A message from the Editor-in-Chief
A recent story about Notre Dame garnered the attention of thousands of social media users and many national news outlets, who criticized a change that university president Fr. Robert Dowd, C.S.C. had made to Notre Dame’s list of core staff values. After intense media backlash, the administration announced it would once again alter the list of core staff values in an attempt to make clear that Catholicism remains a key part of Notre Dame’s mission.
Most notable in the reversed decision was the explanation that Fr. Dowd gave to the Notre Dame community: A Catholic university should avoid giving even the perception that it is undermining Catholicism, lest it cause confusion.
Moving the mention of Catholicism from the list to the preamble and back again was not a direct violation of Catholic teaching, even if the final articulation of the value was arguably weaker and more vague. Nor was the muddled bureaucratic flip-flop the most notable scandal to take place on Our Lady’s campus.
And while we are encouraged by Fr. Dowd’s desire to avoid even the semblance of diluting Catholicism, we are also aware that the university is simultaneously still behaving in ways that are deeply contrary to its Catholic mission. These are the true scandals of the university, and they are much more serious than the latest media uproar. If, as Fr. Dowd claims, the university is committed to preserving its reputation as a distinctly Catholic institution, it must do so in all of its actions.
It must denounce and immediately suspend the use of faculty resources to provide contraceptives to students.
It must eliminate programming that either directly contradicts Catholic teachings or causes confusion, including events that celebrate sexual depravity and gender dysphoria.
It must support the spiritual formation of its students by implementing a pornography filter on campus Wi-Fi.
It must firmly censor the university-sponsored screenings of pornographic and anti-Catholic films on campus.
It must resume transparency about the ratio of Catholic faculty and work to maintain a “predominant number of Catholics,” as described in the Mission Statement.
It must wholeheartedly and unashamedly promote Catholicism in all of its admissions work with prospective students.
Finally, it must stop protecting claims of “academic freedom” when they conflict with the truths of the Catholic faith.
In Notre Dame,
Lucy Spence, Editor-in-Chief
Photo Credit: Image by the Irish Rover
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