VIDEO: Catholic Outrage Over Scheduled Obama Commencement Address

Nearly 65,000 people have signed an online petition protesting President Obama's scheduled commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, citing the president's views on abortion and stem cell research that "directly contradict" Roman Catholic teachings.

Phil Donahue and Father Jonathan Morris discussed this today on Fox's "The Live Desk".



Fox News reports:

Nearly 65,000 people have signed an online petition protesting President Obama's scheduled May 17 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, saying the president's views on abortion and stem cell research "directly contradict" Roman Catholic teachings.

"It is an outrage and a scandal that 'Our Lady's University,' one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States, would bestow such an honor on President Obama given his clear support for policies and laws that directly contradict fundamental Catholic teachings on life and marriage," the petition at notredamescandal.com reads.

The Cardinal Newman Society, an advocacy group for strengthening ideals at the nation's 224 Catholic colleges and universities, created the Web site to end what it calls the "travesty" of Obama's selection. The petition, which had garnered 64,051 signatures as of midday Tuesday, asserts that thousands of other "accomplished leaders" in business, law or education would have been more appropriate selections. The group says it is sending the list to an independent firm Wednesday to ensure that there are no duplicate names.

"Instead Notre Dame has chosen prestige over principles, popularity over morality," the petition reads. "Whatever may be President Obama's admirable qualities, this honor comes on the heels of some of the most anti-life actions of any American president, including expanding federal funding for abortions and inviting taxpayer-funded research on stem cells from human embryos."

David Constanzo, communications director for the Cardinal Newman Society, said Notre Dame's tradition of inviting sitting U.S. presidents to its commencement should be rethought.

"There is a time when policies need to be reconsidered in light of the fact that the individual invited may have a history of standing in direct opposition to some of the most prominent aspects of our faith -- the biggest case in point is that of the pro-life agenda," Constanzo said. "The obligation of Notre Dame as a Catholic institution is to follow the directives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who clearly stated in 2004 that Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."

George Weigel, a Catholic theologian and distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said the invitation is not a "neutral act" and will significantly damage Notre Dame's reputation in Catholic circles following Obama's decision to reverse restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and for family planning groups that provide abortions.

"I think Notre Dame should not have issued the invitation," Weigel told FOXNews.com. "This is a colossal mess. This is their mess to fix right now, but they should know that they have forfeited an enormous amount of credibility as an institution that takes moral reasoning seriously."

Obama Signs Law Banning Federal Embryo Research Two Days After Signing Executive Order to OK It

I voted for the war, before I was against it? I pledged to end earmarks, before I signed them into law? I'm not a Socialist, but I am a Socialist?

All I can say is... "huh"? I don't understand any of this!

He revoked Bush's Executive Order and then revoked his revocation?

Anyone else getting the impression that Obama has no freakin' clue?!?

CNSNews reports:

On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.

The amendment says, in part: "None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for—(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

Found in Section 509 of Title V of the omnibus bill (at page 280 of the 465-page document), the federal funding ban not only prohibits the government from providing tax dollars to support research that kills or risks injury to a human embryo, it also mandates that the government use an all-inclusive definition of “human embryo” that encompasses any nascent human life from the moment that life comes into being, even if created in a laboratory through cloning, in vitro fertilization or any other means. “

For the purposes of this section,” says the law, “the term ‘human embryo or embryos’ includes any organism … that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells.” (The entire verbatim text of Section 509 of the omnibus spending law is reprinted at the bottom of this article.)

At a widely publicized White House ceremony on Monday, President Obama signed his own executive order lifting an executive order that President Bush had signed in 2001. While allowing federal funding of research involving embryonic stem cell lines that had already been created from embryos that had already been destroyed, Bush's 2001 order denied federal funding to research that required the killing of any additional embryos.

VIDEO: Dr. Charmaine Yoest and Dr. Art Kaplan Debate Obama's Stem Cell Policy Reversal

President Obama is expected to announce on Monday that he is reversing the controversial George Bush ban on stem cell research.

Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President of Americans United For Life Action and Dr. Art Caplan, Director of Medical Ethics of the University of Pennsylvania debate the issue.



What does everyone think of stem cell research?

Expect Obama To Overturn Bush Stem Cell Policy

I'm gonna give Obama credit here. He campaigned on this promise and he is following through with it.

Personally, I think if stem cell research is all it's hyped up to be, then maybe we should be exploring the science.

Admittedly, however, is does raise some ethical issues with respect to unborn embryos.

Mary Kate Cary, former speechwriter for Bush 41, makes a good case for pro-life conservatives to support embryonic stem cell research.

I'm gonna vote "present" on this issue!

From Fox News:

Expect an executive order soon from President Barack Obama on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

That's the word from White House adviser David Axelrod.

Under President George W. Bush, federal money for research on human embryonic stems cells was limited to those stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. No federal dollars could be used on research with cell lines from embryos destroyed from that point forward.

Federal rules do not restrict embryonic stem cell research using state or private funds.

Obama made it clear during the campaign he would overturn Bush's directive.

Axelrod tells "Fox News Sunday" that Obama right now is considering an executive order lifting the federal ban on funding.

Stem cells are the building blocks that turn into different kinds of tissue.

This should make for some interesting chatter over the coming days and weeks.

We want to know your opinion of stem cell research and whether or not Federal money should be used to pay for the research?