U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will be this year’s commencement speaker at the University of Notre Dame, it was announced Thursday.
This will mark the first time a sitting vice president delivers the commencement address at the university. Pence will also receive an honorary degree at the May 21 ceremony.
“It is fitting that in the 175th year of our founding on Indiana soil that Notre Dame recognize a native son who served our state and now the nation with quiet earnestness, moral conviction and a dedication to the common good characteristic of true statesmen,” said Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. in a statement.
Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana, and served as governor of the state before becoming vice president.
Raised Catholic, he identified in 1994 as a “born-again, evangelical Catholic.” He started attending an evangelical megachurch with his family in the 1990s. It is unclear which church Pence attends now.
Known for his adamant pro-life stance, Pence stressed during the vice presidential debate that his Christian faith hinges upon upholding the “sanctity of life.”
“It all for me begins with cherishing the dignity, the worth, the value of every human life,” Pence said on the debate stage. “For me the sanctity of life proceeds out of the belief that ancient principle that where God says before you were formed in the womb I knew you.”
Earlier this year, Pence became the first sitting vice president to address the March for Life in Washington, D.C.
Pence is known for his support of traditional marriage – he favored passage of a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
Pence also had a public disagreement with the Archbishop of Indianapolis Joseph Tobin over the archdiocese’s role in resettling Syrian refugees.
After it was alleged that a terrorist posing as a Syrian refugee was responsible in part for the Paris terror attacks last November, the governor asked for a temporary halt to resettlement programs in the state for Syrians.
Full story from Catholic News Agency.
Good to see that Notre Dame chose this time a commencement speaker who upholds the “sanctity of life” instead of one who did everything in his power to kill more unborn babies.
A compromise on more than one way: The Veep instead of the Prez, and an ex-Catholic instead of a non-Catholic. Maybe Mike can find some excuse (illness or scheduling conflict) not to go and send The Donald in his place.
Well, whoever goes I hope they do not ask that the crucifixes be taken down if there are still any there. St. Paul said, “I preach Christ crucified.” Or course he preached his resurrection, too, but the crucifix is a symbol of the brazen serpent as the Lord Jesus Christ said, “As the brazen serpent was lifted up in the desert, so shall I be lifted up and draw all men to me.” Protestants really ought to realize that, even though they have a discrimination against the crucifix. May the Good Lord open their eyes to the truth. The verses I quoted are from memory, but they are In all the Bibles, including the King James.
What a clever post, Warren, and may I add, this compromise might betoken the fear at Notre Dame that some of their students (and administration and faculty) might get out of hand should the President come–a plausible scenario given the school in the past honored the most pro-abortion, pro-Muslim and, IMO, anti-Christian president in history.
Even if one disagreees with him, Mr Trump is the elected President and, I believe, should be referred to as such. The Office deserves such respect, independent of one’s opinion of the current occupant.
As to VP Pence’s religion, I have read that ex-Catholics are the third largest religious group in the US.
Two apostates… One a university, the other a vice president!
Mary lLangdon, apostasy is to give up Christianity entirely. I do not think the vice president has done that. I doubt he has denied the deity of Christ and the Holy Trinity. Heresy is to deny some of the doctrines of the Church. That he has probably done.
For my Catholic and Protestant brethren and even some of my Jewish brethren, here are the verses: I Corinthians 1:23; John 3:15 and Numbers 21: 4-9. As Aaron Jean Marie Cardinal Lustiger once said, “The Jew is the Christian’s elder brother.”
and as arthur szyk once said, ‘judaism, the ghostwriter of christianity’, on a prayer card celebrating the foundation of israel
Glad it is Pence instead of Trump.However, Pence is an apostate! He left the Catholic faith for some evangelical Protestant denomination!
Herold, that is heresy not apostasy, please look it up in the on line Catholic Encyclopedia before you say such a thing. Apostasy is to deny the deity of Christ to join a non Christian religion or become an atheist. Evangelicals believe in the deity of Christ and the Holy Trinity, and they baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. His responsibility for his heresy depends on why he left. If he was going to a particular Catholic church that never taught the faith correctly (had dissident priests) he might not actually be fully responsible for his heresy. I do not know. Only God knows.
EWTN also has a website called Heresy, Schism and Apostasy which very correctly explains the difference.