To graduate from college, and have the President of the United States speaking to those assembled, is truly a remarkable event. On May 17th President Obama will give the commencement address at Notre Dame. There is however a small group (truly a statistical minority) that seems more eager for headlines for themselves, than concern about the graduates. It seems that those opposed to the elected leader of the nation making the address have concerns about abortion, and stem cell research. This minority surely does understand the graduates are, like the nation as a whole, just fine with pluralism. ( I bet they even teach that concept at Notre Dame. Could that be the next reason for the conservatives to protest?) In addition as we know from our friends and those in our community, Catholics as a whole are not that rigid in their conformity to the Catholic Church. So while a few like the headlines of controversy, most are going to be proud that President Obama was there on the day they graduated. It will be a story they will tell their grandchildren.
In both their awareness and views of the Notre Dame controversy, Catholics look very much like the public overall. Only about half of Catholics have heard about the controversy and fewer than one-in-five (19%) have heard a lot about it. Among the general population, 48% have heard of the controversy and 16% have heard a lot about it. Overall, about half of Catholics support the decision to invite Obama to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree in spite of his support for abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research. Far fewer (28%) say Notre Dame was wrong to have invited Obama and more than one-in-five Catholics (22%) express no opinion on the matter. Among the population overall, 48% say Notre Dame made the right decision to invite Obama, 25% say it was the wrong decision and 27% express no opinion.
The absence of a general backlash on the part of Catholics to Notre Dame’s invitation to Obama may not come as a surprise, given that most Catholics voted for Obama in the 2008 election and give him positive marks for his performance in office thus far. Obama won 54% of the overall Catholic vote in the November presidential election. Weekly attending Catholics, who in recent elections have tended to support Republican candidates, were evenly divided between Obama (49%) and McCain (50%).
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 