Introduction
In today’s bulletin we republish (with permission, copyright reserved) an article from the National Catholic Register, “Abortion Doula” at Notre Dame, Speaker Series Adds to Catholic Concern.
The series, “Reproductive Justice, Scholarship for Solidarity and Social Change,” is sponsored by the Gender Relations Program and the Reilly Center for Science, Tecnology and Values. There are an unusually large number of supporters, including the Office of the Dean of Arts and Letters and the departments of History, Political Science, English, Sociology, American Studies, Anthropology, and Film, Television, and Theatre.
The series has featured pro-abortion speaker with none to counter them. We will have a good deal more to say about these programs. The National Catholic Register article is a good start.
"Abortion Doula" at Notre Dame Speaker Series Adds to Catholic Concern
Critics say the series conflicts with university policy requiring the presentation of Catholic teaching at such events.
The Golden Dome atop the Main Building at the University of Notre Dame. (photo: RebeccaDLev / Shutterstock)
Kevin J. Jones/CNANation, March 5, 2023
In the wake of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision overturning the pro-abortion rights Roe v. Wade ruling, several bodies at the University of Notre Dame are hosting an event series dedicated to “reproductive justice.” The series has attracted criticism for its decidedly pro-abortion slant: an “abortion doula” with a tattoo of abortion equipment is one of the speakers at its next event.
Critics say the series conflicts with university policy requiring the presentation of Catholic teaching at such events.
“We have a series that so far has been dedicated to opposing the Dobbs decision and promoting the pro-choice position, as opposed to the Catholic position, at one of the leading Catholic universities in the country,” William H. Dempsey, a Notre Dame alumnus and president of the Sycamore Trust, told CNA March 3.
“There have been no panelists who have explained the Catholic Church’s position on abortion and responded to what’s been said by the opponents of Church teaching,” he said.
Sycamore Trust is a group of Notre Dame alumni and supporters concerned about Catholic identity at the university. The group claims more than 18,000 subscribers to its distribution list.
The series at the university, titled “Reproductive Justice: Scholarship for Solidarity and Social Change,” is sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s gender studies program and the university’s Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values. Several other bodies within the university and several external groups also provide support.
The latest event, “Trans Care + Abortion Care: Intersections and Questions,” is scheduled to be held on Zoom on March 20. It aims to address “the intersections between trans care and abortion care” followed by questions and answers with the audience, according to the website of the university’s Gender Studies Program.
One speaker is Ash Williams, described as “a Black trans abortion doula, public intellectual, and abolitionist community organizer.” Williams is based in North Carolina but is a decriminalizing abortion resident at Project Nia, a Chicago-based advocacy group that favors “restorative and transformative justice” instead of criminal incarceration.
National Public Radio profiled Williams in an October 2022 report. As an abortion doula, the report said, Williams “provides physical, emotional, or financial help to people seeking to end a pregnancy.”
Williams, who identifies as a transgender man, has had two surgical abortions and has a forearm tattoo of a tool used in the abortion procedure known as a manual vacuum aspiration, National Public Radio reported. Williams praised the abortion procedure, saying “it’s one and done. It’s quick.”
Another speaker at the upcoming Notre Dame event is Jules Gill-Peterson, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University who has argued that “transgender children” are not a new phenomenon.
The reproductive justice series’ previous events included two in-person panels on the end of Roe v. Wade in fall 2022. On Feb. 17, the series presented a virtual panel on the topic “Reproductive Health Disparities and Injustice.”
The series receives support from multiple other programs and academic bodies, including Notre Dame’s departments of American studies, anthropology, English, film, television and theater, history, political science, and sociology. The neighboring St. Mary College’s Department of Gender and Women Studies and the Indiana University-South Bend Women’s and Gender Studies Program are also supporters, as is the South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center.
CNA sought comment from the University of Notre Dame, its Department of Gender Studies, and the Reilly Center but did not receive a response by publication.
According to Dempsey, the failure to express the Catholic position on abortion is “contrary to the policy of the university” set out in the Common Proposal of Chairs of the College of Arts and Letters and then university president Father John I. Jenkins. The 2006 agreement places on academic departments and their chairs the responsibility to provide a forum for multiple viewpoints and, where relevant, “appropriate balance” to present Catholic views.
“When a panelist or panelists expresses views contrary to important Catholic Church teaching, the obligation of the sponsoring department is to ensure that the Catholic Church’s position is presented,” Dempsey said. “That has not been done.”
He deemed it “an empty gesture” to claim the reproductive justice panels are balanced by other pro-life events on campus. For Dempsey, this failure to follow policy means that the sponsors support the expression of positions contrary to Church teaching. It means “that an important component of the university is itself opposed to Catholic Church teaching.”
