A commenter wondered if a commencement address had ever provoked a “teachable moment” like the one some hope will occur when President Obama is honored at Notre Dame next month.

I decided to do a little Googling and found this account, of George W. Bush speaking at the college in 2001. I’ve been less successful attempting to find other accounts of the speech, or a text of the valedictorian’s remarks, though I did find this response from another student:

During George Bush’s commencement address at Notre Dame, I knelt in the center aisle saying the rosary, back turned, during the president’s address. I did so because I feel the University was wrong to invite President Bush, and to award him an honorary degree. I turned away in dissent. I prayed because I felt it was also important to turn toward something – toward God in a posture I hope was more consistent with the values Notre Dame exists to promote. As protesters outside before the ceremony explained, George Bush’s policies are widely opposed to Catholic social teaching. On issues from the death penalty and labor to the environment and nuclear proliferation, George W. Bush does more to promote what Pope John Paul II has called “the culture of death” than he does to counter it. I could not in good conscience be complicit in welcoming his message and condoning the conferment of his honorary degree by the university.

I was facing the stage during the valedictorian address, in which Carolyn Weir posed the question to the world: “Why do you play God, by executing the guilty?” During the roar of applause that followed, Bush very visible leaned over, laughing, and made a joking aside to Notre Dame President Edward Malloy, CSC. Father Malloy did not join in the president’s laughter at such a solemn question – one obviously aimed at Bush himself. But seeing the Notre Dame Commencement stage offered up for such public displays of callousness on the part of Mr. Bush symbolized, for me, all that was wrong with the invitation.

If anyone else can track down more about this event, I’d be curious to read more about what happened, and the reaction.