Va. Gov. candidate asks ND to deny Obama honorary degree

Virginia Republican candidate for governor Bob McDonnell said Friday that while Notre Dame University should allow President Obama to deliver its commencement address, the school should not honor the president with an honorary degree.

McDonnell, an alumnus of Notre Dame, said Obama’s views on abortion are “in great conflict” with the Catholic Church’s teaching, but stopped short of calling for the school to withdraw its invitation, as other conservative Catholics have done.

“I think conferring a degree confers certainly an imprimatur, or approval of these views,” he told WTOP radio in Virginia. “So I don’t think if it’s a uniquely Catholic University like a Georgetown or Boston College or Notre Dame.”

Arizona State University, another school at which Obama will deliver the commencement address, had previously decided to deny Obama the traditional honorary degree. After attracting a flurry of criticism, the school decided to start a scholarship in the president’s name.