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This is a complex situation, but Jack Fowler at NRO’s The Corner does a good job explaining it:

Notre Dame philosophy professor David Solomon posted a devastating analysis on his “Ethics and Culture in the News” blog on a troubling campus development: the sacking of long-time ND staffer Bill Kirk, the only man from the university [senior] administration who joined an on-campus pro-life “NDResponse” rally last year (also attended by South Bend Bishop John D’Arcy) protesting the selection of Barack Obama as the commencement speaker.

Kirk and his wife Elizabeth are prominent campus abortion foes (she was assistant director of one of the few institutes on campus that is avowedly pro-life and orthodox). Now their voices have been silenced, and by the same people who gnash their teeth and pluck their beards about living wages, unionization, fair treatment of employees, and the rest of the Catholic Left’s lobbying agenda. One can hear the college brass channeling Henry II: Will no one rid us of this troublesome pro-life Associate Vice-President for Residence Life? 

The decision to fire Bill Kirk was made by Father Tom Doyle, ND’s new VP for Student Affairs. If someone can dig up an email address for Fr. Doyle I think it would be appropriate to send him a brief note asking him to explain why he fired Bill Kirk. More context from David Solomon:

The parents of two young adopted children, Bill and Elizabeth Kirk were in the process, as Bill Kirk’s bosses well knew, of adopting a third child at the time he was fired.  Can one imagine Father Doyle firing an at-will employee of Notre Dame with 22 years of service, two toddlers at home and a wife in the early stages of labor with a third child?  As adoptive parents, this was the Kirk’s situation.  The disruption in their life, and the life of their young family, suddenly and with no prior notice, has been wrenching for them as well as for their many friends.  The excuse given for Bill Kirk’s firing, “restructuring”, seems strange indeed.  It is impossible to believe, for example, that the firing was part of a larger organizational shift in the Office of Residence Life, since Bill Kirk seems to be the only person in the office whose job was eliminated. 

I think simple justice demands that the Notre Dame administration explain itself to the Catholic community.

Today I’m flying down to Birmingham, AL to tape an episode of Life on the Rock for EWTN. I’m very excited about this opportunity and will let you know the air date as soon as possible.

If you want to submit a question to be asked during the taping tonight, email Jill at jsanders@ewtn.com

As is typical on a travel day, I’ll be more active on AmP Twitter than on the blog today.

Please say a prayer for safe travels and a good conversation!

Great plains papist Jack Smith at the Catholic Key Blog give us some welcome tidings:

This blog has had at least a dozen posts on the background and doings of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good over the last couple years, but this may be the last (let’s hope). It appears they are out of business. Let’s consider the evidence.

The whole operation has folded up, right down to the phone number being disconnected.

Back in May I wrote a lengthy post detailing the anti-Catholic hatred of the Church espoused by Alfred Rotondaro, the chairman of the governing board of CACG. At the time I demanded that CACG fire Mr. Rotondaro and apologize for the scandal he has caused the Church. Evidently CACG has decided instead to simply pull up stake.

As Jack Smith points out, this is probably because CACG has outlived the use it was originally created for – to deceive Catholics about important issues:

I’ve long asserted that CACG was a campaign organization and not a non-partisan advocate of Catholic Social Teaching as many news outfits have gullibly or willfully maintained. With the president elected and health care passed, it looks, for now, like the campaign is over.

Another reason CACG may have been abandoned is that prominent Catholic bishops had begun identifying it in public as a fake Catholic organization (notably Archbishop Charles Chaput). Fake Catholic organizations are less effective once they can no longer claim to be faithful groups.

Let’s recap a few other important points about CACG:

• Where does their money come from? Liberals like George Soros
• What issues do they focus on? Liberal pet projects
• What do they publish? Misleading information
• Where do they hang out? Democrat conventions and strategy sessions
• What do they do during elections? Make your parish parking lot a political hot zone
• And what happens to them when their work is done? They get jobs from those they helped elect

Well, good riddance, I say!

What can we do to prevent other organizations like CACG which are still in existence from being effective? We can actively resist and call out as insincere those fake Catholics organizations that still exist, such as Catholics United and National Catholic Reporter.

Here’s to a future full of folded Catholyc organizations.

“My homily from last Sunday is under review by the pope, you say?!”

Photo: AP Photo / ddp / Thomas Wieck

An off-beat but amazing nonetheless story from the Big Apple:

  A New York City man who plunged 40 stories from the rooftop of an apartment building has survived after crashing onto a parked car.

Witnesses and police say 22-year-old Thomas Magill jumped from the high-rise at West 63rd Street on Tuesday. He landed in the backseat area of a Dodge Charger after crashing through the windshield.

He suffered broken legs. Police say he’s in critical condition.

The car’s owner, Guy McCormack, of Old Bridge, N.J., told the Daily News he’s convinced that rosary beads he kept inside the Dodge saved Magill’s life. (MyFoxNY)

Ph/t: The Dawn Patrol

One of the exciting things about collaborating with the CatholicVote team (Brian, Josh, Kara and Pat) is that they always have something cool up their sleeve. This time it’s a chance for YOU to appear in our next CatholicVote election commercial Our last election video has been viewed almost 3 million times!

