Cardinal: Notre Dame Forgot How to Be Catholic

(NEWSER) - Students at Notre Dame upset that President Obama will deliver today's commencement address began an all-night prayer vigil Saturday night, reports AP. Earlier, campus police arrested 19 anti-abortion protesters—none of them students—and charged them with trespassing, notes CNN. The invitation to pro-choice Obama has raised a ruckus at the Catholic school, and some of the more extreme members of the anti-abortion camp plan to make their presence felt at the college. More»

Order charges Notre Dame 'risks its soul' by letting prez speak

(AP) - Ten priests from the Holy Cross order that founded the University of Notre Dame say the school risks its "true soul" and could alienate itself from the Catholic Church by inviting President Obama to campus next month. They urged the Holy Cross priest who heads Notre Dame to reconsider the invitation to Obama because he supports abortion rights. More»

(AP) - The Roman Catholic bishop whose diocese includes the University of Notre Dame says he will boycott President Obama's May 17 commencement speech at the school because of Obama's support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research. John D'Arcy said today that Obama's recent decision to fund embryonic stem-cell research brought the US government for the first time "into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life." More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama told Pope Benedict XVI yesterday that he would make every effort to reduce the number of abortions in the US, according to a Vatican spokesman. Bioethics and life issues were the focus of the men's 40-minute talk yesterday. The pontiff gave the president a booklet explaining the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell research, Reuters reports. More»

President's Notre Dame speech was radical and conservative: Dionne

(NEWSER) - Abortion opponents protested and pro-life students skipped, but Barack Obama's Notre Dame commencement address was at once "the most radical and the most conservative speech of his presidency," writes Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne. The president refused to indulge the protesters' desire to "reignite the culture wars," opting for humility and compromise—but he showed a comfort with the language of faith equal to George Bush. More»