Guest Post: THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS

 by James M. Thunder  

published in The Narthex, blog of New Oxford Review, in four parts Feb. 24, March 8, 11 and 13
Part 1: Notre Dame: The Good News & the Bad News | New Oxford Review

Folks, the good news out of Notre Dame is shockingly good. The bad news out of Notre Dame is shockingly bad. I’ll start with the bad.

On January 8, 2026, Notre Dame issued a press release announcing that a professor, Susan Ostermann, was being appointed, effective July 1, as director of the Liu Institute. Because of her public and persistent pro-abortion views, this appointment has been met with objections by:

Sunday Meditation a Day Early: When God Sends you three feet of snow.....

We all know the saying, "When life gives you lemons make lemonade." Well...two students at Notre Dame decided that three feet of snow from the heavens was an invitation. They accepted and created something beautiful for God, an ice chapel. 

For Shame, for Shame, Notre Dame

And double shame for the bishops who met in Baltimore this week. When will you free us from the scourge of bad university presidents and wolfish bishops, Lord?

First Notre Dame

Is there anything shameful the administration at Notre Dame won't do? They gave Barack Obama, the most pro-abortion, divisive, bigoted president in history (Am I exaggerating?) an honorary law degree and the privilege of being their 2009 commencement speaker. Obama's entourage met a crowd of protesters including a friend of mine who was arrested and had to spend the next year traveling back and forth from Texas to deal with the draconian tactics used against those arrested some of whom weren't even on campus. President John Jenkins, the baby-faced villain of that debacle is gone, but Notre Dame continues on its pathetic and anti-Catholic trajectory.

Would you give to the restoration of Notre Dame without knowing what you'll get?

Donations are pouring in to repair Notre Dame. What can we expect from a secular government?
Already, voices clamor for something completely new that fits the France of today. Ah...the hubris of progressives who happily throw away the past!

That thought leads to some troubling speculations. Will Notre Dame become a multi-cultural center? Or will it be designed with architecture that celebrates Islam? Will the "new" church really be Notre Dame rebuilt, the great gothic cathedral erected over hundreds of years by the faithful? Or will it be something strange? And even possibly a monument to the spirit of the world?

Will the new Notre Dame resemble the glorious old as we see her here?

Guest Post: Book Review of “American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh,” by Rev. Wilson Miscamble

FATHER HESBURGH OF NOTRE DAME:

ATTEMPTING TO MAKE A GREAT CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

WHILE RIDING THE TIGER

by James M. Thunder*

*The author is a Washington, D.C., attorney. He double-majored in theology and government at Notre Dame. He has written articles online severely critical of the Catholic nature of Notre Dame’s current president.

We shall always hope to find them [newly-free countries] strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

       President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961

Fr. Hesburgh rode the back of the tiger. Did he end up inside? Father Wilson D. (“Bill”) Miscamble has authored the 400-page biography, American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Fr. Hesburgh (Image) that answers this question in the affirmative.

Guess Who's Leading Notre Dame's Delegation to the March for Life

What St. Nicholas would do to Fr. Jenkins!

...President John Jenkins, cheerleader for Barack Obama, the most pro-abortion president in history!

Yup, Fr. Jenkins in his philacteries and bells is leading Notre Dame's delegation to the March for Life.

This is the same Fr. Jenkins who made a point of crucifying pro-lifers who protested Notre Dame honoring Obama.  And if that doesn't make his presence the hypocrisy of the year, he is also responsible for making sure that faculty and students can kill babies in the womb with abortifacient birth control provided in the school's health plan.

Just Because the Mouse is in the Cookie Jar Doesn't Make Him a Cookie....

Isn't that Fr. Jenkins on the left?

....and calling yourself a Catholic University sure doesn't make you one!

As my mom used to say, "Actions speak louder than words!" and Notre Dame buried its Catholic identity a long time ago. Theodore Hesburgh was the chief grave digger, but current president Fr. John Jenkins has picked up the shovel and continues digging with enthusiasm.

You remember Fr. Jenkins, right? He's the  university head bureaucrat who gushed and drooled over Obama at the 2009 graduation while he targeted real Catholics for protesting and carrying signs on campus. Can't let those rigid, fanatical Catholics who actually believe what the Church teaches rain on his parade, right?

