WASHINGTON – President Obama will deliver the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame May 17, the White House announced Friday. The choice soon came under fire.

Obama selected a county that voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic ticket. But he will face an audience of Catholics, many of whom are uneasy with some of his early decisions.

His outreach to the Catholic university comes after making two decisions opposed by many Catholics, a critical swing vote that Obama carried in 2008.

Obama lifted restrictions on stem cell research. He also said he will allow federal money be sent to international planning organizations that may also perform abortions or provide information about the procedure.

But Obama has also had a strong message of faith and religion throughout his campaign and presidency, and Vice President Biden is Catholic.

In a speech Obama made in 2006 – billed as one of the strongest addresses on religion and politics by a modern politician – he said progressives have to overcome a reluctance to talk about religious values.

Obama said the tendency of some liberals to "dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word ‘Christian’ describes one’s political opponents, not people of faith."

Obama said it’s obvious that values play a role in urgent social problems (poverty, unemployment, lack of health insurance) and that many people draw their values from religion.

Nevertheless, Notre Dame’s invitation should be rescinded, said Brian Burch, president of Catholicvote.org, an advocacy group.

"For a prominent Catholic institution to give President Obama the benefit of their platform," he said, "is shocking and disappointing."

A commencement speaker, Burch said, is held out as "someone students ought to emulate and admire. There’s a clear contradiction between his policies and that which a Catholic institution is presumably bound to promote."

Indiana, traditionally a Republican state, supported Obama in the 2008 election. His first trip outside of Washington after taking office was to economically hard-hit Elkhart, 20 miles west of Notre Dame.

Obama won St. Joseph County, home to Notre Dame, with 59 percent of the vote over Republican John McCain, one of the largest margins in the state’s 92 counties.

The Catholic university is one of three commencement speeches Obama will give in May, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. In addition to the South Bend school, Obama will speak at Arizona State University on May 13 and the Naval Academy on May 22.

"Almost all of Obama’s discretionary travel is taking place to swing states like Indiana and Arizona," said Larry Sabato, political science professor at the University of Virginia and an expert in presidential politics. "Yes, California is an exception. It’s the permanent campaign – next stop: 2012."

Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, is one of the few Notre Dame graduates in Congress. Although, as a Republican, he opposed Obama in the 2008 election, Souder said a "presidential visit is an honor for the university and our community."

Obama will be the fifth sitting president to speak at the school’s graduation ceremony. Other presidents who have delivered commencement addresses are Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

John F. Kennedy, the nation’s only Catholic president, delivered the 1950 winter commencement when he was a senator.