The distinct sound of a baby crying broke out in the capacious basketball arena where the Notre Dame commencement exercise was being held on Sunday when President Obama--who was giving the commencement address--began talking about abortion.
Obama not only gave the commencement address at Notre Dame's May 17 graduation ceremony but also received an honorary doctorate in law from the university. Click here for the video
Fr. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, had followed through on his decision to have Obama speak and to honor him with an honorary degree at the ceremony even though that decision was criticized by more than 70 American Catholic bishops and was called a "source of the greatest scandal" by Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the highest court of the Roman Catholic Church.
The baby's cry was clearly heard in television broadcasts of Obama's speech during that part of the address where the president spoke about abortion, and ended up saying that on this issue "the views of the two camps are irreconcilable." (Listen, for example, at time click 1:27 through 1:38 in the attached video.)
Obama is staunchly in favor of legalized abortion. He has said he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act (which would eliminate virtually all existing legal restrictions on abortion), has ordered that federal tax dollars can be used to fund organizations that perform and promote abortions in foreign nations, and has ordered that federal tax dollars can be used to fund embryonic stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos.
During Sunday's speech at Notre Dame, Obama referred to a doctor who voted for him during in the 2004 Democratic Senate primary in Illinois and who "described himself as Christian who was strongly pro-life." The doctor objected to language on Obama's Senate campaign Web site that said Obama would battle "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose."
Obama explained that the doctor "had assumed I was a reasonable person…but if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable."
The doctor sent Obama a letter where, according to the president, he stated, "I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words."
As Obama repeated the term "fair-minded words," the cry of a baby—that had been heard intermittently before that as Obama spoke about issue--broke out clearly and could be heard on national television broadcasts.
The arena where the president spoke was speaking is the Joyce Center, which has a capacity of 11,418, and is where Notre Dame's basketball team plays its home games. It appeared to be filled to capacity for the graduation ceremony.
As there continued to be outbursts of the baby's cry audible on television broadcasts, Obama indicated that he had removed from his Web site the entry that the doctor did not like, but that he did not change his pro-abortion position.
"After I read the doctor's letter, I wrote back to him and I thanked him. And I didn't change my underlying position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my website," said Obama. "And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that--when we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe--that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.
"That's when we begin to say, 'Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions."
Obama ended up telling Notre Dame's graduates that the pro-life and pro-abortion positions are "irreconcilable."
"Now, understand--understand, Class of 2009, I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away," said Obama. "Because no matter how much we may want to fudge it--indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory--the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable."
Contact: Edwin Mora
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: May 18, 2009
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