Catholic universities have never been intellectual ghettos, offering only narrow exposure to ideas.
There’s a difference between allowing someone to speak and honoring them as a commencement speaker and giving them an honorary degree.
Columbia University invited President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak. They did not invite him to give their commencement address. They did not give him an honorary degree. Should a fellow who believes in executing homosexuals receive such honor? Not even secular universities think so.
Now we have another President speaking at a different university: One that argued three times to let abortionists kill children after they were born alive. Should he be honored by a Catholic University? God forbid! Let Notre Dame be stripped of its Catholic status… that will be a great lesson that the Catholic Church deeply, truly and reverently values the gift of human life.
