Former President’s Council on Bioethics member and Harvard Law Professor, Mary Ann Glendon, has told the University of Notre Dame to take the honor it wished to bestow upon her and kindly have it back. Why? Evidently, she doesn’t think that President Obama shares the same notions of social justice as the she and the Roman Catholic Church.

Glendon, a “prominent Roman Catholic conservative”, as described by the Chronicle of Higher Education, was chosen by Leon Kass to serve on the first Bush bioethics council back in 2001. Now, it would appear she is breaking Catholic hearts around the world by telling one of their most beloved universities that Laetare Medal, which was to be awarded to her at commencement, isn’t going to be hers simply because President Obama is going to be awarded an honorary degree as well at the same ceremony. Appalled that such a man would be gracing the same stage as she, Glendon will have no part of it.

Never mind that she served on a presidential bioethics commission for a president that condoned torture of detained prisoners or that the very same president launched us into two wars causing thousands of lives to be lost without justification (hardly promoting Catholic values). For a Roman Catholic who staunchly supports the preservation of life, it would seem to be at odds with the president she served–and it seems difficult to see what she could possibly object to in the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, aside from pure partisanship.

Glendon, however, appears to believe that she and the Catholic Church do not see eye to eye with President Obama on another important view–justice. From a letter she wrote, she says: “to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.” Really, Professor Glendon? In what way does President Obama differ from Roman Catholics on principles of justice? Do you mean social justice? In that he supports giving access to healthcare for all Americans? Or perhaps ensuring that all people, regardless of the color of their skin, can go to quality public or private schools? Or shoring up the economy so jobs stay in this country so that everyone is on a fair playing field?

Or perhaps you mean some other notion of justice, Professor Glendon?

Aside from the admonition from American bishops that “not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles”–which can only mean one thing really in Obama’s case–being pro-choice, I am struggling to see what other core principles President Obama, a Christian and deeply religious man, fundamentally is in defiance of in Roman Catholicism.

I’m befuddled as the University of Notre Dame leaders are. I can find no sense in this argument at all.

Summer Johnson, PhD