It
seems everyone is talking about yet another scandal at the University
of Notre Dame—but few acknowledge the rot that has been eating away at
most of Catholic higher education for decades!
The
woeful lack of courage to demand fidelity across all Catholic education
underscores, once again, why the mission you support through The
Cardinal Newman Society is so urgently needed.
Notre Dame recently announced the appointment of Susan Ostermann,
a professor with a long and public record of advocating for legalized
abortion, to lead the university’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian
Studies.
That’s
terrible. But the greater scandal lies in Notre Dame’s employment of
Ostermann since 2017. How many students has she misled?
In
2022, Notre Dame President Father Jenkins publicly disagreed with
Ostermann’s blatantly pro-abortion rhetoric... but did nothing to send
her packing. It was a shameful display of the University’s inability to
uphold its own claim to a Catholic mission.
Now, Father Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C., a longtime Notre Dame priest and historian, is publicly calling the new appointment a “crisis of Catholic fidelity.”
He’s quite right. And yet the crisis is nothing new.
According
to Father Miscamble and others, Ostermann has repeatedly described
abortion as “freedom-enhancing,” has accused the pro-life movement of
having “roots in white supremacy,” and has condemned pro-life crisis
pregnancy centers—despite the Church’s clear and consistent teaching on
the sacredness of every human life.
I
share this not to single out one institution, but to highlight a
broader and painful reality: the Catholic label alone does not guarantee
fidelity to the Church’s teachings and a formation that leads toward
sainthood.
Many
schools and colleges are corporately Catholic. Far fewer—especially
those designated as Newman Guide Recommended—deserve Catholic families’
tuition dollars.
For Catholic parents and grandparents trying to help young people choose schools and colleges, this creates enormous confusion.
Many
families reasonably assume that a well-known Catholic institution will
uphold Catholic moral teaching—only to discover, too late, that it does
not.
