Notre Dame Visit Cost U. 13.9 million in withheld donations-The Accidental Fifth Columnist Stumbles....

NOTRE DAME ALUMNI CONFIRM $13.9 MILLION

IN WITHHELD DONATIONS

Financial Penalty of Obama Invite Continues to Mount

DEARBORN, MI - (May 13, 2009) – Organizers of ReplaceJenkins.com, the online effort that asks alumni and donors to the University of Notre Dame to withhold donations, announced Wednesday that they have tallied nearly $14 million in withheld donations from alumni and donors who feel disenfranchised by the trend of Notre Dame’s leadership to abandon its Catholic identity.

The website ReplaceJenkins.com has received over 1,400 pledges from alumni and donors promising to withhold future donations. After more than three weeks since the website was launched, the addition of new alumni and donors on the site continues daily.

ReplaceJenkins.com spokesperson David DiFranco (Class of ‘95) commented: “Most of the donors were at least loosely aware of the University’s trend away from its Catholic identity. But the invitation of President Obama to speak and to receive an honorary degree, combined with the weak responses presented by Father Jenkins as a defense to those who have criticized the decision, is what drives most alumni to our site.”

“Unwittingly, Father Jenkins has brought national attention to a problem that is decades in the making,” DiFranco explained. “A shrinking percentage of Catholic faculty and the efforts of secular-minded board members has long been eroding the Catholic heritage and foundation that makes Notre Dame great. President Obama’s invitation represents the culminating scandal in this trend.”

Alumni and financial supporters of the University of Notre Dame launched the online effort in an effort to withhold donations from Notre Dame, until Rev. John Jenkins, CSC is replaced. The coalition website – www.replacejenkins.com - urges supporters to withhold all contributions to the Notre Dame General Fund until President Jenkins is replaced with someone who is committed to the authentic identity of Notre Dame, grounded in the teachings of the Catholic Church.

“We have discovered, in no uncertain terms, that alumni did not need our suggestion to withhold contributions. In nearly all cases, those who have contacted us had already decided to cease donating. Our website merely tallies the sum of their collective decision” said DiFranco.