Advise White House on religious freedom, executive actions.
Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese and Gerard Bradley, Professor Emeritus of Law at Notre Dame, were named advisors to the White House’s Religious Liberty Commission on May 16, 2025. Bp. Rhoades is one of eleven on the Advisory Board of Religious Leaders, and Bradley is one of six on the Advisory Board of Legal Experts. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1, establishing the commission under the Department of Justice as part of his ongoing directives with the White House Faith Office.
According to the official website of the White House, “The Commission is tasked with producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.”
Bp. Rhoades has served as the Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, which includes Notre Dame, since 2009. He is also an active member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and has chaired its committees on doctrine and family life.
Bp. Rhoades has had significant involvement in Notre Dame’s campus community. In 2016, when the university honored then-Vice President Joe Biden with its Laetare Medal honor, Rhoades notably criticized the decision to honor a “a ‘pro-choice’ Catholic who also has supported the redefinition of marriage.”
In 2023, he publicly condemned the “Reproductive Rights” lecture series that was organized by Notre Dame’s Gender Studies Program, criticizing their promotion of homosexuality and transgenderism on campus. Finally, last year, Rhoades spoke out against Saint Mary’s College’s proposed plan to admit biological males into the university.
In response to being named to the advisory board of the commission, Bp. Rhoades issued a statement on his Facebook page, writing, “As chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty, I’ve been invited to serve, alongside others, on the advisory board of the newly established Religious Liberty Commission. This commission will offer guidance to the White House’s Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council. Please keep this important work in your prayers.”
Along with Bp. Rhoades, there are three other Catholics on the Advisory Board of Religious Leaders, including Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois.
For his part, Gerard Bradley has been involved in Notre Dame’s Law School since 1992 where he taught Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law until he became Professor Emeritus in 2024. According to the website of Notre Dame’s Law School, Bradley was a fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute at Princeton. He was also the president of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars for several years and previously served as a faculty advisor for the Rover. Last year, the law school held a conference honoring Bradley following his retirement that featured many events discussing religious liberty in America and the role of Catholicism in American politics.
Bradley, in his address concerning his involvement with the commission, also commented on the characteristics of the First Amendment and the notion of “separation of church and state” in the context of the intentions of our Founding Fathers. Particularly, he wrote, “Unlike most free societies after theirs, our founders did not secure religious liberty by erecting what Richard John Neuhaus dubbed the ‘naked public square,’ a secularized space from which religion is banished. The idea here is political prosperity without religion [sic].”
Bradley’s colleague, Notre Dame Professor of Political Science Daniel Philpott, shared his reaction to Bradley’s appointment with the Rover, stating, “I can think of few better colleagues to be advising the U.S. government on the rightful role of religious liberty in our law and our politics than Gerry Bradley. He is an ardent defender of religious liberty but also one of the most insightful scholars of the best defense of religious liberty, philosophically and constitutionally. He understands that secular jurisprudence has threatened religious liberty in the past seven decades or so and that this secularism is not at all neutral, but he also crafts a basis for religious liberty in shared principles that conform to right reason and are fair to all.”
Notre Dame students generally reacted positively to news of the appointments of BP Rhoades and Bradley to the commission. One male student from Morissey Hall told the Rover, “It’s good that someone of the religious order is being appointed to an office of political influence. Many people across the country have this idea of trying to completely separate church and state, but I feel like those invariably have to be reconciled in some way if we want to improve the world around us.”
On the other hand, a female student residing in Cavanaugh Hall, expressed contrasting sentiments on the commission, stating, “I think [the commission] is great for the First Amendment. We need the church and state separated, but we also need government institutions to make sure that both religious and non-religious practices are not favored over another and we need programs that make sure everyone’s voices are heard.”
Some expressed excitement more specifically at the prospect of Notre Dame being represented at such a high level of government. A junior from Cavanaugh Hall told the Rover, “I think the Bishop’s involvement with the commission can bring national awareness to our Catholic student-body and Notre Dame’s academic values. I think the government is impacting how schooling is performed for those growing-up now and that can direct many people to come here.”
A male student from Siegfried Hall explained, “I think it’s great that people involved with our school are a part of an institution that is making a legitimate improvement in our country. … It shows how people here genuinely care about changing the world.”
Raymond Webber is a sophomore philosophy major. His favorite hobby is using Saint Thomas Aquinas to defeat Protestants in religious debates. Contact him at rwebber2@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons and ND Law School
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