Mary Ann Glendon to Receive ND Laetare Medal

Harvard law school professor, former ambassador to the Vatican, and First Things board member Mary Ann Glendon will receive the Laetare Medal at Notre Dame this spring:

Mary Ann Glendon, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, will receive the University of Notre Dame’s 2009 Laetare Medal. She will receive the medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics, during the University’s 164th University Commencement ceremony May 17 (Sunday).

“Both as a public intellectual and as a diplomat, Mary Ann Glendon has impressively served our Church and our country,” said Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. “She is an articulate and compelling expositor of Catholic social teaching who exemplifies our University’s most cherished values and deserves its highest praise.”

Of course, sharing the stage with Glendon will be President Obama, who neither “exemplifies” the University’s “most cherished values” nor “deserves its highest praise.”