Open Letter to Fr Jenkins at Notre Dame University

Dear Fr Jenkins

I read your eulogy of President Obama with interest, particularly your justification for inviting and honouring a man so at odds with Catholic thinking. You are reported* as saying, inter alia:

"As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote in their pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes: “Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them.”

I would like to point out that I 'think or act differently than [you] do in social, political and even religious matters.' For example, I would not have chosen to honour anyone with President Obama's record and intentions with regard to the unborn, and I would have listened to the bishops and faithful who urged second thoughts on the invitation...

Therefore I would appreciate the opportunity to enter into dialogue with you, address your students en masse, and receive an honorary degree. I am not as rich or famous as President Obama, but am sure that you will exercise a preferential option for the poor, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

For the record, I have a lovely English accent and would have many instructive things to say to you and your students.

Your etc

Ben Trovato

* Thanks to Laurence at That the bones you have crushed may thrill for the transcript.