Obama asked to rethink policies

SOUTH BEND – The head of the religious order that founded the University of Notre Dame has asked President Barack Obama to reconsider his support of abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research before he speaks at the school’s May 17 commencement.

“Mr. President, may I be so audacious as to suggest that you have made a mistake in your position supporting abortion rights as the law of the land,” the Rev. Hugh W. Cleary, the superior general of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Rome, wrote a 13-page letter to the president. “May I suggest, with all humility for I am far from perfect, that you give your conscience a fresh opportunity to be formed anew in a holy awe and reverence before human life in every form at every stage – from conception to natural death.”

The letter was written March 22 but was made public Tuesday. The White House announced on March 20 that Notre Dame would be one of three schools where Obama will deliver commencement addresses this year.

The announcement brought widespread anger from Catholics who criticized the nation’s best-known Catholic university for honoring someone whose views on abortion and stem cell research go against the teachings of the church. Bishop John D’Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, which includes Notre Dame, announced he would not attend the ceremony because Obama was the commencement speaker.

A message seeking comment on Cleary’s letter was left late Tuesday afternoon at the White House press office. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said last week that Obama believes everyone has the right to express their opinion, and that the president looked forward to continuing the dialogue in the leadup to the commencement.

Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown said the Rev. John Jenkins, president of the university, had received a copy of Cleary’s letter, but the university would not comment on the correspondence from Cleary to Obama.

Cleary said in his letter that he has been deluged with angry e-mails regarding Notre Dame’s decision.

“They believe that in honoring you or in giving you a platform to speak, the University of Notre Dame is selling her soul for who knows what: perhaps, at best, for the prestige and glory of having the President of the United States on campus during his first year in office or perhaps at worst, giving an endorsement to your ‘anti-life policies,’” he wrote.

Cleary congratulated Obama on being chosen to receive an honorary degree from the school and said the university is honored to have him as the graduation speaker. Cleary also wrote that he admires Obama in many ways as a great American with extraordinarily well developed intellectual gifts.

“Mr. President, you have the potential for greatness; I pray it be realized,” he said.