Would you let “that one” speak at your school?

Yesterday, we discussed how Notre Dame’s success in booking Barack Obama to speak at the 2009 Commencement was causing a stir among conservative Catholics. Fr. Schall gave a too-coy response to this issue and so we Madlibbed it.

Now, South Bend news outlets report that Notre Dame is sticking to its guns, and Barack Obama is still slated to be their commencement speaker on May 17. This time, another Georgetown voice is chiming in, Rev. Thomas Reese of the Woodstock Theological Center. He dismisses the controversy and tells Notre Dame to get real:

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Washington-based Jesuit, said Monday that the “controversy over commencement speakers at Catholic universities pops up every spring along with the tulips.”

He called the uproar over the president’s visit “absurd.”

“If Cardinal Edward Egan of New York can invite Obama to speak at the Al Smith dinner in October of 2008 when he was only a presidential candidate, then there is certainly nothing wrong with Notre Dame having the President speak at a commencement,” said Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

Menawhile, the criticism won’t quit. Should Domers shut their yaps and be glad they’ve booked the President of the United States to be their commencement speaker? Or are concerns about Obama’s pro-choice and other policies legitimate?

Photo from transplanted mountaineer under a Creative Commons license.