Bishop criticizes Notre Dame for honoring Joe Biden

Bishop Kevin Rhoades, the bishop for the Fort Wayne-South Bend area, condemned Notre Dame’s decision to honor Vice President Joe Biden at this year’s commencement exercises. 

Just over a week ago, the University announced that it would be honoring Vice President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House John Boehner at Commencement. The two politicians, both Catholics, will be receiving the prestigious Laetare Medal, which Notre Dame awards to individuals who have exhibited “outstanding service to the Church and society.”

Father Jenkins, who knows quite well that the university drew quite a bit of ire for awarding an honorary doctorate to President Obama back in 2009, strategically chose to confer the Laetare upon these two men at a time when partisanship is at an all-time high.

He said: “We live in a toxic political environment where poisonous invective and partisan gamesmanship pass for political leadership…It is a good time to remind ourselves what lives dedicated to genuine public service in politics look like.”

Jenkins added that this honor is not an endorsement of either politician’s policy positions, but simply a recognition of two lives well spent in service of the public.

Yet, this explanation was not enough for many members of the Catholic community.

Biden and Boehner are practicing Catholics, but they both endorse policies that stand at odds with Catholic doctrine and Catholic social teaching. Biden is pro-choice and pro-same-sex marriage, while Boehner has drawn criticism for his harsher stance on immigration, which some feel fails to protect human dignity.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades, the bishop for the Fort Wayne- South Bend area, has very publicly criticized the University for its endorsement of Biden. In an official statement on Monday, Rhoades said: “I believe it is wrong for Notre Dame to honor any ‘pro-choice’ public official with the Laetare Medal, even if he/she has other positive accomplishments in public service, since direct abortion is gravely contrary to the natural law and violates a very fundamental principle of Catholic moral and social teaching.”

Rhoades cited a desire to avoid further scandal in the Church, and implored the University to “raise the bar” when considering who to honor.

Not everyone agrees with Rhoades’ stance – Michael Sean Winters wrote in the National Catholic Reporter on Sunday that Notre Dame has begun “the fraught process of dismantling the architecture of the culture warrior model of Church that has plagued our Church and our country for too long…this year’s Laetare award sends the unmistakable signal that the time for building walls, either those erected by the [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] or those promised by [Donald] Trump, has ended and the time for building bridges has begun.”

Let’s throw the discussion to the students.

Was Notre Dame right to push the envelope with its nominations, or have we simply begun to compromise on our deepest beliefs as Catholics? Does this year’s Laetare show that Catholicism is not confined to one side of the aisle, or does Bishop Rhoades’ statement imply that we should hand Catholic allegiance to the Republican party?

Weigh in.