OPEN LETTER TO BISHOP KEVIN RHOADES
Your Excellency,
We feel privileged to lend our voices to those who applaud your courageous statements regarding Vice President Biden’s impending visit to the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
We thank you for boldly proclaiming your opposition to the University’s decision to confer the honor of the Laetare Medal on a man who has publicly proclaimed his support for abortion-on-demand and same-sex marriage, even though this same man claims to be a Catholic in good standing.
We find it ironic that the University of Notre Dame would honor Biden in this way given that the Laetare Medal is conferred, according to its history, specifically in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society. Biden’s positions are not a service to the Church. In fact, they are a disservice to the Church and to humanity as a whole.
As you have said, “Direct abortion is gravely contrary to the natural law and violates a very fundamental principle of Catholic moral and social teaching.” Further, you have made it perfectly clear that the Church “has continually urged public officials, especially Catholics, of the grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that supports or facilitates abortion or that undermines the authentic meaning of marriage.”
It is unconscionable that a highly respected Catholic university would use the most prestigious award it has to honor a man whose positions violate the very principles that Catholic doctrine enunciates without equivocation.
We stand with you in opposition to the awarding of the Laetare Medal to Vice President Biden. And we thank you for bringing this to the attention of your flock and to the nation.
We ask the Lord of Life to be with you, strengthen you, and fill your heart and soul with His loving joy.
JB