The President and the Superior General

Recently, the Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross (CSC), the Rev. Hugh Cleary, CSC wrote a lengthy letter to President Obama. Fr. Cleary, an American citizen, and native New Yorker, writes in the wake of the controversy involving the University of Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama to speak at the Commencement exercises in a few weeks. The full text of the letter to the President was recently published in America magazine.

A Letter to President Obama
From the Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross
Hugh Cleary | MARCH 30, 2009
D ear Mr. President,

As Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross and an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame I wish to offer you some personal reflections on the university’s decision inviting you to campus to deliver this year’s commencement address and to honor you with a Doctor of Laws degree.

In reflecting on your upcoming presence at Notre Dame, I am reminded of the way you seized an opportunity in your presidential campaign to address the issue of racial bigotry in our American culture. You used the occasion as a teachable moment for the nation.

In a similar way your presence at Notre Dame affords all of us, including yourself, a teachable moment. President Obama, you are superbly versed in the issues of our day. I have no doubt that your policy convictions are grounded in rigorous study and that all your important decisions are supported by your conscience. I am confident that you are likewise well versed in the Catholic faith conviction that human life begins at conception. Therefore, through this open letter, I would like to take advantage of your appearance at Notre Dame to ask you to rethink, through prayerful wrestling with your own conscience, your stated positions on the vital “life issues” of our day, particularly in regard to abortion, embryonic stem cell research and your position on the Freedom of Choice Act before Congress.

Perhaps such an impertinent request rings with insolence. I mean you no disrespect. But why not seize this moment as an opportunity to pray over the sacred truths we hold to be self-evident: "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life …”

Mr. President, you expressed our most essential faith conviction in your remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast this past February 5th, when you said: “There is no God who condones taking the life an innocent human being. This much we know.”

This much we know, President Obama, your statement on the unconscionable taking of an innocent life is truly our belief. It is the kind of clear, straightforward talk of your conscience convictions that we find so appealing. But sadly for us Catholics, your words do not express our meaning.

Innocent human life is conceived through sexual intercourse meant to be love’s most intimate, expression, save giving up one’s life for another. It is true that sometimes, tragically, life is formed in the brutality of rape or in the shame of incest. Likewise life is often conceived unintentionally through the enjoyment of sexual pleasures. An “unwanted” child comes in many forms such as an untimely presence; a disabled or deformed creature; an embryo of the wrong sex; a baby conceived out of wedlock, a child bearing a child.

Tragically, we have a tradition in our United States culture giving us permission to define the parameters of human life to suit our self-interest. Did we not justify our tradition of slavery by denying that a black human being of African decent was fully human? As I understand it, President Lincoln had a contrary view and took us to civil war for the sake of unifying our country’s conscience. And so now today we are engaged in a great civil war over conscience formation. The defense of human life is an obligation for all humanity, not just for Catholics.

President Obama I am embarrassed to admit that I could not participate in the last election cycle. I wanted to vote for you, but I just could not because of your position on abortion. In fact, I am finding it more and more difficult to vote for the candidates of our major political parties. My friends tell me to vote by all means, vote for the lesser of the evils. Unfortunately today’s evils seem so much larger than my conscience can bear, whether they pertain to abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, immigration, the economy, housing for the poor, gun control, health care for the uninsured, the environment, war for oil or weapons of mass destruction. I do love my country and I do want to vote. I just do not know how to vote while remaining true to my conscience formed by my faith convictions.

When I was a young man I thrilled to the stirring words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. calling us to stand before the door of a great truth and open it wide: “to stand up for that which is right and that which is just…We die when we refuse to stand up for that which is right. We die when we refuse to take a stand for that which is true. So we are going to stand up right here.”

Perhaps, Mr. President, at the University of Notre Dame, you can stand up for the great truth of life, walk through that door and take us, as a nation, with you. If you do, I have no doubt whatsoever, your greatness will be realized.

Be assured of my prayers, Mr. President, for you and your good and delightful family. What a blessing your family is to the nation. May God’s grace expand the love in your hearts day in and day out.

Respectfully yours,
Rev. Hugh W. Cleary, C.S.C.