In Parts 1 and 2, I promised to describe the shockingly good news coming out of Notre Dame. Before I get to the shockingly good news, let me describe the simply good news for those readers not familiar with the campus or with its history (aside from football). For those readers, this news could be shockingly good.

Sometime in the 1980s, my wife Ann and I renewed our wedding vows on our anniversary in Notre Dame’s Log Chapel, a 1906 replica of the chapel built by diocesan priest Father Stephen Badin in 1831 as a mission to the Potawatomi tribe. Father Badin is buried in this chapel. In his homily, the celebrant, Rev. André Léveillé, C.S.C., called Notre Dame a holy place. I had first visited the campus as a high school junior in May 1967, and I graduated from Notre Dame in 1972. Across nearly 20 years, attending many Masses, Vespers, and visiting the Grotto numerous times, I had never thought of Notre Dame as a “holy place.” From then on, however, that notion sank in.

Twenty years after this anniversary Mass, Ann and I were on campus with family for a week during the summer and we decided to visit as many chapels as we could — in the mornings before family responsibilities arose. And we continued this pilgrimage the following summer. Alas, in two summer weeks we visited only about 20 chapels. What do I mean “only 20”? Well, ten years later, Lawrence S. Cunningham, newly retired professor of theology (chair, 1992-1997; he passed on Feb. 20, 2025) released a richly illustrated book, The Chapels of Notre Dame (2012), in which he informed readers that Father John F. O’Hara, C.S.C., who would become Bishop, Archbishop, and Cardinal O’Hara, before his departure from campus in 1939, had called Notre Dame the “City of the Blessed Sacrament” (see, for example, Fr. O’Hara’s “Religious Bulletin, May 29, 1934). Only the Vatican exceeded in density the number of chapels in which the Blessed Sacrament was reserved. There are today at least 57 chapels on the 1,250-acre campus. Each of the 33 residence halls has a chapel, and at least 25 other buildings, like the law school, the new Raclin Art Museum, Coleman-Morse, and the Stinson-Remick Engineering Hall, have chapels. It would be ambitious to visit and pray in 57 chapels in two weeks for a couple hours each morning.

The webpage called “Faith” on the school’s website states there are over 75 priests serving on campus as hall rectors, professors, and administrators, there are 30 religious retreats offered annually through Campus Ministry, and there are over 200 Masses celebrated weekly. Mass times all over campus are provided online by Campus Ministry. A current junior writes that “Confession lines in the basilica typically extend far down the side aisles and Sunday Masses are standing room only” (Lucy Spence, “Choose Notre Dame,” Irish Rover, Nov. 5, 2025). The Basilica of the Sacred Heart has a capacity of nearly 1,000. Also, these days there are 40 hours weekly of adoration at Colman-Morse chapel, and Spence says there are hundreds of hours held elsewhere.

Notre Dame’s Grotto is a singular place of prayer. (I note that the Blessed Sacrament is not reserved there.) Books have been written about it: Dorothy V. Corson, A Cave of Candles: The Story Behind Notre Dame’s Grotto (2006); Mary Pat Dowling, Grotto Stories: From the Heart of Notre Dame (1996). Also, in 2007, the quarterly Notre Dame Magazine (word-searchable back issues online here) started a series called “Grotto Stories.”

Notre Dame’s Grotto is a one-seventh replica of Lourdes and was erected in 1896. The Rosary is prayed daily at the Grotto in the early evening. In searching the archives of The Observer back to its 1966 founding, the first reference I see to the Rosary being recited daily in the early evening is Oct. 3, 1973 (p. 2). Since at least 1999, the students started a tradition of graduating seniors making a “last visit” as a group to the Grotto, held on the Thursday before commencement (“Senior Week Schedule,” The Observer, April 14, 1999, p. 21).