Pope Francis and Notre Dame

So...what does the pope really think of Notre Dame? Is there any hope for Catholic higher education in the U.S. outside of a handful of orthodox colleges and universities?

Using "Civility" to Silence Debate

It is, in fact, a liberal policy to accuse anyone who disagrees with a liberal position of "incivility" and intolerance. That done, the liberal follows up by calling names and demanding punishment for the perpetrator of the "incivility." Fr. William Miscamble, a professor at Notre Dame, pegged the falseness of the incivility gambit in an article in the Irish Rover last October. As an example, he used the response of some Notre Dame professors who attacked Bishop  Daniel Jenky of Peoria and demanded his ouster from the Notre Dame board of trustees after he wrote about the Obama administrations's assault on religious freedom. Here's that particular section from Fr. Miscamble's article, but I recommend you read the rest:

Tribute to Fr. Norman Weslin

From Fr. Gordon MacRae

Interesting follow-up to the Offensive Doritos Ad Submitted to the Super Bowl Contest

It didn't make the cut for top ten Super Bowl ads submitted and, according to this article, the producer pulled it when the fat hit the fan. I was interested to see that the actor who thought it up is a Catholic and a Notre Dame graduate. Perhaps that explains his being clueless that ridiculing Holy Communion could actually tick people off. Of course Notre Dame these days hardly deserves to be called Catholic so one can understand the confusion of one of its graduates. But at least he had the courtesy to apologize and recognize that some jokes aren't funny.

Shepherds' Crooks or Wet Noodles for the Bishops?

The bishops are meeting in San Antonio and Bishop Gerald Kicanis of Tucson, Vice President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), says there will be no action taken against Notre Dame for honoring abortion extremist Barack Obama. Are we surprised? The bishops who have the responsibility to teach are doing a great job of it. The question is -- What are they teaching?

And here's the answer:

1) That what they say doesn't mean a thing. Faithful Citizenship is a joke. So are statements that pro-abortion Catholic politicians should not receive Communion. Most of the bishops are like parents who threaten and threaten and threaten their disobedient children and never exact a consequence when their children defy them. All the rebel "Catholic" schools know that the bishops will never implement Church teaching: neither Vatican documents like Ex Corde Ecclesiae that require Catholic colleges to defend and uphold the faith nor their own statements. Most of the bishops might as well carry wet noodles instead of their shepherds' crooks. They will never use them to catch the wayward sheep about to plunge over the cliff of moral destruction. What happened to the 80+ bishops who spoke out against Notre Dame's action? Will any of them stand up now to say the bishops should act? Don't hold your breath. And if there is a motion from the floor, chances are it will be at a closed meeting, quickly voted down, and no one outside will ever know. Because the bishops do business -- in secret.

2) That the bishops are politicians, not shepherds. Read the answers by both Bishop Kicanis and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry of Los Angeles, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education when asked by reporter John Allen if there would be sanctions against Notre Dame. Their weasle words could have come from the mouth of a political hack who cares about nothing but his seat in the next election and won't say anything substantive that might endanger it. Which is ironic because these men aren't elected. They are supposed to be apostles. Remember those fellas? Peter who was crucified upside down, Andrew crucified on an X-shaped cross, James the Greater beheaded in Jerusalem, James the Less thrown from the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and then stoned to death.... Where are our apostolic shepherds?

3) That the flock have little hope that the bishops will teach the fullness of the truth which is their calling. Many bishops are quicker to criticize orthodox laity for being mean or engaging in street theatre or running ads critical of the bishops than in correcting the egregious scandals of their brethren or institutions like Notre Dame. Father Jenkins, President of Notre Dame, is like the operator of a wolf petting zoo. And the bishops who should vigorously oppose him, pat the little ones on the head as they go through the gate. How many of our children have lost their faith at Notre Dame, Georgetown, Creighton, and other "Catholic" schools? How many parents paid dearly for their children's "tickets" to play with the wolves. And how many bishops will answer for the scandals they refused to correct? Surely, St. Peter has many millstones lined up near God's judgment seat for bishops who failed to teach the truth.

PRAY FOR BISHOPS!

Does Academic Freedom Exist at Notre Dame?

We constantly hear those at so-called Catholic colleges demanding the "academic freedom" to feature the enemies of the Church on campus. These champions of "free speech" like to demonize those who dare to suggest that Catholic schools shouldn't give a podium to those who advocate killing the unborn, advancing same-sex marriage, and espouse views totally at odds with the Catholic faith.

