop Abortion Now."

Some students at Mass wore T-shirts showing a leprechaun throwing a baby into a trash can. The shirts' back side read, "May 17, 2009, The day the dome was tarnished forever" and showed a drawing of the school's famed golden dome covered in blood.

In Washington on Sunday, the head of the Republican Party said Mr. Obama should be denied the honorary degree.

President Obama supports abortion rights but says the procedure should be rare. The Catholic Church and many other Christian denominations hold that abortion and the use of embryos for stem cell research amount to the destruction of human life and are morally wrong and should be banned by law.

The contrary argument holds that women have the right to terminate a pregnancy and that unused embryos created outside the womb for couples who cannot otherwise conceive should be available for stem cell research. Such research holds the promise of finding treatments for debilitating ailments.

Within weeks of taking office in January, President Obama eased an executive order by President George W. Bush that limited research to a small number of stem-cell strains.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday that Mr. Obama in his commencement speech would mention the debate over abortion while emphasizing that "this is exactly the kind of give and take" that occurs on college campuses everywhere.

The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, has not joined the debate that erupted after Mr. Obama's invitation. Friends and colleagues say Jenkins has listened to the criticism but is confident in his decision.

"He respects people who differ, but he's resolute in his decision because he did it based on conscience and what he really believes in," said Richard Notebaert, chairman of Notre Dame's board of trustees.

Notebaert said Jenkins, who is in the fourth year of a five-year term, has the "full support" of the trustees.

That hasn't soothed critics, who question whether Notre Dame has lost touch with its Catholic roots. Calls for Jenkins' ouster have grown louder amid protests by abortion opponents, who have paraded dolls smeared in fake blood outside a recent trustees' meeting and on Sunday flew an anti-abortion banner over campus.

To be sure, though, there was division on campus, both among students and faculty.

Hundreds of students filled the campus' South Quad for an open-air Mass and rally during which the Rev. Kevin Russeau praised the students for responding to the controversy over Obama's invitation with prayer.

"I can't tell you the number of Rosaries and Masses and prayer meetings that have been intentional responses to what many feel is a concession to the culture of death," he told the worshippers.

The Rev. Richard McBrien, a theology professor at Notre Dame who supports Mr. Obama's speech, noted that the president's positions put him at odds with Catholic doctrine, but added: "There are other positions he has taken, whether it's on immigration or poverty or whatever, which are entirely consistent with Catholic social teaching."

McBrien appeared on "Fox News Sunday."

[MrBag]

That says it was fine when she wanted it to happen for herself and now she thinks that the rights that people fought so hard for her to have, are not rights that anyone else should have. She is a selfish, self-centered crybaby and the most horrid type of hypocrit..
That's what it says to me and many, many others.
Posted by IrishWench01

Oh, well i thought it meant she realized that she opened a HUGE can of worms that should never have been opened and now she's trying to make up for it. - katg21

I agree with katg21

[MrBag]

It just shows the low level of your civilized nature when you feel the need to resort to name-calling and vulgar language to try and get your point across.

[katg21]

This is ridiculous childish logic. Rethink this and post it again
Posted by texasbeta

It's the facts. Pro-choicers believe that a fetus is not a living thing, therefore abortion is not murder. My question is if it's no big deal then why is Obama saying abortion is a moral/religious dillema? The way I see it, it's only a moral/religious dillema to a pro-lifer.

[katg21]

That says it was fine when she wanted it to happen for herself and now she thinks that the rights that people fought so hard for her to have, are not rights that anyone else should have. She is a selfish, self-centered crybaby and the most horrid type of hypocrit..
That's what it says to me and many, many others.
Posted by IrishWench01

Oh, well i thought it meant she realized that she opened a HUGE can of worms that should never have been opened and now she's trying to make up for it.

[MrBag]

Have you ever heard of the fact that a person can change their mind when presented with the facts? Why is it that when someone changes their mind on a subject that the people who are against that decision degrade the person making the change? Why can't we accept the fact that a person is allowed to change their minds on something and let it go at that?

[katg21]

Anyone can be against abortion. That is their fundimental right of choice. What they can't do is try to force their opinion about it on others through legislation. Pro-life and pro-choice forces instead should be joining hands and trying to reduce the need for abortions. Both sides can agree that if there isn't an unwanted pregnancy, there won't be an abortion.
Posted by kansas1946

Why would a pro choice person care how many abortions there are? I mean it's only a fetus, not a life right?

