{"id":438,"date":"2009-04-23T08:48:22","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T08:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/2009\/04\/bishop-darcy-notre-dame-made-t.html"},"modified":"2009-04-23T08:48:22","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T08:48:22","slug":"bishop-darcy-notre-dame-made-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2009\/04\/bishop-darcy-notre-dame-made-t.html","title":{"rendered":"Bishop D’Arcy: Notre Dame made “terrible breach” with the church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"Bishop<\/span>That’s the latest blast<\/a> from the Bishop of South Bend, Bishop John D’Arcy. The statement concludes: <\/p>\n

\n

As I have said in a recent interview and which I have said to Father Jenkins, it would be one thing to bring the president here for a discussion on healthcare or immigration, and no person of goodwill could rightly oppose this. We have here, however, the granting of an honorary degree of law to someone whose activities both as president and previously, have been altogether supportive of laws against the dignity of the human person yet to be born.<\/p>\n

[snip]<\/p>\n

I consider it now settled — that the USCCB document, “Catholics in Public Life,” does indeed apply in this matter. The failure to consult the local bishop who, whatever his unworthiness, is the teacher and lawgiver in the diocese, is a serious mistake. Proper consultation could have prevented an action, which has caused such painful division between Notre Dame and many bishops — and a large number of the faithful.<\/p>\n

That division must be addressed through prayer and action, and I pledge to work with Father Jenkins and all at Notre Dame to heal the terrible breach, which has taken place between Notre Dame and the church. It cannot be allowed to continue. I ask all to pray that this healing will take place in a way that is substantial and true, and not illusory. Notre Dame and Father Jenkins must do their part if this healing is to take place. I will do my part. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s an interesting contrast between the bishop’s approach and that of Father Jenkins, president of Notre Dame. According to the Catholic News Service report<\/a>, Dennis Brown, university spokesman, said: “As always, we will continue to speak privately with Bishop D’Arcy on this and other matters.”<\/font><\/p>\n

Bishop D’Arcy seems to be taking his case public, as have several other bishops. I wonder why. Is quiet dialogue not achieving the desired results? Perhaps that also explains the mixed signals coming from D’Arcy. On April 10, the bishop issued a clear statement<\/a> urging “all Catholics and others of good will to stay away from unseemly and unhelpful demonstrations against our nation’s President or Notre Dame or Father John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.”<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

“The Notre Dame community is well-equipped to supervise and support discussions and prayer within their own campus.<\/font><\/p>\n

I had a positive meeting this week with Father Jenkins, and I expect further dialogue will continue. These are days of prayer and hope when we should turn to the Risen Christ for light and wisdom.<\/p>\n

Let us all work towards a peaceful graduation experience for the Class of 2009 at our beloved Notre Dame.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For his trouble, Bishop D’Arcy got rudely schooled by Randall Terry, who issued a statement <\/a>saying (you can’t make this up) he wished “the bishop had followed biblical teaching and contacted me before making his public statement against our efforts. Since he has spoken publicly, I have a duty to respond in the same venue.”<\/p>\n

\n

“Peter boldly swore that he would not deny Christ,” Terry wrote. “D’Arcy boldly declared he would not deny the value of innocent lives for the sake of prestige. But now D’Arcy wavers before Pilate (don’t protest Obama), confirms Judas (don’t protest Jenkins), and abandons Christ in the babies (don’t show pictures of dead babies, don’t cry out against their murder).”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That was too much for Bill Donohue, who took Terry to task<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, however, on April 16, Thomas Peters, the “American Papist,”<\/a> reported a communication from D’Arcy to NDResponse<\/a>, a student-led anti-Obama group:<\/p>\n

\n

“I am supportive of all efforts by NDResponse or any other prayerful and dignified demonstrations by Notre Dame students; and if my schedule allows, I will attend and also meet with students if they would find this helpful.”<\/em> – Bishop J. M. D’Arcy<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All very confusing and divisive. Will it get uglier as the date approaches, or will cooler heads prevail? Either way, Obama, as usual, has a great chance to come out looking better than anyone. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s the latest blast from the Bishop of South Bend, Bishop John D’Arcy. 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He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s. Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name \"Karol Wojtyla,\" and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism. Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a \"powerful\" and \"first-rate\" treatment of the crisis from \"an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber.\" His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as \"an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book\" from \"a master storyeller.\" Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/author\/dgibson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}