“The Dobbs decision has opened a severe fault line at the University of Notre Dame, as I expect it has in Catholic institutions across the country,” Dempsey told CNA. Though a “significant” number of Notre Dame faculty oppose Church teaching, that was largely irrelevant under Roe v. Wade. For Dempsey, the newly open divisions “undermine the Catholic identity of the university,” a situation that would be prevented if the university required departments to follow the terms of the Common Proposal.
“The Church’s position on abortion is that it is the highest order of evil to take the lives of innocent human beings,” he emphasized. “As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has said, this is the preeminent issue in American public life today.”
He supported the exploration and even expression of views contrary to Catholicism on campus, “provided that the position of the Catholic Church is given equal treatment, so to speak.”
The university was the focus of major controversy among Catholics when it hosted the strongly pro-abortion rights President Barack Obama as a speaker for its May 2009 commencement ceremonies. Following the controversy, the university launched multiple pro-life initiatives.
Ken Hallenius, communications specialist at the university’s De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, told CNA the center does not comment on events sponsored by other university departments.
Hallenius said the center has sponsored “multiple pro-life events, lectures, panel discussions, and conferences” in the last year. Its upcoming events include the Notre Dame Vita Institute, an intellectual formation program for pro-life leaders, to be held on campus June 11–16. On April 29, it will present the Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal to Princeton law professor Robert P. George.
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Oremus
Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. (1 Cor 3:18-19)
O God our Father, Eternal Wisdom and Love, You have created us in Your own image and likeness, and called us to live in humble obedience to You and according to the order which You have established to govern the universe. You sent Your Son, Wisdom Incarnate, to save us from sin and to reconcile us to You and to one another. He established the Church to be a saving witness of Wisdom and Love, Goodness and Truth to a rebellious world. We implore You to dispel the darkness that surrounds us. May all who have rejected the truths of creation, seeking to replace Your design for the human race with one of their own, be awakened to the destructive folly which passes for wisdom in this age. Enlighten us all by the Truth which sets us free and grant that we may courageously embrace the scorn and contempt of the wise of the world so that we may joyfully share in the Wisdom of God. Through the intercession of Notre Dame, our Mother, we make our prayer in the Name of Jesus, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
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23 Responses
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/ad-tuendam-fidem-7949
It is important to note that even a validly elected Pope, does not have the authority to change The Word Of God, For to do so, would ipso facto separate himself from The One Body Of Christ, , Through, The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, being both anti Filioque and inessence, anti Pope and anti Papacy.
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/ad-tuendam-fidem-7949
Why is Mustillo not concerned about Williams’ post-abortion mental health, given research indicating the range of mental health problems post-abortive women experience, and Mustillo’s interest in mental health? More importantly, it appears that ND decision makers are not immune to the wider problem of not appreciating the contribution of fully licensed mental health professionals. Those who take their Catholic faith seriously and the ethical guidelines of their profession surely would not be so irresponsible as to give a forum to these matters without a more comprehensive approach. Please, ND admin, identify your respected licensed psychologists and include them in initiatives having to do with the identity and development of young adults. They are obligated to do no harm, unlike those who supposedly have an interest in mental health but zero clinical training in the profession and are not bound by any ethical guidelines.
Interesting tweet/ new article from Dr Jordan Peterson today: “ Enough child-destructive trans activism: psychologists, do your duty,” he says, and links to his new article in The Telegraph, “Trans activism is sexist and delusional.” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/27/trans-activism-sexist-delusional/
J.M.J.
Dean Mustillo is concerned, the question is, why has she not been given the authority to allow Our Lady’s University to remain Faithful to The Deposit Of Faith in regards to that which every Catholic must believe and affirm with Divine and Catholic Faith?
Code of Canon Law(Latin Church)
Canon 750
1. Those things are to be believed by divine and catholic faith which are contained in the word of God as it has been written or handed down by tradition, that is, in the single deposit of faith entrusted to the Church, and which are at the same time proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn Magisterium of the Church, or by its ordinary and universal Magisterium, which in fact is manifested by the common adherence of Christ’s faithful under the guidance of the sacred Magisterium. All are therefore bound to avoid any contrary doctrines.
2. Furthermore, each and everything set forth definitively by the Magisterium of the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals must be firmly accepted and held; namely those things required for the holy keeping and faithful exposition of the deposit of faith; therefore, anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church.[new]
Only The True God Can Endow us with our inherent Right to Religious Liberty, so that we can come to Know, Love, And Serve, The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, in this life, and hopefully, one day be with God, and our beloved, forever, in Heaven. God does not desire we remain in our sins.
