“Notre Dame our mother, tender, strong, and true.”
Thus begins the Notre Dame Alma Mater. It’s a song that has captured my heart and brought tears to my eyes for over 30 years.
The rich history of the Alma Mater goes back to just after the sudden death in 1931 of ND’s beloved coach Knute Rockne and gives us insight into the sadness that enveloped not only the Notre Dame campus but the entire country. According to FaithND:
Notre Dame turned to Mary in this moment of tragedy not to ask for protection or help, but simply to praise her when everything suddenly seemed to be upside down. The campus community responded to violence and death by praising Mary, our mother in faith who brings us life in Christ and continues to watch over us with her intercession.
“The campus community responded to violence and death by praising Mary.” In this one sentence, we see just how vital it is to invoke Mary’s help in our daily lives, and this is especially true today, as we face a world rocked by abortion violence.
So when I saw the headline “What You Should Know About Notre Dame Professor’s Promotion of Abortion to Students,” I took notice and had to learn more. Apparently, a Notre Dame professor—whom I won’t name—has become very vocal about the Dobbs decision—and has attempted to let as many students as possible know that she and others were there to “help” them should they desire an abortion. This professor said in one of her social media posts, “Will help as a private citizen if you have issues w access or cost. DM me.” She then stated that she was doing this not as an ND professor but “as a private citizen, so that’s been cleared by the university.” Yet she was “marking” her office door with the letter “J” as a sign that her office was a “safe place” to go to if someone wanted help with obtaining an abortion.
Anything done by an ND professor on campus or with campus resources or on a school account should, of course, be of concern. And ND should have come out right away and said, “not on our campus.” Yet it didn’t.
But then it took some baby steps. According to the article:
After initially allowing [the professor] to promote abortion pills on campus ‘as a private citizen,’ the University of Notre Dame has made no official statement on the matter. But several instances suggest that it is attempting to stop her efforts. [The professor] removed all references to Notre Dame from her Twitter bio, and the sign on her door along with all of the ‘Js’ on other faculty doors have been removed, as well.
That’s a start. But I would like to see more from my beloved university. I would like to see an official statement by its president, Fr. John Jenkins, stating that the university adheres to Catholic teaching on abortion, that abortion will not be promoted on campus or by staff, and that any student facing an unexpected pregnancy will have as much help as she needs from the university. This is what it means to be pro-life. And this is the only acceptable response from a university that claims that its “faith is not just a characteristic present at our founding and then slowly relegated to the past. It is an inextricable part of Notre Dame’s identity today and will continue to be in the future.”
Our Catholic faith commands a respect for life from creation to death. And it commands strong moral leaders to teach it.
My hope is that the leadership at the university will begin taking steps to teach what so many at the university already teach, for we know that, though the university hasn’t yet officially disavowed this professor’s actions, there is certainly evidence of the Catholic pro-life voice at ND. We see a beautiful example of this at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture.
This summer, I attended the center’s annual Vita Institute, and I was impressed and moved not only by its staff—led by O. Carter Snead—but also by the talks and by the speakers they brought in to teach about the sanctity of all human beings. This weeklong conference showed the rich Catholic and pro-life tradition of the university. And in the wake of the Dobbs decision, the de Nicola Center has begun a new initiative to not only provide tangible help to pregnant women but to help moms and babies after the babies are born.
That is a pro-life culture. And it’s one evidenced throughout the campus, especially in the Notre Dame Right to Life group, which boasts about 700 members and is helping the next generation understand the sanctity of all human beings.
We need this kind of moral leadership, not just at Notre Dame but throughout the country and by Catholic priests and bishops, for instilling moral courage is best done though example.
“The campus community responded to violence and death by praising Mary.” Our Blessed Mother and the university named after her are indeed tender, strong, and true, and praising her should be a daily occurrence.
Let us respond to today’s abortion violence, to the anger and vitriol expressed by so many, and to the violence perpetrated by pro-abortion groups with love, with prayer, with praise for Mary and her Son, and with the truth.
The truth is that abortion kills. And no one associated with the Catholic faith should teach otherwise.
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Stronger moral leadership is needed at Notre Dame? How about the USCCB and, with the news that Pope Francis just appointed a pro-abortion economist to the Pontifical Academy for Life, at the Vatican?
