Folks, the good news out of the University 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 announced that a professor, Susan Ostermann, is being appointed, effective July 1, as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies (see the press release here).

Because of her public and persistent pro-abortion views, this appointment has been met with objections by:

• The local bishop, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. (Today’s Catholic (diocesan newspaper), Feb. 11, 2026)
• Father Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C., retired professor of history, former chairman of the Department of History, and former superior of the Congregation of Holy Cross’ Moreau Seminary (“A Crisis of Catholic Fidelity at Notre Dame,” First Things, Jan. 28, 2026)
• Lucy Spence, editor-in-chief of Notre Dame’s The Irish Rover, who appeared on EWTN
• The 700-member Notre Dame Students for Life, including its president, Anna Kelley, who survived China’s one-child abortion policy and who appeared on Arroyo’s World Over Live on February 5 (see EWTN report)
• Bishop Robert Barron of Word on Fire and bishop of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, a one-time student at Notre Dame
• Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
• and more bishops and laymen

In response, thus far Notre Dame has doubled down and repeated the professor’s (undisputed) academic qualifications (see Matthew McDonald, “Notre Dame Affirms Appointment of Abortion Advocate to Prominent Post,” National Catholic Register, Jan. 29, 2026). And no announcement was made after a regular meeting of the university’s Board of Trustees February 4-5 in Naples, Florida (Lucy Spence, “Notre Dame Maintains Support for Ostermann Appointment,” Irish Rover, Feb. 11, 2026).

Ostermann’s promotion was approved by Mary Gallagher, dean of Keough School of Global Affairs, who came to Notre Dame from the University of Michigan July 1, 2024, and John T. McGreevy, provost, a 1986 graduate and former dean of the College of Arts and Letters from 2008-2018 (Official university biography). The role of Father Robert C. Dowd, C.S.C., president of the university since 2024, has not been described. He at least implicitly approved Ostermann’s promotion.

This failure by Notre Dame has occurred at the highest levels — its Board of Trustees, its presidents, its provost — and these failures have been replayed time and again for over 20 years. (Below I submit a chronological list of issues Notre Dame has had since 2006.) It must never happen again. Whatever it takes, whatever money it takes, Ostermann, Gallagher, and McGreevy must be dismissed to demonstrate to the entire university community and to the world that it will never happen again. We must never again have shockingly bad news like this coming out of Notre Dame.

The Ostermann appointment is not a mistake. It is not an accident. It is not a lack of vetting. No one is holding a gun to the heads of Gallagher and McGreevy. There is no benefit for doing what they did. There is no glory among the school’s peers. There is no benefactor who must be satisfied. We can assume that McGreevy cares about Notre Dame’s Catholic identity. (See his official biography; I am ignorant about Gallagher.) The sole reason for this appointment is Gallagher and McGreevey do not care about abortion and the destruction of innocent human life. Folks, it has to be that simple.

I dare the Board of Trustees, including those designated “Fellows” who are charged with promoting Notre Dame’s Catholic mission, President Father Dowd, Provost McGreevy, and Dean Gallagher to come before a statue of Mary and say, “Hail Mary, full of grace. Blessed are you. Our appointment of Professor Susan Ostermann is a blessing for this university named after you.”

A Chronological List of Issues Notre Dame Has Had with Being Catholic

2006

In 2006, a group of alumni and friends of the University of Notre Dame organized the “Sycamore Trust.” As the webpage states, “The precipitating event was [President of Notre Dame] Father Jenkins’s reversal of his tentative decision to bar the student on-campus performance of The Vagina Monologues. A March 2008 bulletin of the Trust reported that “50 bishops had moved their conference off campus because the play might be produced.” Here is a report of the statement by the local bishop, Bishop John D’Arcy.

2009

Notre Dame announced that it would grant an honorary degree to, and hear the principal commencement address by, President Obama. This led to numerous objections and protests:

• Mary Ann Glendon, the immediate past ambassador from the United States to the Vatican, declined Notre Dame’s highest honor, the Laetare Medal. It was the first ever declination since its inception in the 1880s. Here is her April 27 letter published in First Things.
• Over 80 bishops made public objections, including: Bishop John M. D’Arcy (Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend; Today’s Catholic, March 29, 2009, p. 3); Cardinal Francis George (Archbishop of Chicago and then-president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops), who stated, “Notre Dame didn’t understand what it means to be Catholic” and called the decision an “extreme embarrassment”; Archbishop Raymond Burke (former Archbishop of St. Louis, then-Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura); Archbishop Alfred Hughes (New Orleans); Bishop Bernard Harrington (Winona, Minn.); Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted (Phoenix); Cardinal James Francis Stafford (Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary at the Vatican); Archbishop John R. Quinn (retired, San Francisco).
• There were 94 arrests (but the arrested were called “ND88”). Included among them was an elderly priest who was kneeling and reciting the rosary when arrested. Charges were not dropped for two years (EWTN report).