While it is true that Love is a Gift, given freely from the heart, and no one can be forced to Love He Who Is Perfect Love Incarnated, thus “10. It is one of the major tenets of Catholic doctrine that man’s response to God in faith must be free: no one therefore is to be forced to embrace the Christian faith against his own will.(8) This doctrine is contained in the word of God and it was constantly proclaimed by the Fathers of the Church.(7) The act of faith is of its very nature a free act. Man, redeemed by Christ the Savior and through Christ Jesus called to be God’s adopted son,(9) cannot give his adherence to God revealing Himself unless, under the drawing of the Father,(10) he offers to God the reasonable and free submission of faith. It is therefore completely in accord with the nature of faith that in matters religious every manner of coercion on the part of men should be excluded. In consequence, the principle of religious freedom makes no small contribution to the creation of an environment in which men can without hindrance be invited to the Christian faith, embrace it of their own free will, and profess it effectively in their whole manner of life” (DIGNITATIS HUMANAE ),
THIS does not change the fact that a Catholic University exists first and foremost to witness to The Deposit Of Faith, The Word Of God, Our Only Savior, Jesus The Christ, Who Has Revealed Himself To His Church, Through Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, And The Teaching Of The Magisterium.
Let us Pray that the administration of Our Lady’s University, and all who desire to be Faithful to Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, will “Seek first, The Kingdom Of God”, The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage.
4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
Godspeed!
Julie Hermann, I refer you to John 5:17-30 for context regarding sons and fathers.
I couldn’t have said it more accurately & concisely than Dr. Carolyn Linnig O’Rourke of St. Mary’s College (above):
“Somehow, someway, the University got lost along the way.
I don’t know when. I don’t know how. But Notre Dame University is lost.
I find this scandalous.
I find this deeply disturbing.”
I’ve been donating to ND pretty much consistently since having been graduated from ND in 1961. That ceased, and those donations are going to sycamoretrust.org
Once you deny the inherent Dignity of the human from the moment of conception, Created In The Imago Dei, equal in Dignity, while being complementary as a beloved son or daughter, Willed By God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), worthy of Redemption, Called to live our lives in Loving relationship, in communion with The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque)., anything can become permissible, including the destruction of a beloved son or daughter, residing in their Mother’s womb, due to a failure to Love according to The Word Of Perfect Love Incarnated.
That should read:
…the human person, since we can know through both our Catholic Faith and Reason, every son or daughter of a human person, can only be, in essence, a human person, and thus possessing equal human Dignity, is equal before the Law.
I will Pray, that the Good Bishop, Bishop Rhoades, will respond appropriately , in The National Catholic Register. In light of Catholic Canon750:
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/professio-fidei-21198
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253912/notre-dame-abortion-doula-talk-is-squarely-contrary-to-catholic-principles-bishop-rhoades-laments
It is important to note, to be, in essence Catholic, is to already be converted to The Truth Of Love Made Flesh; thus a Catholic is no longer “wandering in the desert in search of The Lving God”, we recognize The Truth Of Love, Our Savior, Jesus The Christ, In The Breaking Of The Bread.
4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
How can you pretend that this is a legitimate article when your only source is your daddy over at the only other organization that will hire such a hardened person? All of the other names mentioned in your article are essentially saying “no comment, they seem to be following the rules”. Like daddy, like son, you’re both hacks hiding behind the doctrines of the Catholic Church. You sound much more like the Pharisees who eventually condemned Jesus to die than Jesus himself! Shame on you! I dare you to allow this comment to actually appear on in this comment section! If not, you are cowards!
Thanks you for your thoughtful and restrained comment. We look forward to your sober reflection on our coming report on yesterday’s program. Know that we and doubtless all our readers will be disappointed if we don’t hear from you.
A “man” who has had two abortions. It is too too weird. Our civilization is collapsing amidst gales of laughter.
Yes, Dave, but not by everyone. For some, it is Adlai Stevenson’s reaction to his loss of the presidency (citing a Lincoln story) that resounds: “I’m too old to cry but it hurts too much to laugh.” Keep letting ’em have it in The Catholic Thing!
I have already written to Mr. Bill Dempsey (Notre Dame, ’52 and The Sycamore Trust) thanking him for his continued courage in fighting for the pursuit of Truth in the teaching of Catholic Doctrine at the University of Notre Dame.
Somehow, someway, the University got lost along the way.
I don’t know when. I don’t know how. But Notre Dame University is lost.
I find this scandalous.
I find this deeply disturbing.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Linnig O’Rourke, Ed.D.
St. Mary’s College
Notre Dame
Indiana
Class of 1955.
Perfectly said Frank Scanlon.
Bring in the TFP with their banners, bagpipes and the #1 spiritual weapon, the rosary!!
Notre Dame needs Our Lady.
Heaven help us!! Amen
The Twitter account of Daniel Horan, OFM , SMC’s Director of Center of Spirituality, is quite interesting, with several recent posts contributing to the falsehood that the church treats LGBTQ persons harshly. Do SMC parents realize how the college is attempting to influence their daughters??
