National Catholic Register Online links to Obama's speech as well as Father Jenkins' speech.
From Our Sunday Visitor: Obama at ND: Three Lessons
From National Catholic Register: Epiphany at Notre Dame
Archbishop Chaput's comments on Obama at Notre Dame
In the Wall Street Journal: Obama Scored Big at Notre Dame
Yesterday on Lino Rulli's radio show ("The Catholic Guy") he observed that the real losers here are the Catholics.
To expand on that point a little, this is because this whole issue has served to widen the divide between Catholics. As Lincoln said (paraphrasing Matthew's gospel), "A house divided against itself cannot stand." We lose when we forget that the Church is not a democracy.
We lose when we fail to respect those in authority, when we believe that our agendas are more important than the larger picture.
We lose when we consider it our Church--it's Jesus' Church, and we are blessed to be part of it.
We lose when we expect that everyone in Church, especially those in authority, will be perfect. The Church on earth is made up of humans, and none of us is perfect. In truth, we are all hypocrites, and that's true no matter what church we belong to. If we abandon a church because there is hypocrisy within, then we will never find the perfect replacement.
Finally, we lose when we think that this is all about us. Because it's not. We're here to know, love, and serve the Lord, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we truly do that, we won't need to worry about the rest of this.
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