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When will Catholics be truthful to themselves? Re the letter “Why did Bush have our blessing?” (CR, May 14), let us be clear about the Notre Dame scandal. It is not the invitation of President Obama to speak at Notre Dame that is the problem; it is the conferring of an honorary degree that has people outraged. Capital punishment is not (by definition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) intrinsically evil. Abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and born-alive babies left to die after an attempted abortion are intrinsically evil. That is the difference. Common sense should prevail here. Abortion is the right to choose murder. It is not really any more complicated than that. Capital punishment is killing, not murder – there is a difference. Since 1973, fewer than 1,100 people have been executed in the U.S. under capital punishment. More than 50 million babies have been murdered in their mothers’ wombs in the past 26 years. If these babies are not protected, who among us is protected?

Letter-writer Jeannette Mollenkopf (CR, May 14) thinks abortion is a “horrible crime,” but she doesn’t get the objection to Notre Dame’s invitation to Obama while Bush was welcomed.

Maryland Catholics need to wake up and take action. In Archbishop O’Brien’s column (CR, May 7) he talks about the silencing of Catholics in 1633 and again in 2009.

DUBLIN, Ireland – An Irish cardinal has made an unprecedented ecumenical gesture by attending a Church of Ireland service and by preaching in a once-forbidden Anglican chapel.

Calvert Hall College High School principal Louis E. Heidrick was to be presented the Letter of Affiliation by the Brothers of Christian Schools May 14.