But do these apostles of liberalism follow their own pious statements? Not if Notre Dame is typical which seems likely. Check out Were Views of Pro-Life Notre Dame Officials, Professors Suppressed on Obama? There appears to be an "atmosphere of intimidation" on the campus according to anonymous staff and professors who fear retaliation if they speak out. The article's author asks the question, "If this is happening at Notre Dame, then at what other Catholic universities and colleges is this also occurring? And isn’t this just the sort of pressure to conform that mars many secular universities, leading one to wonder: what is now distinctive about the intellectual atmosphere at University of Notre Dame, or any number of other Catholic schools?"

Good question, which is why new, small orthodox schools are popping up around the country. See the Cardinal Newman Society for information on solid Catholic colleges.

Fr. Jenkins' Abortion Connections

For those who missed the Washington Times editorial that included Fr. Jenkins' abortion connection here it is, from Booing Notre Dame. (No wonder Fr. Jenkins "refused comment."):

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, remains defiant about honoring Mr. Obama and said last month, "We're just so proud to have him." The priest's own associations place him further at odds with his church. Father Jenkins is a member of the board of directors of Millennium Promise, an organization ostensibly organized to fight poverty. A closer look exposes a darker agenda. One of Millennium Promise's major initiatives is Millennium Villages, a joint project with the United Nations Development Program and Columbia University's Earth Institute that promotes "reproductive rights" as a solution to poverty in the Third World, especially in Africa.

In a chapter on "Maternal and Child Health" in the June 2008 Millennium Villages Handbook, one of the organization's "core interventions" is listed as "abortion services." The handbook states: "In countries where abortion is legal, safe abortion services in controlled settings by skilled practitioners should be established." To make abortion more accessible in remote areas, the action plan advises that abortion services need to be expanded to the village level. In a subsection of the handbook titled "Quick Impact Initiatives for Gender," one of the "strategic priorities" is to "expand access to family planning and contraceptive information and services." Father Jenkins refused to comment to The Washington Times, but surely he knows that abortion and artificial contraceptives are prohibited by the Catholic Church.

Holy Cross Fr. Wilson Miscamble Speaks to the Graduates at Notre Dame Response Alternative Commencement

NOTRE DAME, HOW FAR YOU'VE FALLEN. Pray for the intercession of the school's founder, Fr. Edward Sorin, and for Our Blessed Mother's in whose name she stands.


True friends of Notre Dame --I thank you for your presence.

I want to thank especially our treasured students in ND Response for inviting me to be with you. It is a great privilege and honor. As I look out on the good and decent people gathered here, I know one thing: There is no place I would rather be.

I have been a teacher at Notre Dame for more than two decades. But today I come before you primarily as a Holy Cross priest – a member of the Religious Order that founded Notre Dame more than a century and half ago.

On November 26, 1842, an extraordinary French priest named Edward Sorin and a small band of Holy Cross brothers arrived at this site – a place where French missionaries had once ministered to the Potawatomi Indians. Fr. Sorin christened the place Notre Dame du Lac. He and his Holy Cross confreres began the work of building a college with a small log chapel as their point of departure. They aimed to serve Christ here. And they sought to evangelize in His name under the patronage of the Blessed Mother. When the young priest wrote home to his superior – Fr. Basil Moreau, the founder of the Holy Cross Order – he put it this way: Here in northern Indiana, he said, he hoped to establish “one of the most powerful means for good in this country.” Since then, the university has prospered....

Now friends, jump ahead to today. The formal leadership of the University still proclaims its fidelity to this vision.

--University leaders assert that Notre Dame is and will be different, so that it can make a difference;

--University leaders assure the parents of incoming freshmen that Notre Dame won’t be like those ‘other’ schools that merely associate themselves with a Catholic or Jesuit ‘tradition’. NO! – to the contrary – here at Notre Dame, their children will find an institution unashamedly Catholic and willing to embrace all the tenets of our faith. Notre Dame will instruct its students in the Church’s moral truths and in its foundational beliefs and principles.

Of late, that rhetoric seems to ring rather hollow. The words have not been matched by deeds. Instead of fostering the moral development of its students Notre Dame’s leaders have planted the damaging seeds of moral confusion.