Thank you for standing up for the unborn! I too have heard of this happening at ND and have wondered the same thing. How can a Catholic University put up with this behavior in supporting the murder of innocent babies? Thank you for bringing more attention to this. Let’s all hope Fr. John Jenkins responds.
Jenkins has always been the problem.
For him, doctrine is malleable and observing his actions and statements over the years portrays an indifferent priest at best.
Before him it was Hesburgh. The problems at Notre Dame go back to at least the time when Dick McBrien was a theology professor there.
Notre Dame, like others who should be leaders (see Church hierarchy) has lost its way. Stand for right, and speak out for the babies in the womb. When they allowed Obama, a strong abortion supporter, to speak in 2009, they lost me. I now root for whoever plays against Notre Dame, and will till they again accept the Catholic leadership God granted to them.
Not sure why the surprise at this. Notre Dame has given some of its highest awards to militant pro-abortion politicians. It has been doing this for years.
This story saddens me, but it does not surprise me.
At the 2009 Graduation the University honored President Obama, without question the most pro-abortion President in American history. When originally asked by the Diocese of Fort Wayne to withdraw the invitation the University refused, under the flag of ‘academic freedom’.
At the graduation of 2016 then vice-President Biden was honored with the Laetare Medal, the University’s highest honor for a layman. Not long after that he presided at a same-sex ‘marriage’ ceremony on his website, and as we all know he has succeeded his former boss as the most pro-abortion President in US history, all the while carrying a Rosary in his pocket.
George Weigel once referred to Notre Dame as the “Flagship of American Catholic Universities.” That may have been true once, but in the eyes of many, mine included, those days are gone – sadly never to return.
I always admired Notre Dame as being the leading Catholic University. But that dissipated when ND awarded an honorary Doctorate degree to Barack Obama. I’m sure it was done to honor the first African-American President. But Obama is a fierce advocate of abortion. His viewpoints on it diametrically contradict our Catholic faith. Thus ND contradicted its supposedly Catholic identity.
The line of thought in this essay is an example of the ill-conceived and problematic idea held by many (not all!) Catholics in the U.S.. This thinking views abortion as the only issue worth considering for public engagement among Catholics. In this mistaken and narrow perspective, abortion is the only moral issue that must be used to gauge the moral adequacy or inadequacy of any individual or institution. Even while highlighting abortion as a pre-eminent issue, it is not the only issue. Being a pro-life Catholic consists in considering (like in voting in elections or like here in this opinion piece, in assessing the moral quality of a leader or the leadership of an institution) and actively engaging in active care to all of life (here, obviously, in the widest range possible according to one’s capacity): from womb to tomb, from conception to natural death. In having a moral compass, all these life issues, not only abortion, need to be measured. Otherwise, that moral compass like the one shown here in this article is defective as it does not reflect the full range of the teaching of Catholic Social Thought and of the Bible regarding a Catholic’s call to social engagement and action.
“This thinking views abortion as the only issue worth considering for public engagement among Catholics.”
False. No one is saying that–except for you. Might want to be careful about false witness, which is also a sin.
As for Catholic Social Thought, how about this from the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church”?
That section includes a number of footnotes, including to these texts:
“For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life in a manner which is worthy of man. Therefore from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes.” (GS)
“To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34).” (EV)
When the specific issue at hand is abortion (that is, a professor at a Catholic university helping students with abortion services), don’t be surprised if the specific criticism is aimed at abortion. And keep in mind, as folks such as yourself apparently don’t, that it’s hard to feed, clothe, care, and otherwise assist people when they aren’t even allowed to be born and are tossed into the trash.
Thanks for the “lecture disguised as a comment,” Carl. It is a good one with many valuable points needed to address the numerous errors in the unjust straw man accusations of our old buddy — “seamless garment 2.0” Emerson Mah.
Mah provides absolutely no evidence to support his shallow declarations, yet he opines as if he is merely trying to “enlighten” all Catholics and make them “better Catholics” by ridiculously insisting that almost any emphasis on abortion is simply too much if it does not also address other social issues in the process. Even worse, Mah accuses Catholics of being too ignorant to recognize what he “sees” in his own delusional mind. Ironically or just hypocritically, his unjust behavior in making false accusations violates a basic tenet of Catholic social teaching that he pretends to be not only a broad practitioner of, he has also appointed himself a “master” of such teaching that he wrongly believes grants him the right to dictate to others how they must practice Catholic social teaching the silly way that he does in order to be “wise Catholics just like him.”
