NEW YORK, Apr. 2, 2009 (Kyodo News International) -- Selected editorial excerpts from the U.S. press:

NOTRE DAME'S OBAMA flap (Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles)

After Barack Obama was elected president, Pope Benedict XVI sent him a congratulatory letter. So did Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. At the time, neither the Vatican nor the Catholic bishops were under any illusion about Obama's opposition to outlawing abortion, a position that obviously put him at odds with the church's agenda. That didn't prevent them from welcoming a dialogue with the new president or offering to work with him in common pursuits.

The same can't be said of conservative Catholics who are lobbying Notre Dame University, the best-known Catholic institution of higher learning in the country, to rescind an invitation to Obama to speak at its commencement in May and accept an honorary degree. Led by the Cardinal Newman Society, a self-appointed guardian of orthodoxy, the protesters seem to believe they are more Catholic than the pope.

The argument against Obama's appearance at Notre Dame is that it's incompatible with the church's opposition to abortion and the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research. But a similar charge could have been leveled against the 2001 appearance at the university of George W. Bush, who as governor of Texas presided over scores of executions. Although the church's objections to the death penalty aren't as absolute as its opposition to abortion, U.S. bishops have taught since 1980 that ''the legitimate purposes of punishment do not justify the imposition of the death penalty.'' For them, the death penalty is also a ''life'' issue.

Catholics in America -- clergy and lay people alike -- are divided over whether the church should equate political support for legal abortion with moral approval of the procedure. In 2004, the archbishop of St. Louis threatened to deny Holy Communion to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a pro-choice Catholic. Other bishops, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, leave it to pro-choice Catholic officials to search their own consciences.

Of course, the issue at Notre Dame isn't whether Obama, a Protestant, should be welcomed to a Catholic Communion rail. It's whether a distinguished university should ban a speaker with whom it disagrees or engage him, as the pro-life evangelical pastor Rick Warren did when he invited Obama to speak at his church. Notre Dame's decision reflects a historic development in the way Catholic universities are viewed by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Thanks in part to the Second Vatican Council, the last four decades have seen a once- unthinkable integration of Catholics into the American mainstream. As part of that development, Catholic universities have attracted students and faculty of all religious backgrounds by combining their identification with the church with the principle of open discussion.
(April 1)