Chicago, Ill., Apr 6, 2009 / 12:08 pm
This past Friday, Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the USCCB, addressed his critique of Notre Dame's invitation to have President Obama speak at its commencement ceremony, and repeated that the university was wrong to make such a unilateral decision.
Speaking at a March 28 conference on human life, Cardinal George had said that “Notre Dame does not understand what it means to be Catholic.”
The comments, first released by the pro-life news agency LifesiteNews, further fueled the controversy over whether the Catholic university should have invited the president to speak, especially considering his extreme views on abortion.
Last Friday, at a conference at DePaul university, noting the presence of journalists, Cardinal George explained that his previous comments were made as an answer to a question and not for the wider public dissemination they have received.