Today the President spoke at Georgetown University about the economy which I guess part of his tour of Catholic Universities. The President of Georgetown John DeGioia being totally irony impaired in his introduction included this:
We as a people will only be equal to the demands of the day if we stand up for the marginalize, the powerless, and those without a voice.
Unless they are in the womb then we can marginalize and in fact kill those without a voice. In fact prevent them from ever having a voice. Hard to think of anybody more powerless than those human person in the womb.
Dawn Eden reports about something else missing besides the mention of Jesus.
No, Jesus’ very name, in the form of the ancient monogram IHS, which had been in gold lettering on the wooden archway above Gaston Hall’s dais, was painted over prior to Obama’s arrival. Apparently, the Name that is above every other name is not permitted to be above Obama.
The photo above shows the archway “before.” You can see the “after” clearly in C-SPAN’s video, as Georgetown President John DeGioia emerges to give his fawning introduction.
(I became aware of the cover-up after the speech, when it was pointed out by pro-life advocate Larry Cirignano in an e-mail forwarded to me. Whether Georgetown University initiated it or did it at the request of the White House is unknown at this time.)
Update: There is some question as to whether IHS was painted over or just covered over as is done at other events.
There has not been as big of reaction to the Presidents’ visit at Georgetown as there was to the Notre Dame invite. Though maybe it is partially because many Catholics have already given up on Georgetown. Or at least hold zero surprise at the invite, especially since candidate Obama was previously invited. Georgetown holds onto some vestiges of the Cathoilc faith in a tribal, but mostly not meaningful way as an institution.
Since President Obama can give speeches on the economy maybe I can get a speaking gig for discussing brain surgery, rocket science, or anything else I know next-to-nothing about.
21 comments
Oh come on… I’m sure brain surgery isn’t that difficult.
See comments box over at Dawn Eden’s:
“The Jesuit seal was *NOT* painted over. It is routinely covered for different events (e.g., musical performances, television shows, non-catholic religious services, etc.) and is done so at the discretion of the university.”
Perhaps they should strive to only invite those who don’t require their seal to hide in shame.
BOYCOTT & ANECDOTE ON LAME EXCUSES
Jeff:
Congratulations for your line: John DeGioia being totally irony impaired in his introduction included this:: “We as a people will only be equal to the demands of the day if we stand up for the marginalize, the powerless, and those without a voice”.
My anecdote: G’town early 90s: a brave group of cleric & lay Catholics, AND DECENT MUSLIMS, plus OTHER DENOMINATIONS protested the funding (symbolic, and THAT is what matters), for the Pro-Choice & Gay Clubs. The university, Parrish, and local bishop washed their hands, in their best Pilates style, calling this outrage an “honest attempt to be tolerant with the academic freedom” of others.
The decency point, giving –however small amount of $ from Catholic donations- to groups defiantly mocking Church teaching, was totally impaired as in your jest-words.
Their covert point was satanic pride like Notre Dame, HONORING A RABID FUNDER OF BABY SLAUGHTERING, all disguised as openness!
The boycott-lame excuse for not exercising… THE FORMAL AUTHORITY OF THE BISHOP to whatever institutions dare to bear the NAME CATHOLIC in the Diocese, was (and is) not good enough. We live in a world where nobody forces you to go Catholic, and have 30,000 Christian sects to choose.
The story went like this: our brave multi-denominational-decent outraged group, went to Rome with a direct request: take away the NAME CATHOLIC from Georgetown, and just open their doors to become a secular institution.
The Superior General could not fool anybody with “the board is not ours, they are independent”. Half the board was jesuit, and no one in the other half would dare to contradict them. But the funny jest was: GO AHEAD, VOTE NO, AND BECOME SECULAR, you are more than welcome!!!
Cordially
Forgot to add: De Goia & Jesuits used their old dexterity in saving face, backing down, and conforming (reluctantly) with the Vatican.
Obama’s visit to Georgetown was kept quiet and it was not announced until the last moment. A lot of pro life people in the area were scrambling to make their presence felt near campus.
I find it hard to stomach that they would be so ashamed of Our Lord’s name that they have to hide it on “special ocassions”. Maybe “The Exorcist” movie’s famous stairway leads to the G’Town campus for a reason…
Maybe the pro lifers stayed home this time since, according to the Department of Homeland Security, we are now officially classified as terrorists and threats to national security.
I agree with Dawn that using the parable about the house built on the sand and the house built on a rock without any mention of the “rock” Christ was talking about is an insult. Either the president didn’t notice the difference, in which case he is not as smart as people think, or he knows and thinks it is appropriate to strip Jesus and the Church out of a Christian parable in a Christian institution, in which case he has a lot of hubris. I think it’s the latter.
But I don’t see anything wrong with covering up the IHS. It was a political speech and should not be construed as a Catholic one. And if he HAD spoken underneath “IHS” then people would have been upset about it contributing to the whole “messiah” mystique that is partly their creation.
I can kind of see your point Gail – the last thing we need is a photo-op tying together the Big O with the IHS…
Although I didn’t realize IHS was a Jesuit symbol – I thought it stood for “In Hoc Signo” and is used in a variety of Catholic contexts (assuming for the sake of argument “Jesuit” is a Catholic context).
IHS: this is a monogram for the Most Holy Name of Jesus. I’m pretty sure that it’s the first three letters of His name, in Greek (the “H” being an eta).
Iesus Hominum Salvator (“Jesus, Savior of men” in Latin)
Hmm. An alternate interpretation, Guest.
Would you believe the Catholic Encyclopedia?
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07649a.htm
The IHS is the transliteration of the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek. Probably whatever Latin phrase it fits came about later.
All this makes me wonder,though, that when O. goes to Notre Dame, will the university cover up the statue of the Blessed Mother?
There is a news report out today that the Name was covered at the request of the White House.
@Anthony You’re right. And Jeff, we’ve got a national meeting coming up next month – I might be able to convince the Scientific Program Committee to get you a spot on the dais for the Tuesday AM plenary session.
Nice try, Clayton
“The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches,” she added. “Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”
Obama: There can only be one, ‘One’.
Some people have argued that Obama does not want to use religion to further a political ideology. However, Obama did evoke the Sermon on the Mount, at this Georgetown appearance, to further his economic agenda. Although Obama failed to mention Jesus Christ by name for the Sermon on the Mount.
“There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells a story of two men…‘the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock,’” Obama said.
“We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand,” he added. “We must build our house upon a rock.”
The last statement is particularly ironic since building your house upon a ‘ROCK‘ means to build your house with Christ as the foundation. Obama decided to blot out the real foundation from the timeless parable.
See the hi-res pictures:
http://tinyurl.com/djtzgm
more proof of Obama’s flunkies lying about this:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTMxZDc5MzIwODYxZTFmMTE4ZTQ2NjRhZGUxNGVkZjY=
It’s outrageous really. Funny thing–Laura Bush didn’t require the Logo to be covered when she spoke. Check my blog for picture.
Just another example of the increasingly secular and anti-religious White House.
If Obama had been speaking at a Muslim institution, somehow I suspect they would not have covered up their religious symbols….
So why are the Jesuits so wimpy? What would St Ignatius have said!
Talk about brain surgery? NO PROBLEM!
Just make sure to practice the really big words before they pop up on the teleprompter.