Ethicist won’t appear with Obama at Notre Dame

I’ll let Kathleen Parker tell you about how pro-life ethicist Mary Ann Glendon refused to appear at Notre Dame with Barack Obama:

Here on planet “What About Me,” principled people are so rare as to be oddities. Thus, it was a head-swiveling moment Monday when Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, quietly declined Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal.

Glendon — a Harvard University law professor and a respected author on bioethics and human rights — rejected the honor in part because Barack Obama was invited to be commencement speaker and to receive an honorary degree.

In a letter to Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, Glendon wrote of her dismay that Obama was to receive the degree in disregard of the U.S. bishops’ position that Catholic institutions “should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”

But the more compelling reason seems to have been Glendon’s sense that she was being used to deflect criticism. As a mutual friend put it, “Father Jenkins thought he could use Mary Ann Glendon as a fig leaf.”

In her letter, Glendon cited “talking points” issued by Notre Dame following criticism of the decision to honor Obama, including that:

(1) “President Obama won’t be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal.”

(2) “We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about.”

Glendon, who is no mortal’s pawn, decided she couldn’t accept the award.