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.