Greg, close your ears.

Last night I ran into Matt Alderman, of Holy Whapping blog, at the Extraordinary Form celebration of the Mass of the Feast of the Ascension at St. Stan's parish in Milwaukee.  He had a great post recently about the ND situation--one which I almost agree with completely, especially these comments:

The same students and the same student culture (both pious and less so) is still there on campus[I know this is true, because my son is there and my other son is beginning in August.], and indeed, I'd say the caliber of the Catholic student population has improved since my time there. This one incident has not changed any of this. I agree something should be done--but I also think this event ought not to be exploited by those with some sort of beef against this place, or are unaware of how the territory has changed in recent years.

In any case, pray for this very special place. It is absurd to give up on Notre Dame on the strength of this large but relatively singular incident; we are not and have never been as far gone as many other Catholic universities, nor is an easy replacement or successor discernable, or even necessary. Those Catholics who are urging their children to go to state schools out of some misguided notion of avoiding hypocrisy ought to at least sit back and consider whatever problems we may have at the top, the grassroots are still strong and green, and the general ambience, if one keeps one's head and avoids bad company, remains pretty wholesome on campus. (One word: parietals. They're not going anywhere, and neither are the single-sex dorms. Try finding either at a state school, not to mention the Blessed Sacrament everywhere.) It's not for nothing they speak of the "Notre Dame bubble."

What pulled Notre Dame out of its '80s slump was mostly a small but dynamic orthodox core of Catholic students, whose actions are now now bearing fruit. The only way we can fix this problem is for more kids like that to come under the Dome. Pray like a champion, and please, try to get the facts before flying off the handle, people. It does our cause no good to do otherwise. [my emphasis]

For a lot of us, it was a bit like discovering our dear old mother had a drinking problem. Something must be done, but watching others gleefully taunting her was a bit hard to handle, as right as they might have been in the abstract to rebuke her. She is still someone's mother, after all.

He also gives a lot of pictures of the rally on the South Quad, which we attended.  "Lucy," of City of Steeples blog, says:

As unfortunate as the situation at my alma mater is (and I am strongly pro-life and opposed to Obama's honorary degree), what has surprised me most is the rudeness and lack of charity among many of those opposed, both in person and on the internet. From making childish potshots at the university's name to persistently promoting falsehoods to refusing to acknowledge that recent graduates may have a better pulse on the situation than the AP, there have been a lot of people who have been positively gleeful about kicking Notre Dame when she's down. And that's not cool, or in keeping with Christian values.

All the videos of the talks are on the NDResponse web page.