Please, come with me and take a walk around campus. The campus grounds include:

• “Touchdown Jesus”: This mural is nicknamed because Our Lord is depicted with outstretched hands and is visible from the football stadium. Formally, the mural is entitled “Word of Life.” It occupies the south side of the 13-story Hesburgh Library opened in 1964. It is 134 feet tall by 68 feet wide.
• On the west side of the library is a statue of Moses by Ivan Mestrovic.
• On the North Quad is Clarke Memorial Fountain, designed by John Burgee and Philip Johnson, honoring the approximately 500 alumni who died in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. ROTC members stand watch every Veterans Day.
• On the west side of O’Shaughnessy Hall, a classroom building, is a full-height statue of Christ and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well by Ivan Mestrovic (see Ellie Gardey, “Ivan Mestrovic at Notre Dame,” Irish Rover, April 30, 2018). About noon on one hot summer’s day, my two daughters, ages about 13 and 9, and I used the sculpture as a stage as we recited and reenacted John’s Gospel. Passersby became apostles returning from town or townspeople.
• In front of the Main Building (atop of which is the Golden Dome with its statue of the Virgin Mary) is a statue of the Sacred Heart, erected in 1893 and restored in 2013.
• West of Sacred Heart Basilica, north of Colman-Morse, is a statue of the Holy Family by Ivan Mestrovic.
• Inside Sacred Heart Basilica (with its last major renovation completed in 1990), among other things is one of the few paintings depicting the death of St. Joseph, and a Pieta sculpted in the 1940’s by Ivan Mestrovic borrowed indefinitely from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• A statue of Mary by Holy Cross Father Anthony J. Lauck, C.S.C., in 1954 is located at the circle at the north end of Notre Dame Avenue. In September 2025, its position was shifted amidst a new design and dedicated that month (see Jenna Liberto, “New Campus Landmark Celebrates Contributions of Notre Dame Women Students and Graduates,” NDWorks, Sept. 23, 2025).
• A statue depicting Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth, by Father Lauck, was erected in 1999 near the Eck Welcome Center.

In the course of four years, students pass by each of these many times and, at least on some occasions, think about them.

On our tour, we could investigate the 25 service opportunities listed here. And we could also step into academic buildings on campus and see crucifixes. In 2019, Notre Dame started purchasing crucifixes from around the world, and also started an annual art contest for the design of crucifixes. We could also step inside the basilica and hear one of the choirs listed here. Perhaps we would hear a choir singing Notre Dame’s alma mater, “Notre Dame, Our Mother,” which you may have seen being sung at the end of a football game by the team and student body. But maybe you haven’t heard the words which bring tears to the eyes of many:

Notre Dame, our mother
Tender, strong and true
Proudly in the heavens
Gleams thy gold and blue
Glory’s mantle cloaks thee
Golden is thy fame
And our hearts forever
Praise thee, Notre Dame
And our hearts forever
Love thee Notre Dame

Maybe you would concur with Father Léveillé’s assessment that Notre Dame is a holy place. I agree with junior Lucy Spence, editor of Irish Rover, that prospective students should not be put off by the bad news coming out of Notre Dame, but instead should “Choose Notre Dame.”

Shockingly Good News

I have two pieces of shockingly good news for you. One regards a recent outdoor Mass, and the other is the long-term trend of ever greater numbers of students voluntarily studying theology.

Ice Chapel Mass

By late January of this year, South Bend had received over six feet of snow. Civil engineering student Martin Soros and architecture student Wesley Buonerba, on their own initiative, decided to design and build an ice sculpture on campus they called “St. Olaf’s Chapel.” It was tall enough and wide enough to walk through single file. You can read a report by Karla Cruise in College of Engineering News interviewing Soros on its construction: “Engineering on Ice: Martin Soros on the Building of St. Olaf’s Chapel” (Feb. 13).