I was at Marytown (Francscan Conventuals and Shrine of St. Max Kolbe) on Saturday and had an opportunity to visit the library there, and paged through an amazing wall collection of old volumes of journals published by Notre Dame going back to the late 19th century concerning its studies in Mariology – something absolutely edifying and worthwhile for a Catholic university named after the Mother of God. Apparently, this stuff is no longer worthy of study in our enlightened post-concilliar age at places like Notre Dame where they have historically embraced Foucault and Derrida instead of Aquinas, and faculty like Joseph and Peter Buttigieg instead of McInerney. Noteworthy how so many blessings came forth from the place in those earlier days.
Now we get Gender Studies and all kinds of other junk studies called science fundamentally opposed to the eternal Logos. What the Holy Cross leaders and Board of Trustees have surrendered to have a foot in the club of the freemasons and apostates so as to gain just a nod and a glance from the world is a pathetic scene to observe. So quickly has faith, tradition and orthodoxy been abandoned for money and prestige. Trying so hard to sit with the cool kids.
Fr. Jenkins has accelerated quite a failed legacy for himself in just in a few years, including: promotion of junk studies; hiring apostate faculty; mandating gene therapy serums upon students – drugs which were not approved and are now seen to be neither safe or effective; advancing all kinds of gender confusion theories and aberrations to conform to the woke world which contravenes the truth in the deposit of faith and bible, and now the open, uncontested advocacy of the most pernicious positions against the 5th commandment held by true enemies of the Church by actual representatives of Notre Dame. May God have mercy on us.
The Gender Studies Program at our beloved University Of Notre Dame, denies the essence of being, in essence, from the moment of conception, a beloved son or daughter, and thus the essence of being, in essence, a brother or sister, husband or wife, father or mother, causing scandal, as it’s essence is anti Christ.
Shame on any Bishop who allows these type of programs, which only serve to undermine the Magisterium Of Christ’s Church, and lead our beloved sons and daughters astray from The True Faith, to exist.The Gender Studies Program has been revealed to be a complete rejection of our Call to Holiness, and thus a complete rejection of our Call To Perfect Love. Such programs exist only due to a failure to Love one another as Christ Love’s us.
Our Call To Holiness has always been a Call to the perfection of Charity, in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds, as we strive to overcome our disordered inclinations and become transformed through Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy available to all those who desire to repent, and partake in the fullness of Christian Life with Christ, while recognizing it is a sin to “accommodate an occasion of sin, and cooperate with with that which promotes evil”.
Our Lady’s University must hold fast to The Deposit Of Faith Entrusted To Her.
“4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
May Our Blessed Mother Mary, Intercede for us, Through The Triumph Of Her Immaculate Heart at our beloved, Notre Dame
If that speech is the “be-all end-all” then send your grandkids to Hillsdale. Isn’t that the college where the college President divorced his wife of 44 years and then it came out he was having an affair with his daughter in law, which ended in her suicide? Hillsdale and its leaders are hardly a bastion of moral authority. And to speak of our Holy Father this way — as a faux-pope! These types of comments are feeding into a lack of civility and pitting Catholics against each other. It is all so sad. Such a shame.
Heartbreaking, especially for us who experienced the Notre Dame of the past. The bright spot is Carter Snead and the Center for Ethics and Culture. They hold the Faith. Too much of Notre Dame that was once a source of inspiration has now become a source of embarrassment. I don’t understand how self-respecting University Fellows can tolerate this. How can they sleep at night ??
Salve Maria!
Dear Sycamore Trust:
The Revolution arrived at Notre Dame with the arrival of Fr. Hesburgh in 1953. It expanded it’s territory dramatically to where defending Catholicism now appears to be a hopeless, rear-guard action.
One suggestion: Invite the members of Tradition, Family & Property to hold a Rosary rally at Notre Dame’s Gender studies facilities and the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values.
This will be a peaceful, yet visible confrontation between the Revolution and the Counter-revolution.
Prepare your Pro-Life members well and film the event.
The TFP is experienced at holding dramatic and successful rallies at pro-abort universities. You can expect to see the abortion/trans vipers loose their composure under TFP’s Red Banners, bagpipes and spiritual Rosary attack.
Mr. Robert Ritchie of TFP in Spring Grove, PA can be reached at (888) 317-5571.
In Maria,
Frank Scanlon
Truly too tragic for many words. For an excellent resource on the abomination of early treatment of faux-trans I recommend Abigail Shrier. She is an opinion writer for WSJ. I saw a video of her speech at Hillsdale and her interview with Jordan Peterson. Both were excellent. As for ND and Jenks and the cowardly administration and faculty, I have two comments. For some time I knew they had lost their minds–now they have surely lost their souls. Lucky for them Bergoglio recently cancelled Hell! (Who knew a faux-pope had such power and authority?) Steve