Former Laetare Medalist to deliver address at Notre Dame's commencement

From the University of Notre Dame website:

Judge John T. Noonan Jr., the 1984 recipient of the Laetare Medal, has accepted an invitation to deliver an address in the spirit of the award at Notre Dame’s 164th University Commencement Ceremony on May 17. His speech will be in lieu of awarding the medal this year.

“In thinking about who could bring a compelling voice, a passion for dialogue, great intellectual stature, and a deep commitment to Catholic values to the speaking role of the Laetare Medalist – especially in these unusual circumstances – it quickly became clear that an ideal choice is Judge Noonan,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of Notre Dame. “This commencement ceremony, more than anything else, is a celebration of our students and their families. Judge Noonan will join with President Obama and other speakers in that celebration, sending them from our campus and into the world with sound advice and affirmation.

“Since Judge Noonan is a previous winner of the Laetare Medal, we have decided, upon reflection, to not award the medal this year.”

Noonan was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.

Read more.

Comments

[Jackson]

A judge from the Ninth Circus. Perfect.

[Ed Peters]

But, but, but, I thought Fr. Jenkins told us that the award was going to be conferred on someone else?

[Sandra Miesel]

Methinks people asked as second choices refused. There was a rumor to that effect about a local man here.

Noonan's book CONTRACEPTION is an important and prize-winning historical study.

[Deacon Harold]

I agree that his book on the history of contraception is good but his latest on the Church and slavery misses the mark.

Here's a GREAT resource on Catholic Higher Ed that Fr. Jenkins and the Board at ND should read:

http://www.catholichighered.org/TheEnduringNatureoftheCatholicUniversity/tabid/466/Default.aspx

[Joe]

“This commencement ceremony, more than anything else, is a celebration of our students and their families. Judge Noonan will join with President Obama and other speakers in that celebration, sending them from our campus and into the world with sound advice and affirmation."

Affirmation? Spare me.

[TW]

"This commencement ceremony, more than anything else, is a celebration of our students and their families. Judge Noonan will join with President Obama and other speakers in that celebration, sending them from our campus and into the world with sound advice and affirmation."

Seems as though the campus Jenkin's speaks about is not part of this world. Maybe he's mixed up; the only time a person is "sent" into the world is at conception, not after leaving his campus. So does that make ND an Ivory Womb, with Jenkins and Obama as co-creators? Would it follow that Noonan should bless, or rather affirm, their Union before the send-off into the world? The two of them would look quite celebratory in Vera Wang bridal gowns, giving sound advice. Yet, is that image more absurd than 4,000 dead unborn children every day?

[Raving Papist]

It figures that they pick someone who supports their view that the Magisterium errs throughout history with regularity.

Was Charles Curran unavailable?

[Ed Peters]

Noonan is VERY important thinker, and a comment box is no place to air what whole conferences have debated over the years, ie, his ultimate place in ecclesiastical and juridic letters. I've read his Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists (1968), Power to Dissolve: Lawyers and Marriages in the Courts of the Roman Curia (1972); and A Private Choice: Abortion in America in the Seventies (1979). All three were terrific, tho Contraception I thought was ambiguous. I'll have to re-read it, as I was too busy learning from it to be able to critique it usefully then. And I want to read his recent A Church that Can and Cannot Change.

Anyway, the BIG story here is that one honest woman was able to do what pack of university trustees and fellows and so on couldn't or wouldn't do: stop ND's pell-mell pursuit of cozy relations with the politically correct even when it means honoring abortionism's standard bearer.

God bless Mary Ann Glendon.

[Bernie]

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God they suffered. Today people like politicians, Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, and nuns just do what they want and nothing is done. We do not vote out abortion politicians we do not kick out clergy that commit scandals in the Church and we have become like limp weeds that just sway with the wind. Over 300,000 signed petitions have gone to ND and still this president will speak. I respect the office of the president but, I can not respect a man who promotes the killing of the innocents. It is not moral to get information from terrorists with some water but it is moral to promote the killing of a baby. Pray very hard people.

[Bernie]

Noonan has written eloquently against abortion but also has convinced himself, and tries to convince others, that Humanae Vitae is wrong. He has the typical mistaken understanding of conscience that has prevailed since Vatican II, i.e., it is an independent source of moral truth which can conflict with the teaching authority of the Church. It doesn't take an advanced degree to see where this kind of thinking leads - - moral relativism of the type Cardinal Ratzinger decried.