By honoring President Obama, the Notre Dame Administration has let the students and their parents down. And it has betrayed the loyal and faith-filled alumni who rely on Notre Dame to stand firm on matters of fundamental Catholic teaching – and so to affirm the sanctity of life....

Friends, just ask yourselves whether anyone – regardless of their other accomplishments

– would be honored here at ND if they held racist or anti-Semitic sentiments. They would not – and rightly so! Yet Notre Dame honors at this Commencement a politician who readily proclaims his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and who is clearly the most radically pro-abortion president in this great nation’s history.

As you know well, Notre Dame undertook this sad action in the face of the 2004 instruction of the U.S. Catholic Bishops that “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.” In so doing, the administration has distanced the University from the Church that is its lifeblood – the ultimate source of its identity.

A number of my fellow Holy Cross priests and I believe that such a “distancing puts at risk the true soul of Notre Dame.” Regrettably, this distancing also puts Notre Dame in the service of those who seek to damage the teaching authority of our Bishops. What a sad circumstance for an institution that should stand at the very heart of the Church.

Read Father's complete address.

Another Catholic College President Spouts Hypocrisy

Patricia McGuire, President of Trinity University in Washington, D.C., is embarrassed by the "ugly spectacle" of "Catholic vigilantes" threatening "a half-century of progress for Catholic education" and taking us back to "those insular, parochial pre-Vatican II days" when "academic freedom was not valued within the Catholic Church." Her rant accuses those who protested Obama being honored at Notre Dame of having faces "distorted in the snarl of hatred."

Notre Dame's Honorary Doctorate, a Breathtaking Hypocrisy!

On Sunday Notre Dame confers on President Obama an honorary Doctor of Law degree. The degree reads as follows with my comments in parens:

At the 164th Commencement The May Exercises The University of Notre Dame Confers the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on the 44th president of the United States, whose historic election opened a new era of hope in a country long divided by its history of slavery and racism.

[Actually the election opened a new era of despair for the unborn and other weak and vulnerable Americans. Obama has expanded abortion both here and abroad, has advanced the movement to create and cannabalize babies for their stem cells, and is promoting health care rationing that will devalue the lives of the sick and the elderly. The "new era of hope" is a myth. The country is more divided than ever according to a Pew Research Survey. The administration is also, through its economic actions, creating a country of wage slaves that include not only current generations of workers, but several generations yet unborn who will inherit the monumental debt which Obama has tripled in only a few months in office. Obama has united one group, the mainstream media who slaver over the first couple. As far as American citizens are concerned the country is more polarized than in the past 40 years.]

A community organizer who honed his advocacy for the poor, the marginalized and the worker in the streets of Chicago, he now organizes a larger community, bringing to the world stage a renewed American dedication to diplomacy and dialogue with all nations and religions committed to human rights and the global common good.

[There is no doubt that Obama honed his political skills in the corrupt Chicago political machine. As for defending "human rights"...the first human right is the right to life. Abortion preys on the "poor" and "marginalized" who are targeted by organizations like Planned Parenthood. Obama's "dialogue" with foreign leaders has primarily been a sacrifice of American interests while the media focuses on Michelle's wardrobe. And what exactly has the president done to advance the "global common good?" Notre Dame's hyperbolic rhetoric is just that. President Obama has yet to illustrate any contributions to the country or the world which is why Arizona State University had the sense not to give him an honorary doctorate.]

Through his willingness to engage with those who disagree with him and encourage people of faith to bring their beliefs to the public debate, he is inspiring this nation to heal its divisions of religion, culture, race and politics in the audacious hope for a brighter tomorrow. On Barack H. Obama, Washington, District of Columbia

[This is pure rubbish. As Cardinal George pointed out after his meeting with the president, Obama verbally agrees with you while standing for precisely the opposite of your position. He has created the impression of a divided Catholic Church by using the enemies within, like Doug Kmiec and other Catholic quislings, to give the impression he has Catholic support. Among the orthodox who stand for the doctrines of the Church he has little, if any. As Michael Voris of Real Catholic TV says, he wants to neutralize the Church which is the only real opponent standing against his anti-life agenda.]

