May 20, 2009

An honorary doctorate in hypocrisy

By Christopher Stefanick

There is a difference between hypocrisy and a failure to live according to one’s ideals.  Hypocrisy is pretending to live up to standards that you are not, or have no intention of meeting.  Failure, on the other hand, is striving for but not meeting your standards.  Oftentimes, I am a failure.  I speak about the saints and I know how to become one, yet I am not one.  But I am no hypocrite.  I’m just a failure who is undeservedly happy because he is loved and blessed by God despite himself. 

hroughout the New Testament, Jesus was gentle with failures like me.  Hypocrisy, he couldn’t stand.

The most pro-choice president in American history being honored by the most renowned Catholic university in America is not a failure; it is a lesson, par excellence, in hypocrisy.  On May 17, President Barack Obama will give the commencement address and receive an honorary law degree from Notre Dame.  The president of the university and the president of the United States claim this will strengthen the spirit of dialogue between the administration and the Catholic Church in America. 

In response to the recent uproar by Catholics—including dozens of bishops—over the Catholic honors about to be heaped on President Obama, a White House spokeswoman said, “He does not govern with the expectation that everyone sees eye-to-eye with him on every position, and the spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues is part of what he loves about this country.”  But in reality, the Obama administration has shown no sincere desire for “debate and healthy disagreement” on life issues.   

Among the many pro-abortion initiatives President Obama has taken up in the last 100-plus days, his administration has recently made aggressive moves to take away the rights of healthcare workers to conscientious objection, which would force doctors and nurses who won’t take part in abortions out of a job.  President Obama is making good on his campaign promise, “I will not yield” on the issue of abortion.  He’s proven to lean further left than Europe, and certainly further left than the vast majority of pro-choice Americans.  Attacking conscientious objection is nothing short of Catholic persecution.  For a man to support this and then claim to appreciate “debate and healthy disagreement” is utter hypocrisy.   

I can take an openly pro-choice president who is up for a debate, or who takes the gloves off and admits that he wants to demolish the pro-life movement forever.  I have dear friends who are pro-choice.  We fight.  I love them.  They love me.  But hypocrisy is tougher to stomach. 

And for a Catholic institution to give him an award only enables this hypocrisy, giving the vast majority of Americans the impression that Catholics are OK with their rights being stripped away.  I recently got into a “Facebook debate” with an old friend about Obama’s efforts to do away with a Catholic doctor’s right to conscientious objection.  He wrote, “You will find many Catholics not bothered by this decision….”  He also referred to pro-life Catholics as a “sect of Catholic society.”  Thanks to institutions like Notre Dame, it’s only natural that he and countless others would be under the impression that life issues and freedom of religion aren’t all that important to Catholics. 

 
I would like to give the benefit of the doubt to the administration of Notre Dame and assume that they know not what they do.  Judging souls is, after all, above my pay grade.  But regardless of their intentions, I’ll be hesitant to ever recommend Notre Dame to another Catholic teen heading off to college.  I can respect an openly liberal university—one that is pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, anti-established religion and is ready to intelligently debate these issues.  I’d personally prefer to send my children to a secular school where they’ll have to defend their faith against open and honest criticism than a Catholic one where they’ll have it quietly robbed from them through hypocrisy. 

Christopher Stefanick is the director of Youth, Young Adult and Campus Ministry Office for the Archdiocese of Denver as well as a speaker and author.  For more information visit chris-stefanick.com.