Washington, D.C. (12 May 2009) –American Life League will lead a prayer rally on the steps of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend today to encourage Bishop John D’Arcy to remove Notre Dame from The Official Catholic Directory.
The group says more than 40 years of dissent from official Catholic Church teaching disqualifies the school from identifying itself as a Catholic institution.
American Life League set up operations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, last month in response to the scandal surrounding Notre Dame and the announcement that President Barack Obama, the most pro-abortion president in history, would give the 2009 commencement address and receive an honorary law degree.
“We’re begging Bishop John D’Arcy to rebuke this attack on the faith. No more will we tolerate Catholic schools undermining Catholic teaching on life, on marriage … on the family itself,” said Michael Barnett, American Life League director of leadership development, in a letter to the group’s supporters across the country.
If removed from the Directory, a definitive list of Catholic institutions in the United States, Notre Dame would join at least four other formerly Catholic universities: Marist College, St. John Fisher College, Nazarene College and Marymount Manhattan College.
“We must pray for the realization that there is no contradiction at a modern university between the search for truth and the pursuit of God,” said Mike Barnett, American Life League director of leadership development. “We’re here to achieve integrity and honesty about what is and is not a Catholic university.”
The prayer rally will take place Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. on the steps of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to death. For more information or press inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- American Life League: Notre Dame: A Timeline of Dissent (Read)
- American Life League: Petition to Remove Notre Dame from The Official Catholic Directory https://www.all.org/ndpetition/