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The school has indicated it will stick by its decision for Professor Susan Ostermann to lead a university instituteU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops President Archbishop Paul Coakley is urging the University of Notre Dame to drop the leadership appointment of an outspoken pro-abortion professor, joining nearly a dozen bishops in calling on the historic Catholic university to back away from the controversial decision.
The controversy at Notre Dame exploded this week after Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, Bishop Kevin Rhoades on Feb. 11 expressed “dismay” and “strong opposition” to the school’s appointment of Professor Susan Ostermann as director of the school’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.
Ostermann has in the past spoken out strongly in favor of abortion and sharply criticized the pro-life movement, at times suggesting that its roots are in “white supremacy” and misogyny. Rhoades said Ostermann’s beliefs, coupled with her leadership promotion at the Catholic school, were “causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond.”
Multiple U.S. bishops from around the country backed Rhoades’s call throughout the week, with Coakley himself speaking out about the controversy on Feb. 13.
“I fully support Bishop Kevin Rhoades in his challenge to Notre Dame to rectify its poor judgement in hiring a professor who openly stands against Catholic teaching when it comes to the sanctity of life, in this case protection of the unborn,” Coakley said in a statement on X.
The statement was shared hundreds of times on X, including by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong.
Though criticism against Notre Dame’s decision has come from top Catholic leadership in the U.S. throughout the week, the school has indicated that it will be standing by its plan to have Ostermann lead the institute.
Notre Dame told EWTN News on Feb. 13 that Ostermann is “a highly regarded political scientist and legal scholar” who is “well prepared” to serve in the role.
At the same time the university stressed its “unwavering” commitment “to upholding the inherent dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life at every stage.”
Ostermann herself has told media that she “respect[s] Notre Dame’s institutional position on the sanctity of life at every stage.” She has described herself as “fully committed to maintaining an environment of academic freedom where a plurality of voices can flourish.”
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All the USCCB bishops ought to place notices in their diocesan newspapers stating very clearly:
“Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana supports and defends the hiring of professors who publicly endorse abortion. Because of this, the university is promoting practices that are contradictory to Catholic teaching. Therefore, the bishop cannot support Notre Dame as a faithful Catholic institution and I would recommend that parents NOT choose Notre Dame as a university to which to send their son or daughter.”
Deacon Edward – excellent proposal – but I will not hold my breath. Canon 808 gives bishops the authority to withdraw the title “Catholic” from a university. Again, I will not hold my breath.
Forty Days for Life begins again this week and we will pray in front of the local abortion facility again. What I expect to get from the bishops is more words.
I believe that the word abortion has lost any real impact it might have had. I have fellow parishioners who believe that there should be “exceptions.” That is, we can kill unborn babies if conceived through rape or incest. The statement attributed to Stalin is being born out – “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
What are we to do when even the pope says that if you are against abortion but in favor of deporting illegals and in favor of the death penalty you are not pro-life. He equates two prudential judgement issues with an intrinsic evil issue.
Crusader: I don’t disagree. You might agree with me, however, that we need faithful Catholic bishops (including the bishop of Rome). We need to throw the money-changers out of the temple precincts.
Scandal in the Catholic schools and colleges.
Catholic schools and colleges are now so expensive that they are serving primarily the upper classes while the poor are left in the public institutions. We must now face the possibility of scandal not only because we no longer maintain “a preferential option for the poor”, but also because the institutions do not reflect Catholic principles to help establish “the kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven”.
Avoid scandal and practice what we preach
“A preferential option for the poor” should be maintained in our Catholic Schools and colleges. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our institutions open to the poor, the Church should be ready to use its resources for something else which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a church primarily for the upper classes while leaving the poor in the public schools. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the upper classes fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools and colleges must give up general education here in the U. S. and use the resources of the Church for “Confraternity of Christian Doctrine” and other programs which can be kept open to the poor. These resources could then be used to help society become more human in solidarity with the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic Schools for centuries. It can get along without them today. The essential factor is to avoid scandal and cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition, namely, THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too, but we must avoid scandal. Let’s practice what we preach.
