Notre Dame to honor cardinal

2005-04-13T20:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame plans to award an honorary doctorate to Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Vatican official whos included on many short lists of contenders to become the next pope, during its commencement ceremony on May 15.

Arinze, a Nigerian native who most recently has led the Vaticans initiatives on worship, sacraments and liturgy, agreed to accept the doctorate in October, Notre Dame spokesman Matt Storin said today.

If Arinze, 72, emerges as the next pope during the conclave that begins Monday, it likely would prevent him from traveling to South Bend, Ind., next month to accept the honor.

If Cardinal Arinze is elected the next pope, we do not expect him here. We think hell have another scheduling conflict,Storin said.
Notre Dame first invited Arinze to receive an honorary degree last year, but the cardinal could not accept because of a scheduling conflict.

We then invited him to come for this year and he sent us his acceptance, written in his own hand, in October,Storin said.
Notre Dame already has bestowed an honorary degree on one future pope. In 1960, it honored Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, who took the name Paul VI when he became the pontiff three years later.

Notre Dame generally does not disclose citations for honorary degrees before they are awarded, but Storin said it was recognizing Arinze for his dedication to interfaith dialogue, particularly with Muslims. Arinze headed the Pontifical Council for Inter Religious Dialogue until October 2002.

At that time, John Paul II named Arinze prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which reviews liturgical texts.

Arinze has visited Indiana at least once. In November 1999, he preached on the Feast of All Saints at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne, telling 1,500 worshippers that all are called to be holy.

It is not true that holiness is only expected of the clergy and others just sneak into heaven. No, no, no, its not good theology,he said, drawing laughter.

One other cardinal widely considered among the favorites to become the next pope also has received an honorary degree from Notre Dame. Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, received one in 2003, two years after his elevation to the College of Cardinals.

Also honored have been several other cardinals who will vote on the next pope during the conclave: Americans Adam Maida of Detroit (in 1997), William Henry Keeler of Baltimore (1998) Edmund Casimir Szoka of the Vatican (1999), Italian Agostino Cacciavillan (2000) and German Walter Kasper (2002).

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Notre Dame to hire firm to check for sweatshop labor

1999-03-01T19:00:00-05:00

Two years ago, Notre Dame became one of the first colleges to ban licensees from using sweatshop labor.
p. Now it wants to put some teeth into those policies.p. The school announced Monday it will hire an international accounting firm to police manufacturing sites that produce merchandise bearing its trademark, ensuring they comply with its anti-sweatshop policies.p. “It’s not only the right thing to do, but it’s mission-driven behavior for a Catholic university like Notre Dame,” said associate vice president and counsel William Hoye, who believes Notre Dame is the first school to develop such a monitoring system.p. Sweatshop labor has been a hot topic on college campuses over the past year. Student protests prompted a task force of university representatives and the Atlanta-based Collegiate Licensing Co. in January to draft a conduct code requiring licensed manufacturers to comply or be shut out of the estimated $2.5 billion-a -year college-license retail business.p. The draft code would ban child labor, forced labor, abuse and harassment in the workplace, and also limit working hours and require safe and healthy work environments. Notre Dame’s 1997 regulations for university licensees includes similar bans, but it has an independent licensing agent that is not part of the effort, Hoye said. It also does not release its merchandising revenues.p. Notre Dame is in the process of collecting a list of manufacturing sites from its licensees, which Hoye said could be in the thousands because many of Notre Dame’s 230 licensees have dozens of sites operated by subcontractors. The Pricewaterhouse Coopers firm will then use the list to randomly select sites for visits, Hoye said.p. The university’s efforts come just ahead of a plan by the Fair Labor Association to create a centralized monitoring system to monitor sweatshop labor overseas, said Michael Posner, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.p. The group is one of four non-governmental agencies advising the FLA, which was created through a Clinton administration initiative to improve overseas labor conditions.p. Posner said he doesn’t know of any other schools that have established their own monitoring system and expects Notre Dame to help pave the way for the FLA next year.p. “They’re certainly among the schools that are trying to take this seriously, and Notre Dame has if not the largest, one of the largest licensing programs in the country, so it’s very important that schools like Notre Dame are in the forefront,” said Posner. “There needs to be an industry-wide system that holds every company accountable to the same standing.”p. Posner said he expects the monitoring system to be in place by early next year, but Hoye said the university decided to go out on its own with its $75,000 plan rather than wait any longer.p. Notre Dame still hopes to be part of the FLA effort and has discussed with other universities the possibility of pooling resources, including reporting on working conditions to universities that share the costs of monitoring checks.p. “While our code of conduct was a good start, we knew more needed to be done, and that doesn’t mean we’re at the end with this, either,” said school spokesman Dennis Brown.

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Notre Dame to honor cardinal

Notre Dame to hire firm to check for sweatshop labor