Notre Dame’s Catholic Identity

Richard A. Sokerka

In an audience with members of the board of trustees of the University of Notre Dame in Rome last year, Pope Francis told them that Catholic universities must give “uncompromising” and “unambiguous” witness to Church teaching and defend themselves from all efforts to dilute their Catholic identity.

Catholic identity and missionary discipleship are critical, the pope said, and need to be evident in the way Catholics live and in the workings of all Catholic institutions.

Catholic universities play a special role in being faithful missionaries of the Gospel because of their commitment to showing the compatibility of faith and reason, and showing how the Christian message offers people a fuller, more authentic human life, he said.

“Essential in this regard is the uncompromising witness of Catholic universities to the Church’s moral teaching, and the defense of her freedom, precisely in and through her institutions, to uphold that teaching as authoritatively proclaimed by the magisterium,” he said.

The pope’s words came long after a heated debate about maintaining the Catholic identity of U.S. Catholic colleges erupted in 2009 when Notre Dame’s president, Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, invited President Obama to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary law degree. Several U.S. bishops said Obama’s support of abortion and embryonic stem-cell research made him an inappropriate choice to be commencement speaker at a Catholic university, let alone receive an honorary degree. But their criticism fell on deaf ears.

The pope’s words ring hollow at Notre Dame still today where recent events call into question Notre Dame’s Catholic identity.

At this year’s commencement, Father Jenkins presented the Laetare Medal, given annually to an American Catholic “in recognition of outstanding service to the Church and society” to Vice President Joseph Biden, a Catholic, who supports abortion and was at the forefront of the Obama’s administration’s push to legalize “same-sex” marriage. Giving the award to Biden drew objections from the local ordinary, faculty, students and alumni. Again Father Jenkins turned a deaf ear.

This past month, with the full support of Father Jenkins, who made introductory remarks, Notre Dame welcomed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — a longtime champion of the right to abortion and same-sex marriage and opponent of religious liberty — to campus to “celebrate” her career.

Pro-life publications condemned Ginsberg’s appearance, calling it another assault on Notre Dame’s Catholic character. Once again Father Jenkins turned a deaf ear.

It seems these days that the only one more beleaguered than Notre Dame’s president among alumni and the faithful is the football team’s coach, who had to fire his defensive coordinator for doing a poor job.

We ask Father Jenkins not to let the pope’s words ring hollow in his heart and to act to uphold Notre Dame’s Catholic identity at every instance. We also ask the board of trustees, who heard the words of Pope Francis, to remember that they must always maintain Notre Dame’s “Catholic identity” at every turn.