Warning: Blog post may not be quite what you’re expecting….
On Monday evening in the US, in a country in which the Church is often deeply divided, there was the chance for liberal and conservative Catholics, charismatics and traditionalists, to come together for a common cause. But as they rallied around the altar that is the television, the hopes and aspirations for Catholic unity were dashed.
Many people outside the US will be wondering what the heck I’m on about. Many in the US might also be a tad bemused.
I’m writing about the national championship of college football (grid iron), as the bastion of Catholic universities — Notre Dame — sought to once again stand at the summit of college athletics. Most Catholics across the US, and even around the world, seem to have a deep affinity for Notre Dame, though many Gen X and Y folks have been fed on the stories of stellar teams of decades long passed now, such has been the inconsistency of teams in recent years.
In unexpected fashion, the Fighting Irish (the Notre Dame team name) had navigated through an undefeated season and were on the brink of glory. Catholic nation was gearing up for an appropriate amount of pride to fill their hearts and minds.
But Alabama, Notre Dame’s only peer in the upper echelons of college football history, had vastly different ideas and blew Notre Dame out of the water. So now, as Catholics — and other Notre Dame fans — wake up across those United States, the reality of prayers unanswered will have set in. A last-gasp win by Catholic Boston College a couple of decades ago became synonymous with the term Hail Mary pass. Such prayers couldn’t spark Our Lady into another moment of intercession last night — not even for the university that bears her name.
And so, Catholic unity must wait for another day….
PS This post was written on the 8th (Australian time), but didn’t publish for some reason
Pigskin sports and presentiments…the Hail Mary pass: a long forward pass in football, especially as a last-ditch attempt at the end of a game, where completion is considered unlikely.
Fr. Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C., a history professor at Notre Dame.
…Of late Notre Dame has mounted a careful public relations effort to display the range of worthy causes for which it is willing to “fight.” All are commendable, and it is inspiring to see publicized Notre Dame’s efforts to combat natural disasters, to protect the health of children, and to rebuild war-torn communities. How much more commendable and inspiring it would be if Notre Dame placed its prestige and influence in support of other important causes that are less likely to attract universal approval? We will know that Notre Dame has moved to a new level of courage and conviction when it airs TV spots during its football games that testify to its willingness to fight for the lives of the unborn — and in defense of traditional marriage.
In the end, Notre Dame is confronted with a crucial decision: whether we wish at our very heart to be a Catholic university. Will we be a place that pursues the truth and is willing to defend it? Will we be a place that holds firmly that there are moral absolutes and that the defense of them trumps mere tolerance? Will we be a place where genuine civil dialogue occurs in the context of true courage and conviction?
We can and should debate these issues in civility. But we should never invoke civility as a way to avoid taking a stand.
http://blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org/2013/01/10/fr-jenkins-makes-ironic-plea-for-civility/