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Niall O'Dowd


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A man in full: University of Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins gets his Irish up

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Niall O'Dowd

Published Friday, November 6, 2009, 6:21 AM
Updated Friday, November 6, 2009, 8:04 AM

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A man in full: University of Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins gets his Irish up | Irish News | IrishCentral




University of Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins with President Barack Obama
University of Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins with President Barack Obama at commencement ceremonies

As speeches go, it was one of the finest ever delivered at the American Irish Historical Society annual banquet, now over 100 years old and thriving. It was held Thursday night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Fr. John Jenkins stood up as gold medalist and delivered a speech that reclaimed the Irish roots of Notre Dame in a way no other president of Notre Dame has.

He spoke movingly of his own heritage, his family roots on his mother's side, who were Condons from Cork, and the deep resources of faith, family and friendship that his Irish background bequeathed to him.

In the audience was Donald R. Keough, the man who created  the Keough Naughton Institute of Irish studies, which has restored an Irish awareness to the campus that was absent too long. It must have been a proud night for him to see this heritage reclaimed.

Jenkins is quickly becoming a great college president, one to perhaps rival even Fr. Ted Hesburgh, the legendary leader of the college for 35 years from 1952 to 1987.

The baptism of fire for Jenkins was his invitation to President Barack Obama to be commencement speaker. Jenkins was assailed on every side by conservative alumni and angry bishops, who wanted him to cancel the invitation.

"You cannot change the world if you shun the people you want to persuade, and if you cannot persuade them … show respect for them and listen to them," he said at the time. As a Catholic leader, it was a fearless statement in the face of so much criticism

He faced the critics down, and Obama appeared to a rapturous welcome from the students and faculty. Those who really mattered most — the students themselves — perfectly understood what Jenkins wanted to do, to open up a dialog in the best Aquinas Catholic tradition. It is no coincidence that Jenkins is an expert on Aquinas.

On Thursday night, he took on another issue that has often been overlooked, some would say conveniently — and that is the deep Irish roots of the university. In this multicultural world, it has been fashionable to downplay those roots, to confine it to football fighting songs and the leprechaun who struts his stuff at games.

Jenkins, however, took a deep look at those important roots, talked about the four Irish brothers who helped Fr. Edward Sorin establish the school, and then of the initial term of derision, the Fighting Irish label attached to Notre Dame in a Michigan newspaper in the early 1920s.

He noted that turning that term of derision into the mission statement of a Catholic university at a time of deep anti-Catholic sentiment was the greatest achievement of the college in those troubled times.

He parsed and analyzed what the term fighting Irish stood for, and quoted Irish President Mary McAleese when she was commencement speaker at Notre Dame in 2006.

"By the Fighting Irish, we don't mean fighting in the sense of argumentative, though we might occasionally mean argumentative, but what we actually mean mostly when we talk about it is an indomitable spirit, a commitment, never tentative, always fully committed, to use the words that I got ... this morning, total commitment to life itself. No matter what life threw at them, and it threw quite a few wobblies at the Irish from time to time, that indomitable spirit that always sought to dig deep to find the courage to transcend, to keep going..."

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Most recent of 24 Comments - See all comments

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Posted by plasticpaddy on November 13,2009 | 08:43AM
Also what a foolish comment maloney
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Posted by plasticpaddy on November 13,2009 | 08:43AM
Very well said Jerry O'Neill
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Posted by maloney on November 11,2009 | 04:00PM
One would like to believe Father Jenkins thinks Obama is a good man. But I'm afraid he isn't just missguided, he is part of the problem. Thank goodness not all of the student body is blind to the obvious. The freedoms most of us take for granted are in danger more now than at any other time in our short history.
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Posted by jerryoneill on November 11,2009 | 03:20PM
As usual the Irish fall firmly on both sides of an issue. Fr. Jenkins was absolutely correct to invite Obama to N.D. How in the hell else can you open a dialogue and have the opportunity to discuss an issue intelligently. Obama gracefully addressed the audience and gave a very thoughtful appraisal of the issue. If we are too stupid or block headed to listen to one another then how we will be able to persuade some one to our position. It only took eight hundred years to get to the current peace accord in Ireland. Lots of explosions and killing and other fun stuff before we got there. So if we are indeed Irish and the best and brightest with words and thoughts maybe we should make at least some slight attempt to prove it.
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Posted by irishborn on November 10,2009 | 09:58PM
"Obama appeared to a rapturous welcome"...at Notre Dame? Let's clarify this mis-statement...In reality, liberals yelled and clapped as loud as they always do when they want to be heard. Those MANY of us students and parents who were disgusted Obama was there, sat silent, or did not attend. Other students and parents attended an alternative graduation ceremony elsewhere on campus. Many, many students and parents were heartbroken at the focus placed on Obama. Jenkins is a leftist sham of a Notre Dame President who gave a nice Irish speech in New York. He also is systematically making Notre Dame become less Catholic each and every day. Please pray for Our Lady's University.
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Posted by plasticpaddy on November 10,2009 | 12:23PM
2BorNot2B, I genuinely enjoy your comments. They are hilarious to the extreme. Also Felicia you are under the mistaken impression that the right (politically speaking) are those cosestto the church. The leftists are much more in line with the teaching of the church, helping the poor, protecting the vulnerable, not spouting hateful and racist c-rap like yourself.






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