By Anthony J. Lauinger, Vice President, National Right to Life

Editor’s note. This first appeared in the September issue of National Right to Life News.

As the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund’s October 6 Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner in New York City approaches, a battle is brewing that was sparked by the event that led to the selection of this year’s honoree.

Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard law professor and former U. S. Ambassador to the Vatican, had been invited to receive Notre Dame’s highest honor, the Laetare Medal, at the university’s May 17 commencement, but subsequently declined the Notre Dame award when it became apparent that her appearance was being cited by the university as justification for Notre Dame’s honoring of pro-abortion President Barack Obama on the same stage.

Prof. Mary Ann Glendon

Ambassador Glendon was in good company in denouncing this act of public scandal by Notre Dame: more than 80 Catholic bishops did likewise. Many of the 83 bishops, archbishops, and cardinals who spoke out referenced the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document, “Catholics in Political Life,” which states: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

This policy was adopted by a virtually unanimous vote of the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2004. Sadly, some Catholic colleges and universities have reacted, not by resolving to avoid the same error that Notre Dame made but, rather, by seeking to influence the bishops to change or abandon the policy. Since May, the pressure has been building on the bishops either to weaken the rule, or else to abandon the guideline altogether.

Ambassador Glendon, in her letter to Notre Dame President Father John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., declining the Notre Dame award, pointed out that President Obama is “a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.” The bishops’ 2004 statement about not honoring such individuals, she wrote, “seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.”

It is crucial that pro-life Americans, whether Catholic or not, convey their appreciation and encouragement to America’s Catholic bishops for their unwavering commitment to life. The Catholic bishops, under constant assault from the secular culture, have served as a bulwark against the destruction of the human family’s most vulnerable little members. Through the darkest hours of the decades-long battle against the slaughter of our nation’s unborn children, the Catholic bishops have been steadfast in defending the sanctity of innocent human life.

Now they are being pressured by the same secular influences, pro-abortion faculty interests, misguided college-administrator attitudes, and mindless appeals to “academic freedom” that undermined Notre Dame’s commitment to pro-life and Catholic values in the Obama-commencement disaster. The unborn child in America needs the Catholic bishops. It is we who are called to make sure that the bishops feel the appreciation of pro-life citizens, and receive the encouragement to ensure that institutions which call themselves “Catholic” are, in fact, pro-life.

Mary Ann Glendon, who was at the eye of the storm at Notre Dame, was the one who emerged from that tragic scandal with her honor and integrity unscathed, and her stature enhanced. For her edifying example, uncommon courage, and selfless devotion to the protection of innocent human life, the heroine of the Notre Dame tragedy will receive National Right to Life’s highest honor at the formal Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner October 6 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. For reservations, please phone (202) 626-8827 or (202) 378-8842, or see the coupon below.

Mr. Lauinger has served as Vice President of National Right to Life since 1995. He and his wife Phyllis entrusted their eight children to Notre Dame. The youngest graduated in May.