It’s about Time: Ave Maria University Commencement Speaker Rips Notre Dame for Having Obama as Speaker
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 10, 2009
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
All I can say is “bravo” and “it’s about time” to Dr. Thomas Hilgers, commencement speaker at Ave Maria University.
Why have most other Catholics been so slow to criticize Notre Dame’s hypocrisy about having Barack Obama as its commencement speaker? Have they forgotten about Georgetown University? Have they forgotten their Catholic principles?
Ave Maria University Commencement Speaker Rips Notre Dame, Obama (Hooray!)
Saturday, May 9, 2009 | JOHN OSBORNEReading from the Book of Matthew, the Rev. Robert Garrity welcomed students, family and friends to Ave Maria University’s fifth annual commencement exercises.
“You are the salt of the earth … you are the light of the world,” he told them Saturday in the school’s ornate Oratory.
The 114 students who received degrees Saturday marked the largest graduating class in the school’s short history in Collier County.
Commencement speaker Dr. Thomas Hilgers, an obstetrician from Omaha who Ave Maria President Nicholas Healy described as a pioneer in “gynecological practices that are line with the teachings of the Catholic Church,” used his address to blast Notre Dame University’s decision to host President Barack Obama as its own commencement speaker on May 17.
Calling Obama “viciously pro-abortion,” Hilgers railed against Obama’s policies while likening the president to his own commencement speaker in the 1960s – a young priest Hilgers said later turned out to be “a denier of the Resurrection, pro-homosexuality and pro-contraception.”
Obama has “made available embryonic stem cell research funds, and as an obstetrician, I am in the cross-hairs of Obama’s administration,” said Hilgers, who received an honorary degree from the university.
Addressing the students directly, Hilgers said: “You’re going to be in the group of people – praise the Lord – who will have the opportunity to be a part of the culture of life.”
Hilgers told the graduates that their place in “the culture of life” was integral to their futures.
“Pope John Paul II has called us all to a culture of life within a civilization of love,” Hilgers said. “God calls all of us to do something special, and with prayer and perseverance, you will find your calling.”
Hilgers went on to say that the graduates would play a special role in God’s “plan.”
“When God wants something done, He doesn’t dispatch a legion of avenging angels … He sends a baby – and then He waits,” Hilgers said. “You are this generation’s babies … and God has been waiting for you to be a part of the culture of life. I pray that God will always be with you.”
[...]
Ave Maria founder Tom Monaghan said the educations received by Saturday’s graduates were among the finest in the world.
“You are well-educated, and you don’t have to take a back seat to any school, no matter how prestigious,” said Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza who once owned the Detroit Tigers baseball team. “I urge you in life not to stay in the bleachers, but to get out onto the field.”
Related reading:
American Catholic: More Commencement Controversary
Nice Deb: Catholics Rip Obama And Notre Dame University
Catholic Radio Report: Obama to Speak at ND Commencement! Time for “Evangelical Pruning?”
Breitbart.com: Notre Dame alums receive anti-abortion mailings
Many Faces of Barack Obama: Commencement Speaker at Ave Maria U Rips Notre Dame & Obama
The Washington Times: Obama at Georgetown: The mystery of the missing sign
Dwight Schultz, Big Hollywood: Our President is a ‘Symbol-holic’
Hot Air: Laura Ingraham: Notre Dame’s no longer a viable Catholic institution and Christian symbol covered up during Obama’s Georgetown speech
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Obama & Christ Can’t Share Stage: White House Asks Georgetown to Cover Up Jesus’ Monogram for President
Jim Blazsik: Notre Dame honors a pro-abortion President and arrests a pro-life priest and Obama to be Prayer Day no-show and What’s up with Obama and Catholics?
Right Voices: Updated With Pictures: Jesus, The Name Above Every Name…Except Barack Obama’s… Georgetown Hides ‘Jesus’ for Obama Speech at White House’s Request…
The Catholic Thing: Two Commentaries on Obama at Georgetown without Christ
Caffeinated Thoughts: Notre Dame: Prestige Above Principle
The IUSB Vision Weblog: Wall Street Journal: Notre Dame Professors Fear Stating Pro-Life Views in Fear of Career Retaliation!
Michelle Malkin: Showdown at Notre Dame and John Kerry, Catholicism and abortion: Courage of somebody else’s convictions and Where are the adults at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill? and Update: The fiasco at UNC-Chapel Hill and Soros funding pro-Obama Catholic groups and Black and pro-life? Catholic school doesn’t want you
Blue Star Chronicles: Alan Keyes Arrested: Notre Dame Protests
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: Obama’s Notre Dame commencement robe: Will there be another ‘cover-up’ at the highest level?
Scott’s Slant on Politics: A False Messiah
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