Modern Day Joan of Arc

First Carrie Prejean, and now Mary Ann Glendon. Brave women are standing up for their religious principles in a very American way. According to the Boston Globe...

Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon, one of the most prominent Catholic conservative intellectuals in the United States, announced yesterday that she would refuse a prestigious award from the University of Notre Dame rather than appear on the same platform on which President Obama is being awarded an honorary degree.

She cited the nominally-Catholic University's decision to bestow an honorary degree on the pro-abortion president. Amid the hubbub she has displayed admirable grace:

She said she was also unhappy that "talking points issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event."

"A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families," she said in the letter, addressed to Notre Dame's president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins. "It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame's decision, in disregard of the settled position of the US bishops, to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the church's position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice."

Others, like the Reverend Kenneth Himes of Boston College, view this as merely political gamesmanship.

"But one also has to say that there is a political game going on here, and part of that is that you demonize the people who disagree with you, you question their integrity, you challenge their character, and you brand these people as moral poison. Some people have simply reduced Catholicism to the abortion issue, and, consequently, they have simply launched a crusade to bar anything from Catholic institutions that smacks of any sort of open conversation."

With all due respect to Friar Himes, Professor Glendon has not demonized our president, nor has she branded him as moral poison. Abortion is viewed as an inherent evil by Catholic dogma, so it is no longer open to debate in a Catholic setting. Funny that a layperson would grasp what a cleric does not.

It should be noted that Rev. Himes opposed Boston College bestowing an honorary law degree upon Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Boston Globe
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