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Petition to University of Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins

LifeSiteNews.com/np/clients/lifesitenews_us/campaign.jsp?campaign=19

Right now 88 pro-life activists (known as the ND88) are facing charges for “trespassing” onto the University of Notre Dame in May of 2009.  It is a source of the gravest scandal that this situation persists with the active cooperation of Notre Dame.

The ND88 were arrested for peacefully protesting the university’s decision to honor the most pro-abortion U.S. president in history at this year’s commencement. In many cases, their “protest” took the form of walking on your campus, praying the rosary, and holding pro-life signs. For this “crime” they were specifically targeted by Notre Dame’s security police, handcuffed, and dragged away and put in jail like common criminals.

Now these 88 peaceful pro-life heroes, many of whom are elderly, are facing up to a year in prison and a $5,000 fine, in addition to the many hardships and uncertainties involved in the trial process.

And yet, there is an easy and completely painless solution to this unconscionable situation. You, Fr. Jenkins, on behalf of Notre Dame, could publicly request that the charges against the ND88 be dropped.

Not only is such a request likely be heeded by the prosecutorial authorities, but it would go a long way to restoring Notre Dame's tarnished image in the eyes of the pro-life and Catholic world.

Indeed, it is extremely shocking and disturbing that, despite repeated requests to do so, Notre Dame has not yet intervened in this way.

Our Lady’s University has no business cooperating in the prosecutions of pro-life individuals whose only crime is having prayed on the campus of a Catholic university, and standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

Therefore we respectfully implore the University of Notre Dame to immediately and publicly request that the charges against the ND88 be dropped.