2011

Notre Dame’s board of trustees elected Roxanne Martino, benefactor of pro-abortion groups, to the board. In June she resigned under pressure. Declared the June bulletin of the Sycamore Trust: “Ms. Martino’s declaration that she is ‘fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching and to the mission of Notre Dame’ without any expression of regret for her support of pro-abortion organizations surely rings false, but much more worrisome is [Chairman of the Board] Mr. Notebaert’s assertion that Ms. Martino is ‘absolutely dedicated in every way to the Catholic mission of the University.’”

In mid-year, Marye Anne Fox, who had been a member of the board of trustees for 11 years, resigned abruptly (and quietly). She had promoted embryonic stem cell research (Aug. 3, 2011, bulletin of Sycamore Trust).

2014

Fr. Jenkins rushed to provide benefits to same-sex married couples employed by the university, rejecting Bishop Rhoades’s request that Notre Dame seek a religious exemption (David Gibson, “Bishops Object as Catholic Universities Offer Same-Sex Benefits,” Religious News Service, Oct. 30, 2014).

2015

Notre Dame seriously considered opening a branch in mainland Communist China. Although I initiated the Chinese language program at the University in 1971, before Nixon went to China, I objected in a published 8,500-word essay on a now-defunct website. How inappropriate, I thought, that Notre Dame should establish itself in the same country where Catholic laity, priests, and bishops were being persecuted. (Imagine Notre Dame classes in a building next to a prison of the persecuted.) This is not to mention other Christians and Falun Gong and Uyghurs. I concluded, “[T]he University of Notre Dame should not partner with Communist China in establishing a liberal arts college in China because Notre Dame is insufficiently Catholic in its motivation, because Notre Dame will be insufficiently Catholic in the formation of curriculum and in providing faculty, and because the Communist Chinese will not be able to tolerate a faithful Catholic presence on the mainland.”

2016

Notre Dame announced that it would bestow its highest award to then Vice President Biden (and former Speaker of the House John Boehner). Bishop Rhoades objected (Timothy Dempsey, “Bishop Rhoades on Biden, Jenkins and Laetare,” March 14, 2016, bulletin of Sycamore Trust).

2017

In 2014 the university provided contraceptives to students under court order. In 2017, after the new Trump administration offered religious exemptions, Fr. Jenkins decided to voluntarily continue to provide contraceptives: “After a half decade of litigation and debate, ultimately leading to a victory for Notre Dame’s cause, the university has voluntarily chosen to embrace a status quo that seems to undermine its original legal position and interpretation of Catholic doctrine” (Emma Green, “Why Notre Dame Reversed Course on Contraception,” The Atlantic, Nov. 8, 2017).

2018 (and continuing)

Fr. Jenkins, and now his successor, Fr. Robert Dowd, refuse to honor student petitions to filter pornography from university internet servers. (See the Dec. 2018 Sycamore Trust bulletin and Gray Nocjar, “University Denies Porn Filter, Renews Promise on Opt-in Version,” The [Notre Dame-St. Mary’s] Observer, Nov. 14, 2025).

2021

Fr. Jenkins asked new President Biden to attend commencement and receive an honorary degree. The February 10, 2021, Sycamore Trust Bulletin listed the numerous ways that Biden was anti-life (Feb. 10, 2021, bulletin of Sycamore Trust). Biden declined Fr. Jenkins’s invitation.

2021

Fr. Jenkins proclaimed June to be Pride Month. The July 2021 Sycamore Trust bulletin reported the following:

Blessed Basile Moreau, who founded the Order in 1837, consecrated the priests to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Feast of the Sacred Heart was added to the Universal Liturgical Calendar in 1856, and the month of June became dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

The Order’s consecration to the Sacred Heart was reflected in the dedication of the spiritual centers of the University to the Sacred Heart: first, the wooden “Church of the Sacred Heart,” built between 1848 and 1852, and then the current Basilica of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, in which Mass was first celebrated in 1875.

Then there is the statue of the Blessed Heart that stands in front of the storied Main Building on the Main Quad.

In the same year, Fr. Jenkins sung the praises of Greg Bourke, ’80 M.A., author of “Gay, Catholic, and American” (see Oct. 8, 2021, Sycamore Trust bulletin and an article in the American Spectator: Ellie Gardey Holmes, Notre Dame ’21, “Notre Dame President Disputes Claim He Congratulated Obergefell Plaintiff on Court Win,” Oct. 8, 2021).

2025

Fr. Dowd changed the wording of the mission statement affecting all university staff, which includes the several vice presidents in the administration. The original language was: Leadership in Mission: Understands, accepts and supports the Catholic mission of the university and fosters values consistent with that mission. It was changed to: To be a force for good and help to advance Notre Dame’s mission to be the leading global Catholic research university. For more, see the Sycamore Trust bulletins of Dec. 5 and Dec. 12.

In Part 2, I will describe the shockingly good news coming out of Notre Dame.