It hasn’t happened in a long time, but John D'Arcy the Catholic Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana will not be attending Notre Dame’s graduation ceremony.

In a statement released yesterday on the diocese's web site Bishop D'Arcy stated that he would not attend the commencement. President Obama is being given an honorary degree at this year’s graduation ceremonies.

A report on Zenit describes D’Arcy’s reasoning:

"President Obama," he [D'Arcy] said, "has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred. While claiming to separate politics from science, he has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life."


Bishop D'Arcy noted that he made his decision "after much prayer," and that he wishes "no disrespect to our president."


"I have always revered the office of the presidency," he said. "But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith 'in season and out of season,' and he teaches not only by his words -- but by his actions."


"My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life," he added.

"Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame," concluded Bishop D'Arcy.
"Indeed, as a Catholic university, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.


"Tomorrow, we celebrate as Catholics the moment when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, became a child in the womb of his most holy mother. Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for the university named in her honor, that it may recommit itself to the primacy of truth over prestige."

Hat tip: John McMahon