cui bono?

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 01, 2009

 Who benefits from Notre Dame's decision to host President Obama? Never mind the political pluses and minuses; what about the practical benefits for students on campus? 

Lacy Dodd, of the Notre Dame class of 1999, poses that question in a powerful essay for First Things:

There have been many things written about the honors to be extended to President Obama. I’d like to ask this of Fr. John Jenkins, the Notre Dame president: Who draws support from your decision to honor President Obama—the young, pregnant Notre Dame woman sitting in that graduating class who wants desperately to keep her baby, or the Notre Dame man who believes that the Catholic teaching on the intrinsic evil of abortion is just dining-room talk?

That's how the essay ends. But if you read the whole piece, and hear her whole story, you'll know why that question packs such a wallop. This is a must-read.