This writer in today’s New York Daily News offers some trenchant observations on the state of Catholic America, particularly in light of the Notre Dame controversy:

If it looks like there’s an identity crisis within the Catholic contingent, there is – but the divisive episode at Notre Dame was hardly the catalyst. This is a continuation of problems Catholics faced during this presidential campaign and campaigns past, and it’s hurting their message and their influence.

Before Obama was elected, the Rev. Jay Scott Newman, a pastor in South Carolina, warned his congregation not to vote “for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists.” Newman was immediately rebuked by his own diocese for “politicizing abortion,” hardly an apolitical issue and one that Catholics have in fact rightly politicized for years.

While the Catholic leadership around the world condemned candidate Obama for his abortion views, Catholic individuals proudly proclaimed they were backing Barack, either choosing to overlook his views on abortion, or believing his so-called progressive vision of hope was indeed a more convincingly Christian outlook than John McCain’s.

Either way, Catholics can now consider themselves wholly responsible for helping to put Barack Obama in office. He captured 53% of the Catholic vote, and the largest advantage among Catholics for a Democrat since Bill Clinton. So the outrage now over a Catholic embrace of the President by a Catholic university, while understandable, seems a bit delayed. If right-to-life issues are truly the backbone of modern Catholic liturgy, and Catholics are in agreement that abortion is a deal-breaker, the election should have been a no-brainer for McCain.

But there is a disconnect among Catholic leaders. While much of the clergy opposes Obama – Catholic bishops gathered in Baltimore just days after he was elected to implore the new President to fight for the unborn child – institutional leaders like Notre Dame’s president seem more open to his role as influencer.

Even more alarming for Catholics, though, should be the gap between leadership and laity. A number of lay professors at Notre Dame, which is 80% Catholic, have spoken up in support of the President’s arrival. Alumni support of his visit is said to be more mixed than student support, but hardly hostile.

John Daly, the media coordinator for ND Response, explained the divide. “Notre Dame’s campus is more conservative than most colleges,” Daly said, “but students here were definitely impressed by Obama last November. He was a rock star. Even if they didn’t agree with his principles they were more than willing to overlook them because of his charisma.” If that’s true, Catholics voters of any age who turned a blind eye to Obama’s abortion positions got the President they deserve – big on style, questionable on substance.

Catholics have always played an uneasy role in presidential politics. Candidate John F. Kennedy was questioned for being too Catholic and had to publicly back away from any perceived allegiance to the Pope. More than 40 years later, John Kerry wasn’t Catholic enough, and so we watched him awkwardly cozy up to Catholic voters by publicly attending Mass. And last year, 53% of them seemingly put one of the most important tenets of their belief system on hold and anointed a pro-choice President. If Notre Dame is having a hard time explaining its invitation to Obama, Catholics will have an even harder time explaining their vote in 2008.