Petition to Notre Dame:
Please Drop the Charges
Dear Friends,
If you're so inclined, you can sign an on-line petition (click here) imploring the University of Notre Dame to drop the charges against those arrested for trespassing last spring during the protest against the honor to President Obama. If you will indulge me, I will quote a paragraph from my introduction to Charlie Rice's new book What Happened to Notre Dame? that sets the context:
There were 'unwelcome' outside protesters as well, themselves scornful of what they felt was too tepid a reaction by Bishop D'Arcy and ND Response. One enterprising fellow, who sneered that ND Response and other campus critics of the Obama invitation were no better than "pro-life pacifists," paid to have an advertising plane drone around the campus airspace for a few hours every day with a trailer depicting a tenth week abortion.
While the bishop and ND Response repudiated the rhetoric of these out sider protests, many of us still have vivid images of harmless-looking people, including a priest and a nun, being arrested, it seemed, for doing nothing more than walking down Notre Dame Avenue praying the rosary. Almost all those arrested decided to plead 'not guilty' to the trespassing charges against them.
Although I was not, shall we say, enthusiastic about some of the leaders of the outside protests (especially those who publicly berated Bishop D'Arcy and the students of ND Response), the vast majority of those arrested were simply bearing peaceful witness to truths which the university itself claims to be passionate about. I myself have personally urged Fr. Jenkins to ask the prosecutor to drop the charges as a gesture of good will and, quite frankly, an obvious way for the university to avoid even more bad publicity. But this plea seems to be falling on deaf ears.
Best wishes,
Alfred J. Freddoso
Professor of Philosophy and
John and Jean Oesterle Professor of Thomistic Studies
Philosophy Department
100 Malloy Hall
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
www.nd.edu/~afreddos