CatholicVote is a community of several hundred thousand members, but because it’s primarily a virtual community, we don’t get much face time with each other. Now that can change, thanks to our new “I am the Catholic Vote” campaign:

1. Send us your name and mailing address. We will mail you a “I AM THE CATHOLIC VOTE” campaign sign immediately. Contact us at iVote2010@catholicvote.org.
2. Write a message for your sign (the young woman in the photo chose “because … American Deserves Better” – nice!)
3. Take a video or photo of you/your friends with the sign. The most creative/awesome submissions will be chosen! But remember to be safe, and don’t break any laws. 
4. Send your completed HD video or high-res digital photo to us at iVote2010@catholicvote.org. If the file is too big to email, upload it here. 

I’m excited to see what the CatholicVote community comes up with. Every time I’ve met someone in person who is a CatholicVote member I’ve been impressed by their faith, joy and energy. I’m trusting these traits will shine through in the submissions we receive, and that they will prove to be a great witness in our next election video.

I just got my “I am the Catholic Vote” poster in the mail and I’m already busy plotting my submission!

Last Friday Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, President of Human Life International since 2000, announced to his friends that he had been invited by his bishop (Most Rev. Gerald Barbarito) to return to his home diocese of West Palm Beach. HLI has chosen an interim President and is looking for a permanent replacement for Fr. Euteneur.

Several readers have contacted me and asked if there is more to the story. Some commenters have said Fr. Euteneuer’s departure was abrupt and unexpected. I don’t have any inside information on this one, but what I have access to publicly suggests that there isn’t anything questionable about the situation.

Priests who are incardinated in a diocese always serve outside the diocese at the pleasure of their bishop, and the diocese always has “first rights” to their priestly ministry. Despite the Diocese of Palm Beach’s rocky past, the diocese’ recent public statements suggest Bishop Barbarito is a good bishop and it is not surprising that he might want as excellent and energetic a priest as Fr. Euteneuer back home for a time so that he can contribute to the life of the diocese. We live in a time when amazing priests are a precious resource, and just like a priest must be obedient to the needs of his diocese, we must be obedient to the needs of the universal church.

Most revealing to me are Fr. Euteneur’s own words:

“…my discernment about this decision tells me that this is the right thing for me to do and at the right time. I have great peace about the road that lies ahead and about all that has been accomplished up to this point.”

Please join me in praying for Fr. Euteneur as he begins a new stage in his priestly vocation, and pray for the good work of Human Life International as they search for a new President.

Typically I post items (which I don’t have time to blog about) to my AmP twitter feed but this morning I wanted to share what I’m reading with my blog-based subscribers as well. The end of August is often a slow news week as everyone tries to fit in their last bits of vacation before September begins, so I figure now is the time to catch up on some article reading.

• Hadley Arkes on “Doerflinger at the Ramparts” (pro-life)
• Jonathan Fitzgerald on “Evangelicals Crossing the Tiber to Catholicism” (ecumenism)
• Bryan Berry on “Why Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality Isn’t Bigoted” (church teaching)
• Sandro Magister on “Maciel’s Ghost Still Haunts the Castle” (scandal follow-up)
• Jude Huntz on “A Model for Reforming CCHD” (enough complaining, let’s do something)
• Lisa Wangsness on “Archdiocese [of Boston] limits access to critics’ blogs” (no comment, for now)
• CNA on “Trapped miners to set up make-shift chapel to pray for rescue” (pray for them!)
• Steve Waldman on “Obama’s Fascinating Interview with Cathleen Falsani” (well, I guess)
• Jeffrey Tucker on “Why Catholics Don’t Understand Economics” (this is fascinating)
• Russell Shaw on “Marriage and the New Morality” (illuminating and useful)
• … and off-beat #11: Cleansing Fire on “The ‘Rite of Installation’… For A Layperson?” (yikes!)

Honestly, I’m hoping the only big news this week is Hurricane Earl. So when you’re done tracking the cone and battening down the hatches – take a gander at the items above!

While nuns in Austria spray people in the face with water to raise funds, nuns on this side of the Atlantic have their own unique approach to making their bottom line:

Sister James Dolores, 73, gives her best surfer-girl pose in Stone Harbor, NJ, where her Pennsylvania convent owns a beachfront retreat called Villa Maria by the Sea.

“I’m really getting the hang of this,” said the spritely, no-nonsense nun. “No one ever thought they’d see me on a board.”

Though Sister James, of Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, doesn’t actually hang 10, the nun has a special relationship with local surfers, and her mother house will host its 15th annual Nun’s Beach Surf Invitational on Sept. 11. The proceeds go to the maintenance of the breathtaking, 6½-acre, 150-bedroom waterfront complex. (New York Post)

I think they should give out copies of Peter Kreeft’s I Surf, Therfore I am: A Philosophy of Surfing to the winners. The author introduces his work in this fashion:

This is the first book about surfing ever written by a philosopher. The author, a 70-year-old surfanatic, has been Professor of Philosophy at Boston College for over 40 years and has written 50 other books on philosophy, religion, and culture. But compared to this one, the others are nothing but straw.

Somehow I can’t imagine St. Thomas on a surfboard.

“No one leaves this meeting until the person who went joyriding last night in my popemobile fesses up!”

Photo: REUTERS / Osservatore Romano

I don’t consider myself the sentimental type but this photo taken yesterday at the National Shrine I thought was very uplifting:

More photos – and the story – from Renata.

CatholicVote was busy celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth on our Facebook page yesterday, and papists were exchanging their favorite Mother Teresa quotes on Twitter.

“OOOOoooooohhh, you brought me CUPCAKES!!!“

Photo: AP Photo / Gregorio Borgia