Emerson!
I leave the measured, well reasoned, irrefutable response to the estimable Mr. Olson (see above).
But I have to say, your comment is so outrageously and utterly absurd that it also deserves an intemperate, unreasoning, and highly colorful response, which I am doing my best to provide below.
Here you go: You’re saying, basically, that unless Catholics can all be proven to floss their teeth every day and keep their tires properly inflated, the issue of abortion is moot.
Or, to employ the Reductio ad Hitlerum argument — which is definitely merited here — you’re saying that condemning Hitler’s murders of millions of peaceful civilians is unwarranted, given that he made really inspiring speeches and invented limited access highways.
I hereby submit that killing hundreds of millions of innocent children around the world over a half century of time is important enough an issue to discuss even if we do happen to wear stripes with plaids.
Well have not been a Notre Dame fan for a long time. It is the epitome of the Catholic In Name Ony University or College. It will never change its posture, it is way too arrogant, which is also reflected in many of its students and graduates. What makes me soo glad is when the football team looses, especially to Marshall University.
Fr Jenkins is the Albatross around the neck of Notre Dame.Has been for some time.He needs to be cut loose.Before he takes what little is left of the Catholic Faith at South Bend to the bottom of the sea.Nick Sandmann has a far better grasp of right and wrong then Fr Jenkins.
Dear Susan:
You seem very faithful and sweet, and I wish the Notres would act according to your hopes and wishes.
But they won’t.
For many years, it’s been evident that the university you love has sold its Catholic birthright for the vile mess of pottage that is the leftist death cult.
In fact I stopped referring to this school by our Blessed Mother’s title when they brought in President Obama and awarded him an honorary degree, allowing him to make a speech.
(N.b., it was the Obama administration that refused to release U.S. aid to developing countries until access to abortion was codified in their constitutions. And for this horrific abuse of millions of needy people he was feted by America’s most prestigious [formerly] Catholic university.)
To me, our Blessed Mother deserves far better than to be besmirched by association with these soulless killers.
So, ever since, I have referred to your beloved university as “Notre ‘Bama”.
I wonder if this why their football team stinks so bad his year?
Nope. The team simply isn’t very good. Not a lot of talent in the skilled positions. By the way, the head coach, Marcus Freeman, recently became Catholic.
We know why Notre Dame continues to show a keftist direction. Its money and a fear of being attacked in the media. If it does not intend to ACTUALLY be a Catholic college, it should say so and change its name instead of pretending. Teachers should have to sign a statement to endorse and support catholic teachings or be fired. Its ok to have an occasional leftist speaker on campus to support free speech, but they should not be honored with medals or awards. They should be ashamed if the “Catholic” cindition of their university at this point. A disgrace.
Many years ago I was an editorial secretary to an Image Books senior editor. One of her ongoing quests was to sign up Fr. Hesburgh’s memoirs. The editor would later write for America Magazine. In recent years I have encountered a number of people associated with Notre Dame University. For the most these were not encouraging figures for this increasingly weary convert. Anyone who has wandered through the campus will have scene the “Diversity” signs and similar advertisements for a progressive Church. Yes there are still good professors. But I recall something that the late Prof. Ralph McInerny wrote about his last faculty meeting in which he seemed to be an outlier on things Catholic in general. Hence Crisis Magazine. NDU is mostly a football team with a university curriculum indistinguishable from that of the University of Michigan or, for that matter, Boston College or my Catholic high school. But thanks to the Land O’ Lakes Conference anything goes although I do miss the beautiful princess on the box.
“Touchdown Jesus”?
I don’t think so.
More like *Exasperation* Jesus.
My son is a senior at UND and he thinks it is this side of paradise. Despite the nay-sayers there are many good Catholic kids there just trying to figure it out like every other Catholic today. A good feature would be an interview with the Sycamore Trust or Fr. Bill Miscamble who are the last “Anchors” of the school trying to prevent it from being set adrift in the Woke tide like all the other major universities.
Sad to hear about UND losing its way but this has been working for a long time.