The University’s honoring of President Obama in opposition to the policy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and in defiance of its own bishop, together with such other unsettling events as The Vagina Monologues and The Queer Film Festival, have raised serious doubt whether Notre Dame retains a vibrant Catholic identity. The dramatic shrinking of the Catholic faculty, measured against the school’s Mission Statement, confirms that it does not. While the school’s Mission Statement declares that its Catholic identity “depends upon the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals on the faculty, the erosion of Catholic faculty has been so great that this test is no longer met. Thus, measured by its own standard, Notre Dame has lost the Catholic identity that it nonetheless continues to proclaim.
Still, many of the school’s Catholic underpinnings remain, and it could over time regain its footing if those in governance were to act promptly and decisively. The time is opportune for alumni and others of the Notre Dame family to express both their intense concern and their support of actions designed to strengthen Notre Dame’s Catholic identity. |