A parish stewardship program allows free tuition for every family participating regardless of income level.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of the poor will never qualify for ND or any other university because of the horrendous education they have received in public schools. It’s not because of ability to pay. There are scholarships for the qualified economically disadvantage students; most are untapped, unused because abysmal pre-college education. If you really want the poor to get a college education it starts with being committed to excellent education in schools that serve poor children. Some charter schools will do that, not so the regular public schools. And I wonder who is standing in the way? No, I have no doubt who “they” are. And you know who as well.
Your argument is a useless, meaningless canard.
I would actually say it starts with parents (hopefully married) who care about the education of their children.
Which Catholic University will now step up as the preeminent Church University now that Notre Dame has abandoned its faith?
No se.
Time for the laity – parents and alumni – to step up.
It was time, a long time ago.
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our Bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious.”
-Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
What is the Congregation of Holy Cross, who runs ND, doing about this matter?
Photo Bible:The women’s personal private legal right to a medical conducted human health abortion must be upheld with the women’s well being in heart and/or mind. This is the first foremost way to uphold the sanctity of a female’s life followed by dignity with respect to a woman’s family human life’s decision. Let each woman living in or outside of America decide their own path in life with or without religious concerns. The goodness offered to women by religion may not be the goodness women need in their private life.
Amen, Robert Muller.
Robert Muller: Just know that what you write does NOT harmonize with Catholic Teaching. If you do not believe all that the Catholic Church teaches, you’re not thinking as a Catholic…plain and simple. I remind you that when a non-Catholic enters the Catholic Church they are asked to assent to the statement: “I believe ALL that the Catholic Church teaches..”
What of the well being of the developing female in their mother’s womb? Women aren’t tyrants. We don’t pick & choose whose life to respect based upon a stage of life or who is the strongest. Might doesn’t equate to right.
A woman has no right whatsoever to destroy an innocent human life simply because that life is inconvenient. That’s not dignity, it’s evil.
“Plurality of voices”? No. The Church speaks with the infallible voice of God, both by reason and through Faith, that abortion is intrinsically evil and may never be done. She already is betraying the mission as are the administrators who connive at being faithful.
Fr. Dowd probably doesn’t possess the intestinal fortitude and leadership skills necessary to cancel the radical pro-abortion professor’s appointment.
Time for ND alum to cut off all donations to the University.
There’s the temptation to compare the abortion “culture of death” (and what St. John Paul II termed the “unspeakable crime” of abortion) with criminal acts addressed by the Nurnberg Tribunal for 216 days ending October 1, 1946. But, crucially distinguishing differences in the latter include the breadth of World War II atrocities, the role of established International Law in the deliberations of the Tribunal, and then the appropriateness of criminal prosecution against individuals.
But, underlying both situations—and even prior being taught by the Catholic Church—is the universal and innate/implanted Natural Law and the facticity of moral absolutes, about which: “The Church is no way the author or the arbiter of this [‘moral’] norm” (Veritatis Splendor, 1993, n. 95).
As specifically applied to Nazi Germany by the Nurnberg Tribunal, at risk therefore is not politics, but “Civilization”:
e.g., “The feeling of outrage grew in this country [the United States], and it became more and more felt that these were crimes committed against us and against the whole society of civilized nations [!] by a band of brigands who had seized the instrumentality of a state [now, academic machinery?]. I believe that those instincts of our people were right and that they should guide us as the fundamental test of criminality. We propose to punish acts which have been regarded as criminal since the time of Cain and have been so written in every civilized code” (Report to the President of the United States by Robert H. Jackson, Chief Counsel, June 7, 1945, in Robert A. Jackson, “The Nurnberg Case,” Alfred A. Knopf, 1947).
But today in academia and at the formerly Catholic Notre Dame multiversity, as in the earlier findings of the Nurnberg Tribunal— while there can be degrees of complicity, the fact of complicity is undeniable.
Cleo, I 100% agree!
It was time, a long time ago.
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our Bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious.”
-Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Leaders lead
I just finished writing a long reply. I left it here. But it was rejected. I guess because I had a lot to say about the subject, which I intend to do tonight on my Facebook posting using my Facebook name of Pedro Peter Donaldson if you’re interested in knowing of what this retired New York State educated thinks about the subject you’ve only to read it there, as I do not intend to rewrite it here. Personally, I am against abortion. But I will not force my views onto another person who is not. Doing so is selfish and undeserving about intellectual abilities. Remember in history. The Puritans left England to settle in the Netherlands for a bit, all because they did not believe in the church of England entire religious teaching. However, it turns out in the end that they were hypocrites. They wanted religious freedom themselves, but they would not allow for other others who are not of THEIR religious beliefs. Me thinks that’s the same thing is going on here.
Mr. Donaldson, Catholic universities don’t position themselves to be personally opposed to other gross human rights violations like eugenic sterilization whilst hiring faculty who publicly and whole heartedly support that.
If the human rights violation this professor publicly advocated for was segregation, state sponsored involuntary sterilizations, or denying voting rights to minorities Catholics wouldn’t be having this conversation. She would never have been hired.
Maybe it’s not only about “religious beliefs”–this thing about fetal infanticide under the euphemism of “abortion” or “freedom of choice” or whatever.
It might even have something to do with science. The Galileo thingy all over again, except now the shoe is on the other foot. And, about feet and so on, how about this “view”: https://erf.science/video/see-baby-grow/
“I just finished writing a long reply.”
A gamma wall of text?
Let’s rephrase your opening premise:
Personally, I am against murder/slavery/dogfighting/human torture [insert immoral evil here]. But I will not force my views onto another person who is not. Doing so is selfish and undeserving about intellectual abilities.
Translation: my convictions must be concealed in cowardice.
Since we’re not the compelled audience of victims you are accustomed to here, we don’t sheepishly accept pusillanimity masquerading as principle without demolishing the pretense.
Now, Mr. “retired New York State educated”, would you care to rephrase your sentence about selfishness, it makes no sense, logically or grammatically.
Also, there is no need for anybody to advocate for state sponsored involuntary sterilization as it is still legal in the United States, courtesy of Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927). While in some disrepute, it has never having been overturned. Even those who find the decision repugnant still consider Holmes a great and esteemed jurist.
paraphrasing from the movie Billie Madison:
“Mr. retired New York State educated”, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this forum is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes may well have been esteemed in other regards but Buck v. Bell was a complete tragedy. Nazi defendants on trial at Nuremberg cited Buck v. Bell in their defense.
The law was repealed in Virginia in 1974 & apologies were made to its victims in 2002. There’s an historic highway marker in VA about that.
Apparently a posted comment by”New York State educated” on previous censorship of his view by CWR was retroactively taken down.
Absolutely correct. This is not like choosing vanilla vs. strawberry ice cream. It’s murder of the innocent. Combined with her stance on Woke pathology such as white patriarchy she is an idealogue.
If (major presumption here) you have access to a dictionary, compare and contrast the words”secular school” to”Catholic school.”
We’ll wait.
To PJD – We force our views on others all the time. We force our views on murder on others and abortion is murder.
Every pr in every codex is designed to impose a prescription, limitation or proscription on people who disagree with the it. The premise that that we should not “force” views onto another person who doesn’t subscribe to a law is anarchic and absurd.
Every part.
Why bother labeling a university as Catholic if the tenets of the institution are not going to be supported by those hired to serve as administrators and staff. Allowing wolves to serve as protectorates of sheep will eventually lead to the diminishment of sheep and the multiplication of wolves either through recruitment and/or influence and dilution. What’s the old saying, if you hang with dogs you will eventually end up with fleas.
Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana has become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. God help them.
Why can’t your all powerful God speak for “himself” about abortion right now?
He did through His Son, “Let the children come to me.”
damian phang: God has spoken. He said: “Choose life.”
You should read Scripture…God’s Word..
ND Unfortunately too much damnable academic pride.
Apparently my comment about the use of birth control by Catholics to control their reproduction and the fact that many of them terminate pregnancies for understandable reasons was “deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published.”
This issue is not as simple as the CWR comments make it seem.
We need to support costs of adoptions, starting at the parish level. Especially in blue states like Mich where the lefty administrations are in play and squash public funding for such efforts.