Is it any wonder that a “private, Catholic” university would welcome Obama the secular revolutionary, even honoring him with an Honorary LLD? Not when you consider that Notre Dame receives a hefty $57 million a year from the federal government — a sum that dwarfs alumni giving.
To put it bluntly, Notre Dame could survive without the alumni, but not without the Federal Government.
Paul Weyrich wisely counseled, “Never give to your friend any power that your enemy may someday inherit.” During the past hundred years, however, countless formerly independent and religious schools, hospitals, and charities have jumped at the chance to receive government “grants.” Now they find those grants carry with them not only strings, but handcuffs.
What is to be done? I’ll address all this and more on Wednesday, June 17, in McLean, Virginia (suburban DC), focusing on the federal government’s virtually unopposed and bipartisan assault on voluntary charity, and its efforts to replace it with “government charity.” Details here.
1:55 pm on June 5, 2009