Notre Dame's actions are reprehensible. The words of their honorary doctorate are so patently dishonest and hypocritical they're breathtaking. God bless the seniors who will skip their own graduation and participate in the alternative on campus this Sunday. Please join them spiritually in praying the rosary for the restoration of a once great school dedicated to the Mother of God.

Activity at Notre Dame heats up!

Notre Dame is becoming ground zero in the battle between Catholicism and secularism in this country.

Notre Dame Response, the student group organizing against Obama's presence, will have a demonstration on commencement day from 10 AM to 4 PM and invites others to attend. They are also calling for a million rosaries for President Obama before commencement. Support their efforts!

Meanwhile, the Center for Bioethical Reform is driving truth trucks and conducting flyovers with huge photos of aborted babies. Their campaign to inform Notre Dame students and the community of South Bend is serious. A portion of their press release reads:
In response to the decision by the University of Notre Dame to honor Barack
Obama, America’s first infanticide-supporting president, with an honorary degree and an invitation to deliver their 2009 commencement address, The Center For Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) will immediately begin displaying large abortion photos on the sides and backs of a fleet of billboard trucks which will operate in the South Bend area between now and the conclusion of graduation ceremonies. The signs link Mr. Obama to his obsessively pro-abortion policies.
CBR will also display large, hand-held signs, which will graphically emphasize the same linkage along all routes leading to the school. Because the pro-life community at Notre Dame has relentlessly covered-up the horror of abortion, CBR has decided to fly enormous, aerial billboards over the campus. If the Secret Service and the Federal Aviation Administration impose Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) for a longer period than is typical for a presidential appearance, or which restrict more airspace than is typical for a presidential appearance, CBR will also fly its aircraft at Notre Dame during the fall semester, 2009, during an aerial campaign which will last far longer than is typical for a presidential appearance.

Support CBR with a donation.

Sixty-two American bishops have now spoken out against Notre Dame's decision to invite President Obama to commencement and confer an honorary Doctor of Law degree. The Cardinal Newman Society has gathered over 350,000 names on a petition calling on Notre Dame to "halt this travesty." .

The storm at Notre Dame is a direct clash between the culture of life and the culture of death. Take action by
1) Contacting Fr. Jenkins: Call him at 574.631.5000, fax him at 574.631.2770, write a personal email president@nd.edu, or mail your letter to 400 Main Building, Notre Dame, IN 46556,
2) Signing the petition
3) Supporting the groups that are rallying to expose the horror of what President Obama stands for.

My own personal question for Fr. Jenkins: "How many babies aborted during this administration would be Notre Dame applicants in 2027 and beyond?" For a college president to give a platform to a man dedicated to killing future students at Notre Dame and elsewhere is both evil and insane.

Breaking News...Mary Ann Glendon declines Notre Dame Award

Kudos to Mary Ann Glendon, Ambassador to the Vatican from 2007 to 2009, who sent the following letter to President of Notre Dame, Fr. John Jenkins. This is one lady who not only has class but courage. God bless her!

April 27, 2009
The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
University of Notre Dame

Dear Father Jenkins,

When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame’s most memorable commencement speeches. So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.
Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors. Read more...

Visit Professor Glendon's webpage and I offer her contact information below for those who want to send her a thank you note! It might be nice to include a spiritual bouquet.

Mary Ann Glendon
Learned Hand Professor of Law
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA 02138
Secretary: Susan Norton (617)496-2609
Fax: (617)496-4913
Email: glendon@glendonbooks.com

Bishop D'Arcy corrects Fr. Jenkins

As the scandal at Notre Dame continues, Fr. John Jenkins just digs himself a deeper and deeper hole. Over 300,000 concerned faithful have signed the petition at the Cardinal Newman Society website calling for revocation of the invitation to President Obama. That he is being given an honorary Law Degree is especially scandalous in view of his promoting laws that directly attack the innocent unborn. Isn't that like giving an honorary degree to a member of the KKK who supported enslavement of black Americans?

Bishop John D'Arcy, under whose jurisdiction Notre Dame is located, issued a stinging rebuke correcting and clarifying Fr. Jenkins' scandalous words. Let us pray he takes the bishop's words to heart. Up to now he's given the the verbal equivalent of the single digit salute to his critics. But no one is beyond the reach of prayer, so I urge readers to offer the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for this university president who appears to care more for the opinion of the world's high and mighty than for the Master he was ordained to serve.