First on the Trust’s list is Notre Dame’s decision to officially recognize the student organization PRISM-ND. “The predictable results have begun,” the Trust reported, citing Notre Dame’s “National Coming Out Day” and the increasing presence of a “gay and lesbian alumni association.” Fr. Jenkins was previously quoted by The Observer as stating that the “creation of the LGBTQ group is a big step forward” for the University.

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The Trust also pointed out how Notre Dame initially denied recognition to Students for Child Oriented Policy (SCOP), a student organization which promotes Church teaching on marriage. The organization was said to be unnecessary because its mission allegedly “closely mirrored” the mission of other existing student organizations. The decision was eventually reversed after SCOP persisted in seeking recognition.

Notre Dame’s appointment to the board of trustees of an alumna who publicly supported the HHS mandate, which the Newman Society revealed in May, was also cited. The alumna in question, Katie Washington, co-wrote an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun criticizing opposition to the mandate. She called universal contraceptive access “a matter of reproductive justice.”

Then, in September, it was reported how the University decided to cover contraceptives and abortifacients when it renewed its student health insurance plan. The move was heavily criticized by the Sycamore Trust as potentially undermining the University’s lawsuit against the HHS mandate.

Finally, the Trust noted Notre Dame’s decision to extend benefits to same-sex spouses of employees, a move which earned the University additional criticism over its seemingly “easy compliance,” as reported in October. “By rewarding and encouraging gravely immoral sexual unions, the university has again opened a public breach with its bishop, the Most Reverend Kevin Rhoades,” the Trust reported.

The Trust also observed that if Notre Dame’s Catholic identity is to be salvaged, the administration must hire more faithfully Catholic faculty. The Trust quoted Notre Dame professor Dr. Walter Nicgorski,who reportedly stated that a student studying at Notre Dame “might not encounter a practicing Catholic informed and engaged by the Catholic intellectual tradition.”

“The administration will be satisfied if dedicated Catholics continue to constitute but a relatively small minority of the faculty,” the Trust contended, adding that the weakened representation of Catholic faculty “not only vitiates Notre Dame’s claim to Catholic identity but is also the seedbed for the sort of lamentable actions we summarized at the start of this report.”

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Authored by Kimberly Scharfenberger
Originally published here by Catholic Education Daily, an online publication of The Cardinal Newman Society