On Easter Tuesday President Obama came to speak at the Catholic Georgetown University in Washington DC. In his speech on the economy he gave the strongest indication yet that he believes the first green shoots of economic recovery are beginning to emerge in America, but he cautioned that the world’s biggest economy still has a battle ahead.
“There is no doubt that times are still tough. By no means are we out of the woods just yet. But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope,” Mr Obama said.
There had been some controversy over the visit of the President of America to the Catholic University because of his views on abortion and stem cell research.
At the back of the stage where he gave his lecture was a small black area near a painting of three female figures -- symbolizing morality, faith and patriotism -- and a decorative edging along the wall that spelled out the Jesuit motto "Ad majorem Dei gloriam"—"To the greater glory of God." Georgetown was founded by the Jesuits.
But a triangle of black-painted plywood covered the gold-lettered monogram with the letters IHS on the wooden archway above the dais in Gaston Hall where the president delivered his 45-minute speech.
IHS comes from the Greek for Jesus
It seems the White House asked for all symbols to be covered at the lecture hall.
Georgetown University spokeswoman Julie Green Bataille told Cybercast News "the White House wanted a simple backdrop... consistent with what they've done for other policy speeches."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue said: "The cowardice of Georgetown to stand fast on principle tells us more than we need to know... but the bigger story is the audacity of the Obama administration to ask a religious school to neuter itself before the president speaks there."
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus (1541) and thus became the emblem of his institute.” The Society of Jesus is the formal name for the Jesuits.
White House Director of Specialty Media Shin Inouye told FOX: "Decisions made about the backdrop for the speech were made to have a consistent background of American flags, which is standard for many presidential events. Any suggestions to the contrary are simply false."
A year ago on April 17th, Pope Benedict visited Georgetown University, and gave a long address on Catholic education to the professors, teachers and educators.
President Obama did not mention the name of Jesus during his address. However, he did mention Christ’s 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.”+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: CIN)