Can Notre Dame Be Saved?

A few days ago we wrote of the glowing success of Bishop Kevin Rhoades, of the Ft. Wayne-South Bend diocese, in getting St. Mary's College change their minds about admitting transgender boys into the historically all-girls school. It was good news indeed.

Today's news is not so good however. It again involves the good Bishop Rhoades, however this time his concern is over the other school in his diocese; the one called Notre Dame, and he has good cause to be upset.

Notre Dame, as those who have followed the slow disintegration of a Catholic ethos in so-called Catholic institutions of higher learning, has been eager to market itself as a leading national research university instead of an institution hampered by association with the Catholic faith.

To suggest that being Catholic somehow limits one's creativity and advancement to the highest levels of academic accomplishment flies in the face of all historic reality, for it was the Catholic Church that invented the very concept of the university system; and ignores the work of Catholic scholars and scientists from Aquinas to Pascal to Descartes to Mendel to Ampere and Volta and Robert Bellarmine and John Henry Newman to Chesterton and Belloc and Fulton Sheen and Joseph Ratzinger of recent memory. These are not amatuers, but world-class scholars and timeless intellectual leaders.

But we digress. This article is not to criticize Notre Dame for disparaging its Catholic origin. It would take a much larger work to cover that adequately. No, we are today examining the school's latest dive into the moral swamp that is considered culture in our days.

An article in The Wanderer, the oldest Catholic weekly in the U.S., references a Daily Signal story that presents the details. In its hilarious attempt to appear somehow up-to-date with current cultural idiocy, the once-esteemed university hosted a program as part of its "Reproductive Justice" series that featured an "abortion doula."

"Doula" is an old Greek word for a female servant, whose typical responsibilities consisted of midwifery and assisting with care for newborns. Our modern Notre Dame-endorsed doula expands her services beyond these mundane efforts. Her specialty is to assist the potential mother in killing her unborn child. Clearly, this was something Notre Dame students needed to know about.

Bishop Rhoades rightly objected to this monstrous display and was gratuitously ignored by N.D. President Rev. John Jenkins, who evidently thought this extravaganza was a sure sign of his school's total immersion into the slime of modern day reproductive ruthlessness.

This is not the first time Bishop Rhoades has been told to mind his own business by the sassy Fr. Jenkins. And he is not the first Bishop to have to deal with this recalcitrant university.

It was the highly esteemed Fr. Ted Hesburgh who started it all. It grew out of the infamous Land O' Lakes Conference, which he hosted in the small Wisconsin town of that name back in 1967. About seven Catholic schools attended the event, which culminated in a manifesto that declared the independence of Catholic universities from "authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself." Thus were severed not only all ties to Rome, but to any influence or authority thereof.

With this as its guiding principle, Notre Dame has proceeded to market itself as a leading secular research institution with no responsibility or allegiance to the Catholic Church. It sees itself right up there with other leading institutions, such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Harvard and Yale. And prices itself accordingly.

For the privilege of attending N.D. students (or more likely their parents) will have to shell out a total of $83,271 per year for tuition, books, room and board, and other miscellaneous expenses, with expected annual increases. Of course there is a plethora of financial assistance available in the form of grants, awards and loans, some of which may even need to be repaid.

No wonder so many people are beginning to question the value of a college education. But then, at Notre Dame, for eighty-three grand you not only get a great secular education but also a doula lecture, and no itchy Catholic "well-formed conscience" to get in the way.

Our prayers are with Bishop Rhoades. He serves as an example to other church leaders of all levels who find it more comfortable to close their eyes in blind acceptance of moral disaster than to boldly proclaim the Gospel and the immutable truths that have guided Christ's Church for millennia. It may take time, but we know who will win this war!

 (Pictured is the Hesburgh library at the University of Notre Dame)