Your gift counts double until 5/31: $23,213 to go in our Easter Campaign. Please help now!
 Off the Record

understanding Notre Dame

By Diogenes (articles ) | May 14, 2009 10:34 AM

 Looking for a complete account of the dispute over President Obama's visit to Notre Dame? Joseph Bottum of First Things offers what is probably the most complete and cogent analysis available to date: "At the Gates of Notre Dame." 

For a considerably shorter version, see Terry Mattingly's primer for reporters, on the GetReligion blog: "Notre Dame: Who, what, when, where, why and how." Frustrated by the superficial and/or inaccurate coverage of the debate, Mattingly just wants reporters to get their facts straight. Good luck with that.

Mattingly himself does have the right questions squarely in focus. The complaints about efforts to stifle free speech are bogus, he points out; and the noisy demonstrations by Randall Terry and Alan Keyes are distracting sideshows. The real conflict is on the campus itself, and the real story is whether a Catholic university should confer an honorary degree on the President-- not whether the school should allow him to speak. Probing a bit deeper, he observes: "The key conflict here  e is inside the Catholic establishment and even within the church’s hierarchy here in America." 

An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:

Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!

Easter Campaign:
Progress toward our Spring 2013 goal ($23,213 to go):
$80,000.00 $56,787.50
29% 71%
Sound Off! CatholicCulture.org supporters weigh in.

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!

There are no comments yet for this item.

Think with the Catholic Leaders: Subscribe to Catholic Culture Insights Newsletter
Donate to Support this Site: Your contribution will be put to good work.
Tour the CatholicCulture.org Site
Shop Amazon to Raise Money for Catholic Culture

Recent Catholic Commentary

Fr. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly: Your Letter May Help 5 hours ago
The Rise and Fall of the (American?) Church 24 hours ago
The Ideal of Pope Francis: the Servant Church May 23
The sad decline of self-government May 22
That impromptu exorcism again May 22

Top Catholic News

Most Important Stories of the Last 30 Days
Pope strongly supports call for reform in religious life CWN - May 8