David Gibson over at Pontifications has posted the full text of a 13 page letter from Hugh Cleary, C.S.C. to Barack Obama. Cleary is the Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the religious community which founded the University of Notre Dame.
Reading the letter one wonders if perhaps a first draft of the text was sent to the president rather than the final redaction. Given Cleary's position vis a vis the university, the matter at hand and the inevitability of publication, 13 pages is simply too long to successfully accomplish the Superior General's purpose. In fact, the letter is so long and far-ranging that I'm not altogether sure what his purpose was.
ObamaND2009
Read the letter and judge for yourselves.
(For my other posts on this topic, see here.)
Image: logo for the Congregation of Holy Cross with its motto: "Our only hope!"
-ConcordPastor
I had read this letter yesterday. I do not myself really understand exactly what Fr. Cleary's point is, but the paragraph below, which I have copied from the letter, does resonate with me. (I do not mean to imply that Fr. Cleary's entire text in any way indicates support for those of Pres. Obama's views that conflict with Catholic doctrine.) I simply mean I, too, worry about hate.
ReplyDelete"There are some religious people who now hate Notre Dame for inviting you to speak at the 2009 graduation and receive an honorary degree. I fear their hate will beget further hate. Will their hatred ultimately destroy their souls in the guise of self-righteousness, just as powerfully as abortion destroys the physical life of a newly conceived child?"
Fr. Cleary's letter is certainly heartfelt...you can almost feel his pain as he elucidates his case to President Obama. I would hope that Fr. Cleary and President Obama could meet privately to discuss all of the many points in Fr. Cleary's letter. It is obvious that Fr. Cleary admires President Obama very much and wishes that he would change his mind on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Then Fr. Cleary would have the perfect candidate to endorse and vote for.
ReplyDeleteFr. Cleary in his letter assumes that all Catholics agree with him. Not all Catholics agree with the Church's position on all issues. I for one found it unfortunate that he didn't touch on condoms in his discourse. In addition, the recent case of the 9-year old girl who was raped by her step-father, was pregnant with twins, who would die if she continued the pregnancy...in my opinion this was a case where abortion was the only avenue to take, short of letting this young girl die.
Fr. Cleary wants all of us to agree with all of his positions. I don't think that is always possible.
The letter was too long and not well constructed.
ReplyDeleteBut, you know, I kind of liked it. It's as if he had some things he just had to get off his chest -- he wanted to have something of a conversation with Pres. Obama.