{"id":653,"date":"2009-05-17T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-17T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html"},"modified":"2009-05-17T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-17T17:00:00","slug":"obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama at Notre Dame: “Open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The first reports are now popping up about President Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

This, from the New York Times<\/a>: <\/p>\n

President Obama directly confronted America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deep divide over abortion on Sunday as he appealed to partisans on both sides to find ways to respect one another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basic decency and even work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.<\/p>\n

Anti-abortion leaders protested his appearance at the University of Notre Dame and he was heckled four times during a commencement address by protesters yelling slogans like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153abortion is murder.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But the audience shouted down the hecklers and cheered Mr. Obama as he called for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in a debate that has polarized the country for decades.<\/p>\n

“Maybe we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t agree on abortion,” the president told 2,900 graduating students as well as their relatives and professors, “but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make and not made casual. It has both moral and spiritual dimensions. So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies.”<\/p>\n

The speaking invitation and honorary degree awarded to Mr. Obama provoked a loud argument about the nature of a Catholic institution and the state of the abortion conflict in the United States. Bishops, activists and students have complained that it was inappropriate to honor a supporter of abortion rights since he diverges so profoundly from the church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teachings.<\/p>\n

About 100 anti-abortion demonstrators shouted angry slogans at the edge of campus, angrily heckling back and forth with a smaller number of abortion rights demonstrators. They shouted through megaphones, waved banners at motorists, and handed out leaflets to pedestrians. At least five anti-abortion activists were led away in handcuffs Sunday, according to the Associated Press, which also reported that police had arrested 23 protestors on Saturday.<\/p>\n

There was little patience for the demonstrators inside Joyce Center, however. A relative handful of graduating students adorned their mortar boards with a yellow cross and a pair of baby feet, an anti-abortion symbol. But just as many had Mr. Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s red-white-and-blue campaign logo on theirs and the building erupted in loud and sustained cheering when the president entered.<\/p>\n

Soon after Mr. Obama started speaking, a man sitting in near the rafters of the stadium began shouting at him, but was quickly drowned out by the crowd around him and taken away by security officers. Three other men repeated the same pattern at different points in the speech, shouting, “baby killer” and “stop killing our children.” The crowd responded to one of them by shouting Mr. Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s campaign slogan, “Yes, we can.”<\/p>\n

The president responded by ad-libbing, “We are not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable sometimes.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elsewhere, you can read Reuters’ account<\/a> of the speech, and this report from the Catholic News Agency<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Want to read the text of the address? It’s right here<\/a>. Or you can watch it, in three parts, below.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n
TOP PHOTO:<\/b> by Gerald Herbert\/Associated Press<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first reports are now popping up about President Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame. This, from the New York Times: President Obama directly confronted America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deep divide over abortion on Sunday as he appealed to partisans on both sides to find ways to respect one another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basic decency and even work together to reduce…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nObama at Notre Dame: "Open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama at Notre Dame: "Open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first reports are now popping up about President Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame. This, from the New York Times: President Obama directly confronted America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deep divide over abortion on Sunday as he appealed to partisans on both sides to find ways to respect one another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basic decency and even work together to reduce…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-17T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/ShB7N6ZziZI\/AAAAAAAAFm0\/SrjBTJoGb48\/s400\/17obama3_600.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obama at Notre Dame: \"Open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words\" - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obama at Notre Dame: \"Open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words\" - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"The first reports are now popping up about President Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame. This, from the New York Times: President Obama directly confronted America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deep divide over abortion on Sunday as he appealed to partisans on both sides to find ways to respect one another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basic decency and even work together to reduce…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2009-05-17T17:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/ShB7N6ZziZI\/AAAAAAAAFm0\/SrjBTJoGb48\/s400\/17obama3_600.JPG"}],"author":"deacon greg kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/obama-at-notre-dame-open-hearts-open-minds-fair-minded-words.html","name":"Obama at Notre Dame: \"Open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words\" - 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