[MrBag]

noloyalisti - check your history. There would be no science at all if it weren't for religion. The two go hand-in-hand. Science has been inspired by God.

[kansas1946]

the ROE of Roe v. Wade is NOW AGAINST ABORTION. What does that say to ya?
Posted by katg21
********************************************************

Anyone can be against abortion. That is their fundimental right of choice. What they can't do is try to force their opinion about it on others through legislation. Pro-life and pro-choice forces instead should be joining hands and trying to reduce the need for abortions. Both sides can agree that if there isn't an unwanted pregnancy, there won't be an abortion.

[kansas1946]

That says it was fine when she wanted it to happen for herself and now she thinks that the rights that people fought so hard for her to have, are not rights that anyone else should have. She is a selfish, self-centered crybaby and the most horrid type of hypocrit..
That's what it says to me and many, many others.
Posted by IrishWench01 at 6:32 PM : May 18, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink
*************************************************

It is really kind of sad. The "anti-choice" crowd found out who she was years ago. She was a lonely woman so they started wooing her and courting her and convinced her that she made a mistake and that because of her, there were millions of dead babies, and thus got her to join them as a hero. Oh well, there is really no way that the US will ever go back to illegal abortion. It just ain't going to happen.

[oftencensord]

Obama is a dad, a family man, I doubt seriously that he is too keen on abortion. Just like he is not too keen on gay marriage, or legalizing drugs, or even socialism! That is why he can waltz into Notre Dame and feel quite at home with everybody and make everybody feel like he is on their side. But he is a lawyer and a power hungry politician who will say anything to get elected, stay elected, and most of all make himself and his friends rich and powerful!
It is fun to watch him evolve into this "everything to everybody" slippery politician. Much like Bill Clinton was... "it's all good" is back!

[texasbeta]

Because it's not "cool" to be religious...according to lefty whacks.
Posted by katg21

Grow out of it...religion is for the non-thinking. If you want to progress as a people, leave it behind

[texasbeta]

Didn't answer my question. Why worry about morals if you believe abortion is a right? I mean a pro-choicer doesn't believe it's a big deal, it's not a life...so why worry about morals then?
Posted by katg21

This is ridiculous childish logic. Rethink this and post it again

[noloyalisti]

I do agree Stuart that it is probably the organized religious organizations that are the problem. It is amazing that so many people who call themselves Christians though, vote for wars and occupations and against social programs. They vote for big corporations and against taxes used to feed the poor and homeless as Jesus Christ advocated. There is also so many, many bad and obsolete statements in the Bible that was written by old fashioned men before scientific principles became accepted.

[katg21]

Just as I find you to be.
Posted by slownewsday05

And God...I know. You're hopeless.

Good day.

[katg21]

It's not an actual life until the soul enters the body with the first breath of air.

Just a biological machine up to that point.
Posted by slownewsday05

On that note, I'm out. You people are unbelievable.

[noloyalisti]

Anti-choice is quite accurate. They want to force what their uneducated faith teaches on all Americans. They somehow thinking they are doing some good for a god they can't prove exists in an outdated book written by men. Again, they are for wars and torture and other immoral acts but against women's free choice.

[katg21]

Well, according to you... not until the heart beats and so yes, like getting a mole removed.
Posted by nancy_naive

Heart starts beating at 6/7 weeks...at the point when most women take the pregnancy test.

[katg21]

"Pro-life" is an inaccurate term, as most of them support both death sentences and acts of war. They are hardly pro-life at all.

A more-accurate term would be "anti-choice".


.
Posted by slownewsday05

There you go making generalizations...typical lefty whack drone. How do you know that ALL pro-life people support those other things? That's so predjudice...it's like saying all black people rob banks.

[katg21]

So let them be born and then not have social programs. Don't support the child or the mother AFTER birth only before. You are more deprave and backward than I even imagined.
Posted by noloyalisti

OOh the big bad right are going to take the programs away!!! You are whack. Give me a friggin break already.

[katg21]

I believe most of the posters here know this already.
Posted by stuart2561

Doubt it.

[katg21]

Well I believe you may be in error there. Non pro-life women have the same dilemnas as moral dilemnas as do pro-lifers.
Posted by stuart2561

Why? It's not a life right? Why the moral dillema? It's no different then getting a mole removed...just an out patient procedure.