The president of Notre Dame, Fr. Jenkins, is receiving an award tonight here in New York—from the American Irish Historical Society dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria.
The society’s reasons for honoring him include things of which the Irish and Catholic—and honor-worthiness—character is not all that apparent. “Father Jenkins has appointed five new deans during his tenure as president,” for instance.
Still, there is this: “Father Jenkins repeatedly has vowed to maintain Notre Dame’s identity as a Catholic university, perhaps most notably at the 2009 commencement ceremony when, in the face of criticism of his invitation to President Barack Obama to receive an honorary degree, he said: ‘Tapping the full potential of human reason to seek God and serve humanity is a central mission of the Catholic Church. The natural place for the Church to pursue this mission is at a Catholic university.’”
Yes, well, he did do that.
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