Notre Dame Response plans first demonstration this Sunday

South Bend, Ind., Apr 3, 2009 / 22:18 pm

This week Notre Dame Response announced that their first official demonstration will take place on Notre Dame’s campus after the Palm Sunday Mass and will feature pro-life attorney and speaker Harold Cassidy.

In a press release, Notre Dame Response said they hope that this “prayerful and public demonstration” will remind the community of Notre Dame’s “Catholic character” and defend the “non-negotiable principle for which Notre Dame stands” including the recognition of the “value of all human life.”

Notre Dame Response noted that  the event is “a response” to University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., who extended a commencement invitation to President Obama and also will honor him with an honorary doctor of law degree.

At the demonstration, the main speaker will be Harold Cassidy, who has worked on the New Jersey Bioethics Commission. Cassidy’s bio includes notable recognition in the pro-life community as a defender of life by acting as the Chief Counsel in the Baby M case, which struck down surrogate parenting contracts as “illegal, unenforceable, against public policy and exploitive of women.”

According to their website Notre Dame Response is also offering a nightly Rosary “for the conversion of Barack Obama, greater respect for life, and the Catholic Identity of Our Lady's university.”

Notre Dame Response was “formed as an ad hoc, coalition consisting of various student groups at the university. Its initial statement describes the group as being committed to ‘acts of witness that will be characterized by respect, prayerfulness, outspoken fidelity to the Church, and true concern for the good of our University’.”