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The school has been under sustained criticism since it announced in January that Professor Susan Ostermann would be installed as director of the school’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.
Ostermann has spoken out in the past in favor of abortion and has criticized the pro-life movement, at times linking it to “white supremacy” and misogyny. Presently an associate professor of global affairs, Ostermann’s leadership of the Liu Institute is set to start on July 1.
Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, Bishop Kevin Rhoades — whose territory includes the university — touched off the criticism of the school on Feb. 11 when he expressed “dismay” and “strong opposition” to the appointment. Rhoades urged the school to “rectify this situation” and rescind the appointment.
More criticism from U.S. bishops followed, including from Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila, Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, and Archbishop Paul Coakley, who serves as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops .
Amid the backlash, the university has signaled that it will stick with its appointment of Ostermann, whom it described as “well-prepared” to lead the institute.
‘Scandalous decision by Notre Dame’
Though the school has indicated that it will not back down from the appointment, U.S. bishops have continued to urge the school to withdraw the leadership offer to Ostermann.
Springfield, Illinois Bishop Thomas Paprocki on Feb. 17 described the school’s decision as “scandalous,” pointing to what he said was Ostermann’s “public record of radical advocacy that is fundamentally opposed to the dignity of human life.”
The school’s decision is “incompatible with the mission and moral witness Notre Dame claims to uphold,” Paprocki said, arguing that the appointment “causes confusion among the faithful and undermines the Church’s consistent ethic of life, which is central to Catholic social teaching.”
Paprocki said he joined Rhoades “in urging the University of Notre Dame to reverse this appointment and to reaffirm, in both word and deed, its commitment to authentic Catholic education and witness.”
Retired New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan, meanwhile, told EWTN News that he agreed “heartily” with his brother bishops in their criticism of the historic Catholic university’s decision.
“Notre Dame is a light to the world, as salt to the earth, to use the words of Jesus,” he told “EWTN News in Depth” national correspondent Mark Irons.
“And it stands, again, for that double pillar of Catholic social justice, the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life,” the cardinal said. “Anything that any university, particularly a prominent Catholic one, would do to dull that light to the world, we shouldn’t do.”
Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge also echoed criticisms of Notre Dame in the Feb. 17 episode of the diocesan podcast “Walk Humbly.”
Burbidge described the appointment as “very unsettling and very disappointing.” He said Ostermann’s views on abortion are “simply incompatible … with the mission of the Catholic Church” and with Notre Dame.
“Her views … are in direct opposition to the Church’s teaching [that] every human life from the moment of conception needs to be protected, welcomed, and celebrated. The consistent ethic of life demands we defend the vulnerable without compromise,” he said.
Burbidge urged the faithful to pray that the school rescinds the appointment. “It’s not a question of academic freedom. It’s a question of the mission and identity of Notre Dame,” he said.
Ostermann herself has remained out of the media amid the ongoing criticism. The professor told the National Catholic Register in January that she “respect[s] Notre Dame’s institutional position on the sanctity of life at every stage.”
She described herself as “inspired by the university’s focus on integral human development, which calls us to promote the dignity and flourishing of every person.”
Asked in February for comment amid the backlash from U.S. bishops, Ostermann reiterated her statement via a university spokesperson.
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If the bishops are serious, there are firm actions they can take. They can call on alumni to cease all donations until the woman is gone. The local bishop can withdraw faculties from the Holy Cross priest who presides over the University and any other priest at ND who supports the hire. They can persuade the Holy Cross order to re-assign the ND president to duties elsewhere.
Or they can go on wagging their fingers and the donations will keep rolling in and of course there’s always Touchdown Jesus next autumn. The whole situation is a microcosm of the US Church at large, nice words here and there, a remnant of faithful, serious Catholics, and a majority of Catholics in the pews who support pro-abortion politicians but cheer those ND teams with all their hearts.
Sadly, self-annointed elitists, as academics and university administrators tend to be, will likely dig in their heels rather than concede their concessions to evil.
An apt description of what “being Catholic” has come to mean in the last 50 years.
Mark is correct – action needs to be taken.
Cardinal Dolan’s statement that, “Notre Dame is a light to the world, as salt to the earth, to use the words of Jesus,” Is about as out of place as you can get, given the circumstances. This is not a one off action by Notre Dame, but a continuation of similar acts.
I hope that I am wrong, and I will apologize if I am, but I believe that six months from now Ostermann will still be in place, the bishops’ objections will have blown over and it will be football season and Go Fighting Irish.
At the very least, the Notres ought to change the name of their institution.
Seriously.
Our poor Mother Mary did nothing to deserve being associated with the greatest holocaust humanity has ever suffered.
Agree 100%.
If NDU incorporated had even one ounce of “authenticity,” they’d own up to their junk and just dump Jesus…he’s yesterday’s news to them.
Let them pray to their one true God: their occult Mistress Pachamama.
“Touchdown Jesus” is blasphemy.
We read: “[Osterman] described herself as ‘inspired by the university’s focus on integral human development, which calls us to promote the dignity and flourishing of every person’.” A truncated definition— replacing “every person and the whole [!] person.”
Instead, the camel’s nose under the tent….
In time will we likely learn from academia that the whole Triune One, too, has been displaced even at Notre Dame by the techy pagan triad: techy contraceptive pills, then techy abortive mifepristone pills (etc!), and then techy Physician Assisted Suicide pills? About continental Asia, well, a sort of Chinese water torture imposed one dose at a time— as was marketed under the 19th-century Opium Wars.
And, broadly about real “integral human development,” well, soon to be fully redefined as the (w)holism of every digital nonentity “flourishing” or not, at every arbitrary life-stage in the dark shadow of peer-approved Technocracy.
Dilution of your brand never works out.
ND might be conspiring with Satan but they do have one helluva football program. The trade-off is certainly worth it.