God and Man at Notre Dame

Seeking to disprove the notion that he can’t even get himself arrested, Alan Keyes is in South Bend, Indiana, today, brandishing bloody dead-baby dolls to demonstrate his commitment to opportunistic self-promotion.

The occasion is Barack Obama’s upcoming commencement speech at Notre Dame, itself needing a distraction from holding the NCAA record for consecutive bowl-game losses. The announcement of Obama’s visit quickly became a political football (you’re welcome!) when anti-abortion groups declared that a Catholic university shouldn’t be hosting a man who feasts upon the blood of the unborn between trips to the hamburger joint.

Even though Obama won’t be profaning the campus for more than a week, the circus has already started. Students are treated to ad hoc sidewalk biology classes on their way to be brainwashed by tenured radicals, while celebrated asshole and Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry moved his family to town in order to make his arrests more convenient.

Which is where Keyes enters the story. Last seen failing at becoming even a late-night punchline, Keyes now hopes to spend some quality time in the pokey with Terry:

“I will step foot on the Notre Dame campus to lift up the standard that protects the life of the innocent children of this and every generation,” Keyes said. “I will do it all day and every day from now until the Master comes if need be, though it means I shall be housed every day in the prison house of lies and injustice that Obama, [Notre Dame president John] Jenkins and their minions now mean to construct for those who will never be still and silent in the face of their mockery of God and justice, their celebration of evil.”

It’s a noble sentiment, and if we didn’t have better things to do, we’d post a timer tracking how quickly Keyes breaks his pledge.

This idea underlying all this is that a Catholic university shouldn’t welcome speakers who advocate policies counter to the Church’s teachings. And, while organizers have signed up 55 bishops in support of their protest, at least one dissenting voice disputes the premise:

In 2008, the pope himself was prevented from speaking at Rome’s La Sapienza University by the intense opposition of some doctrinaire scientists. The Vatican later released his speech, in which he argued that “freedom from ecclesiastical and political authorities” is essential to the university’s “special role” in society. He asked, “What does the pope have to do or say to a university?” And he answered, “He certainly should not try to impose in an authoritarian manner his faith on others.”

Such tolerance is not to be tolerated. We await the calls to excommunicate Pope Benedict.

Alan Keyes, pro-lifers plan to be jailed at Notre Dame [WorldNetDaily]

StopObamaNotreDame.com [Randall Terry]

NotreDameProtest.com