On Sunday at Notre Dame, faithful Catholics were regarded as Dissenters

The Catholic Thing carries a thought provoking piece written by Professor Ralph McInerny, a philosopher who has taught at Notre Dame since 1955.

He opens with:

"There were two commencement ceremonies at Notre Dame on Sunday. One was the media event in which alleged prestige trumped the truth that you cannot honor a man, president or not, whose policies are unabashedly pro-abortion without honoring abortion.

The other took place at the grotto and on the west mall, untelevised, in the shadow of Rockne Memorial, at which the Mass and prayers, principally the rosary, were offered in reparation for the administration’s unconscionable sleeping with the enemy. And speeches were made, most notably by Father Wilson Miscamble, CSC; Professor David Solomon, director of the Center for Ethics and Culture; Chris Godfrey; and Father John Raphael. The Orestes Brownson Society gave their Bishop D’Arcy award in absentia to Mary Ann Glendon."

Professor McInerny identifies the failure to teach the Catholic Faith faithfully, (in accordance with the Magisterium), as a culture in which dissent spread:

"There grew up the notion that dissent from clear Church teaching was okay. With time, the difference between the moral teaching of dissenters and what was dismissively called "official" teaching blurred. Generations have been given a distorted notion of the faith. It is no wonder that Catholic politicians undertook to support policies in flat contradiction to what they purportedly believed privately. And so it was that on Sunday at Notre Dame faithful Catholics were regarded as dissenters. To such disfavor we have come."

The notion that faithful Catholics can be regarded as 'dissenters' by some, is probably, sadly, not confined to the US.