I hope this goes through, I have just revamped my computer and signed up for
the forum again (no doubt the messages will now arrive in duplicate!).

Is anyone still interested in the Obama visit to Notre Dame? I believe his
speech there, and Father Jenkins's introduction, merit continued and
attentive analysis. (links below).

The visit also highlights a conundrum that has troubled me increasingly of
late: the conflict of voluntary, versus mandatory, charity. Notre Dame
receives $57 million a year in government grants (excluding millions more in
aid to students, such as Pell Grants). That dwarfs the amount of voluntary
donations it receives from alumni. So does the NBC sports contract, the
exact amount of which ND will not divulge, but which a friend at NBC brags
far outpaces total alumni giving every year.

Here's the OED: "Charity: (1) Christian love; God's Love for man; Man's love
towards God and his fellow man."

Clearly, charity originated as a voluntary action, and is regarded with
faith and hope as a theological virtue. That poses some problem for Note
Dame as a "Catholic University." I think we will see more of this
conversation down the road.                                                       

In these hard times, Notre Dame would suffer much more (financially) from
the loss of government grants than from the loss of alumni donations. Yet,
the university's administration strives to maintain a Catholic character.
The question arises, how can that be done when a government which has been
acknowledged on a pretty unanimous basis to be secular is the university's
greatest benefactor?

The question arises, how much would Notre Dame lose if it lost its Catholic
character? Or if it were stripped of its right to call itself Catholic?
(Ironically, right here in northern Virginia, that very penalty was recently
levied on Notre Dame Academy, a formerly catholic private high school. The
bishop even suggested the school change its name so that it not be
misperceived as a Catholic institution).

The answer might be adumbrated in the words of welcome of Father Jenkins,
below.

It occurs to me (my opinion here) that Jenkins's remarks do not represent
"existential tension" - rather, they represent institutional collapse into
the arms of the state. But where does that leave the possibility of
voluntary charity (rather than the mandatory sort, drawn from taxpayers)?

Whatever the implications, I think the occasion will be a marker, like the
appearances at Notre Dame of Cuomo 25 years ago and Jimmy Carter in 1977.


All the best,

Chris Manion
ND '68, '72, '81

(Born and raised at Notre Dame, baptized there in 1946)


Links: I seem to recall that links are erased here. You may search for this:
>>Jenkins Notre Dame Obama and "Members of the faculty, staff, alumni,
friends, parents, and most of all - the Notre Dame Class of 2009"

For Obama's remarks, >>Jenkins Notre Dame Obama Hesburgh Bernardin and
"periods of relative peace and prosperity that required little by way of
sacrifice or struggle"<<