These students then sought permission to have Mass celebrated using their ice chapel as a backdrop, with an ice altar and ice cross. Having received permission, they posted a sign by the chapel that Mass would be celebrated on Feb. 2 at 10pm. There was no particular reason for Mass on that day, that time, that place, just a coming together to worship the Lord. It was a school night with papers and labs due the next day and tests as well. The temperature was in the 20s. But the students came. During Communion, when the 1,500 consecrated Hosts had been distributed, a priest left to obtain 500 more. After these too had been distributed, there were hundreds of students who were unable to receive. Thus, well over 2,000 students of the 14,000 students (undergrad and graduate students at Notre Dame, plus undergrads at St. Mary’s College) attended the Mass. Of course, not all 14,000 are Catholic. Among Notre Dame freshman entering in 2024, 82% were Catholic (“Notre Dame Welcomes the Class of 2028,” Undergraduate Admissions, Aug. 20, 2024). That number varies just a bit from year to year.

The still shots and videoclips of this outdoor Mass are striking, and I submit to you that this Mass constitutes shockingly good news. (There are images in the cited piece by Karla Cruise, and in Margaret Fosmoe, “Huddled Mass,” Notre Dame Magazine, Feb. 3, 2026, and in Chloe Hanford, “Notre Dame Outdoor Ice Chapel Mass Brings Thousands Together,” The Observer, Feb. 3, 3026.)

This Mass brought to my mind two events in Church history that are now outside the historical memory of most. Both concern Pope St. John Paul II. The first is the dedication of a new church.

On May 15, 1977, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, three days shy of his 57th birthday, dedicated a new church — a welcome but fairly routine event for a Catholic cardinal or bishop. But in this instance the country was Communist Poland. The struggle to erect the church had lasted more than 20 years.

To go back: It was in 1949 when the Communist authorities started a new town on the eastern edge of Krakow. There was never a plan to include a Catholic church in the town. It was, after all, to be a model Communist town. Six years later, in 1954, the super-sized Vladimir Lenin Steelworks opened. The place was called Nowa Huta (“New Steelmill”).

Five years after Nowa Huta opened for business, on Christmas Eve 1959, Karol Wojtyla, who had been an auxiliary bishop of Krakow since September 1958, celebrated midnight Mass in an open, freezing field in support of the workers’ demand for a church. Wojtyla continued to celebrate Mass in the open field every year on Christmas Eve.

The church was named The Lord’s Ark. The ark referenced is that of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as protector of her people. What Cardinal Wojtyla declared on that day in 1977, to the people of Poland and to the pilgrims from 13 countries in attendance, is good for all time and places:

This is not a city of people who belong to no one, of people to whom one may do whatever one wants, who may be manipulated according to the laws or rules of production and consumption. This is a city of the children of God… This temple was necessary so that this could be expressed, that it could be emphasized… Let us hope that in this our Homeland, which has a Christian and humanitarian past, these two orders — light and the Gospel, and the respect for human rights — come together more effectively in the future. (George Weigel, Witness to Hope (2001), p. 190; Adam Bonieck, The Making of the Pope of the Millennium: Kalendarium of the Life of Karol Wojtyla (2000), p. 754)

The second event which the Mass at St. Olaf’s Chapel brings to my mind is Pope St. John Paul II’s first visit to Poland, in June 1979, after being elected pope in October 1978. His first stop was in Warsaw. He celebrated Mass on June 2. You can see how many hundreds of thousands attended this Mass in images here, here and here. During 1979, Poland and the rest of the Universal Church were commemorating the 900^th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Stanislaw of Szczepanow. During the Mass, the people spontaneously chanted “We want God!” (“Chcemy Boga!”).

Well over 2,000 students attended the ice chapel Mass at Notre Dame on February 2. They would resoundingly agree with the future pope’s 1977 words: “This is not a city of people who belong to no one… This is a city of the children of God…” And they would resoundingly agree with the people’s 1979 chant, “We want God!”

In Part 4, I turn to the shockingly good news of the number of Notre Dame students studying theology.

[Links back to the previous parts are here: Part 1 and Part 2.]