And you thought ND capitulated

It’s one thing to invite or allow a pro-abortion president to speak at your Catholic university. It’s another to give in to his request that you cover up your Catholic identity.

Which is what Georgetown has done.

Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”–symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there.

First point of interest here is that the White House “asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols”. Why? Has any president ever done that? Has Reagan or Bush or Clinton or Bush (or any former president) ever asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols of their Catholic identity?! Obama did.

And this didn’t pose a problem for them?

No.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the “IHS” monogram that had previously adorned the stage at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall was still covered up–when the pediment where it had appeared was photographed by CNSNews.com.

(See the photographs there. They did a good job visually telling this story.)

“In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage,” Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at Georgetown, told CNSNews.com.

“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.”

Most respectful to whom? Out of what context? He’s standing on a stage in a history-steeped, prominent Catholic college in Washington. No amount of PR spin can cover Georgetown’s capitulation of their values and very identity in ‘honoring the White House request’. They cut some plywood to fit, painted it black as an unobtrustive background, and used it to cover the gold ‘IHS’ and cross on that stately pediment. 

Roman Catholics traditionally use “IHS” as an abbreviation for Jesus’ name.  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.

And Georgetown is a “prestigious” Jesuit school. Shame on them.

One thing’s for certain. When Obama speaks at the commencement ceremony in South Bend in May, there will be no draping over the Notre Dame who stands atop the golden dome.