Notre Dame fires only senior admin to support pro-life Obama rally
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.


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Today I’m flying down to Birmingham, AL to tape an episode of
Great plains papist Jack Smith at the Catholic Key Blog give us some welcome tidings:
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 Friday Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, President of Human Life International since 2000,
While nuns in Austria 





Caption of the Day/PPOTD


