Editor-in-Chief Michael Canady greets the incoming class of 2028
Dear Notre Dame Class of 2028,
I hope your first days on campus have been enjoyable, and that you have already become somewhat accustomed to the traditions of the university that will be your home for the next four years.
In this welcome letter, I would like to highlight one of these traditions: the Alma Mater, in which we sing, “Love Thee, Notre Dame.” Certainly, during their time at the university, most students and alumni of Notre Dame grow to “love” the school. But what does it mean to truly love an institution? When we love people, we desire their good; we sacrifice for them. At its core, this genuine love necessitates a desire to help the other achieve joy and happiness, goals which are ultimately found only in God. Thus, in the context of our love of Notre Dame, we must bring the university—Our Lady’s University—closer to God.
The Irish Rover is dedicated to this task of reminding Notre Dame of her founding principles. Established in 2003, the Rover is an independent, student-run, biweekly newspaper that seeks to facilitate one dimension of what the university desires for its community, as expressed in Notre Dame’s mission statement: “a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity.” We perform this task in our newspaper by highlighting the authentically Catholic elements of the university, while also holding the institution accountable for its deviances from Catholic teaching. Our coverage includes campus news, politics, culture, and religion—sections that illuminate the different areas of strength and weakness in the university.
Whether you knew it or not, when you set foot on Notre Dame’s campus, you walked onto a battleground. Our Lady’s University is under attack, from without and from within. Her founding principles, rooted in her character as a Catholic university, are in jeopardy. Last year alone, the Film, Television, and Theatre Department co-sponsored a drag show on campus; the Notre Dame Gender Studies Program welcomed Planned Parenthood board members and employees in a virtual panel titled “Criminalizing Reproduction”; and Notre Dame’s Student Government hosted its third annual celebration of PrideFest.
Despite these and other setbacks, the Catholic Faith is strong at Notre Dame. Daily Masses, Eucharistic Adoration, and opportunities for Confession abound. Vibrant campus clubs and organizations remain devoted to defending orthodox teaching and promoting fruitful student activities. And many students, faculty, and alumni love the university not for its occasional failure to live up to its mission, but rather for its intellectual, moral, and spiritual formation that prepares them to be a “force for good” later in their lives.
Notre Dame—and consequently, her student body—holds a unique place in our nation and in the world. Notre Dame’s academic prestige gives her a voice in the secular world, and her Catholic character completes her education to include moral and spiritual growth in addition to intellectual rigor. As stated in the new Strategic Framework, Notre Dame sees herself as “on par with but distinct from the world’s best private universities.” This reputation as a premier university is crucial to her impact on the world stage, but more importantly, Notre Dame must remain grounded in her ideal to educate the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. The university’s Mission Statement continues: “Notre Dame’s character as a Catholic academic community presupposes that no genuine search for the truth in the human or the cosmic order is alien to the life of faith.” In all academic pursuits, the university’s lodestar must be the light of the Catholic Faith, for it is through the Church that we can best love Notre Dame.
The first stanza of the Notre Dame Victory March, although lesser known than the second, also provides sound advice for how we can truly love Notre Dame. The stanza ends, “Strong of heart and true to her name / We will ne’er forget her / And will cheer her ever / Loyal to Notre Dame.” Memory and loyalty are core principles for the school, and the Irish Rover is devoted to the preservation of these ideals—memory of her traditions and loyalty to her character as a Catholic institution. We believe that a desire to preserve these principles lies at the core of a true love for the university.
This “Freshman Edition” of the Irish Rover collects articles from our archives that demonstrate our commitment to the university’s founding principles through our investigative reporting of administrative decisions, faith formation, cultural trends, the arts on campus, and much more. This edition also presents our suggestions for how to get involved in the fight to defend Notre Dame’s Catholic character through various campus organizations. In addition to participation in these clubs, I invite you to continue to look out for copies of the Irish Rover around campus as we continue our work as the watchdog of Notre Dame.
If you would like to learn more about the Rover, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at mcanady2@nd.edu. I sincerely hope that during your time at Notre Dame, you grow to truly love this great university. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us!
Sincerely,
Michael Canady
Editor-in-Chief, The Irish Rover
Photo Credit: Matthew Rice
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