Notre Dame Protestors Prepare

From Tim Townsend at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Dozens of St. Louis Catholics will travel in a convoy of buses, cars and vans to South Bend, Ind. on May 16 to take part in campus protests against University of Notre Dame officials’ decision to award President Barack Obama - who supports abortion rights - with an honorary degree.The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that since the first century…

…the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.

For some American Catholics, the idea that the nation’s premier Catholic institution of higher learning will honor a politician who has supported legislation “contrary to the moral law,” is infuriating.“
The minute I heard about this, I knew I had to find every Catholic I could and be on that campus that day,” said 56-year-old John Ryan, a member of Most Sacred Heart Parish in Eureka. “Similar scandals have been going on at Catholic universities for decades, but you can’t really get any worse than this.”
Ryan organized a group of at least 65 St. Louis Catholics to caravan 6 1/2 hours each way next weekend “to participate in a prayerful protest” on Notre Dame’s campus.
The purpose, according to a news release Ryan distributed, “is to confront the scandal caused by Fr. Jenkins‘ (University President) decision to honor the most pro-abortion President in history and to make amends for the damage this scandal has caused the Church.” The plan is to meet up with Catholic protestors from other parts of the country who are also planning to converge on South Bend, and whose activities are being coordinated by a coalition of Notre Dame student groups under the name ND Response.
“In my dreams, when we first started this, I thought if we could have Eucharistic adoration, a Mass on campus with bishops saying that Mass, some graduates who would go into the commencement ceremony and find a prayerful way to witness to the president directly - which Jenkins has not been willing to do - we could bring some good from a terribly evil situation,” Ryan said.