Introduction
At our 17th Annual Breakfast during Reunion Weekend, Rev. Wilson (Bill) Miscamble, C.S.C., delivered a clear and thoughtful assessment of the challenges facing Notre Dame’s Catholic identity. Drawing on his vocation as a Holy Cross priest, his distinguished career as a professor of history, and his deep engagement with the Catholic intellectual tradition, his remarks focused on the pursuit of truth as the essential purpose of Catholic higher education, the pressures of ideological conformity, and the influence of DEI structures on hiring and institutional priorities.
As the opening speaker in a program that featured constitutional attorney James Bopp, Jr. as keynote and student journalist Michael Canady as the 2025 Sycamore Award recipient, Fr. Miscamble set the tone for a morning of serious and faithful reflection on the future of Our Lady’s University. The Bopp and Canady talks will be featured in forthcoming Bulletins.
First, however, we draw your attention to an urgent opportunity that is quickly running out of time — our matching gift campaign dedicated to reclaiming June as the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The cultural forces reshaping Notre Dame are well-funded and organized. To fight back effectively, we must be equally serious — expanding our reach, deepening our research, and supporting those who still speak with clarity.
Your matched gift will help us defend truth, support faithful students, and uphold the Catholic mission of Our Lady’s University.
"What Catholic formation is now taking place?"
Fr. Miscamble opened his remarks by honoring two recently deceased Catholic scholars: David Solomon, “the visionary founder of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture (dCEC) and a legendary teacher,” and the renowned Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, “longtime Senior Distinguished Research Fellow at dCEC…who helped generate Catholic intellectual life on [Notre Dame’s] campus.” Later in the program he also honored our student award recipient, Michael Canady, emphasizing that,
It was hardly an easy task to run a paper whose previous editors have been subject to a disgraceful lawsuit launched by a faculty member. But Michael and his team performed so well and I extend my thanks to them.
In terms of academic developments, Fr. Miscamble reported that “the very able Dean of Science, Santiago Schnell, will soon depart Notre Dame to take up the appointment as Provost at Dartmouth.” He described Dean Schnell as “deeply committed to our Catholic mission.” Adding, “Notre Dame can ill afford to lose scholars and leaders like him.”
Fr. Miscamble entreated those present to pray for the newly appointed Dean of Arts and Letters, Professor Kenneth Scheve, “that he comes with a clear-headed view of the important role the College of Arts and Letters must play in the Catholic mission of Notre Dame.” He then went on to commend a recent Church Life Journal article by Professor John Cavadini titled Notre Dame Theology: Six Easy Rules for Achieving a Top Ranking, which explains how the Theology Department rose to become the best theology, divinity, and religious studies program in the world.
Cavadini’s first rule: “Don’t talk about rankings.”
His second: “Value truth instead.”
Fr. Miscamble urged that these principles “should be applied to the University as a whole.”
In contrast to Cavadini’s “rules” are the priorities outlined by Provost John McGreevy in a recent faculty letter in which he declared that “hiring for diversity purposes was equally important to Notre Dame’s mission as the hiring of committed Catholic faculty.”
Warning against Notre Dame’s pursuit of secular validation through elite rankings and partnerships, Fr. Miscamble urged that the University lead, not follow:
Notre Dame should be a school that shows the way for others in engaging in an unapologetic effort to pursue the truth.
And to shape a curriculum “that prepares our students well to engage the world as faith-filled Catholic men and women,” Fr. Miscamble concluded, requires “hiring faculty deeply supportive of our Catholic mission.”
A View from Outside
St. Joseph County Councilwoman Amy Drake, who did not attend Notre Dame but joined us for the event, summarized Fr. Miscamble’s message in her Drake.Report as an appeal for Notre Dame to exert “real leadership” by focusing on “being the Catholic university that pursues truth over status and doesn’t conform to the spirit of the age.” She went on to describe Sycamore Trust members as,
alumni that absolutely love their alma mater, and Our Lady for whom it is named — and quite simply want the school to live up to its Catholic identity.
Watch Fr. Miscamble's Complete Talk
You can download a copy of Fr. Miscamble’s remarks here.
Framing and Reclaiming the Month of June
Our Annual Breakfast program took place during Reunion Weekend on the day before much of the world prepared to enter “Pride Month.” Although the University had not yet released any official messaging, all indications pointed toward another year of institutional support for “LGBTQ+ Pride” — displacing recognition of June as the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Alumni Rainbow Community (ARC), the leading promoter of LGBTQ+ interests among Notre Dame alumni, was hosting its “LGBTQ+ Reunion 2025” on campus with a slate of institutionally approved events, including a leadership award presented to an alumnus in a same-sex marriage and a tribute to Phil Donahue (ND ’57)—who credits Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the atheist activist, for launching his career and who later dismissed the Catholic Church as “sexist,” “racist,” and “unnecessarily destructive.”
Support for ARC’s programming during Reunion Weekend included listing in the official agenda, digital ads on screens throughout campus, and on-campus lodging for its members in Siegfried Hall – while group organizers encouraged their members to seek blessings from priests during their visit to campus.
It was no surprise when these warning signs materialized as the fifth consecutive year that Notre Dame has celebrated “Pride Month” without a single public acknowledgment of the Sacred Heart. We will say more about this when the dust settles on June.
A Call to Action
The stakes at Notre Dame could not be higher. Groups like ARC have made alarming strides in normalizing identities and experiences that stand in direct opposition to Catholic teaching and tradition. Meanwhile, the University’s DEI infrastructure—now under scrutiny by both the Trump Administration and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita—offers a rare window for reform.
The cultural forces transforming Notre Dame are organized, resourced, and relentless. To respond with equal seriousness, Sycamore Trust must expand its reach, deepen its research, and amplify the voices that still speak with Catholic clarity.
To that end, a generous donor has pledged $10,000 as a challenge grant and another $3,000 if needed—to be matched dollar-for-dollar during June—as part of our effort to reclaim the month for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Your gift today will go twice as far in helping Sycamore Trust defend truth, support faithful students, and uphold the Catholic mission of Our Lady’s University.
Support Our Common Purpose
If you share our love for Notre Dame and want to see an authentic Catholic renewal under the Dome, please consider lending a hand in whatever way you are able — by giving of your time (especially in prayer), talent, or treasure. The funds we receive are used to continue our work to keep you informed of Notre Dame’s imperiled Catholic identity, organize events and activities to strengthen our collective voice, and financially support the efforts on campus by students and their organizations to stand tall for the Truth of Catholicism.
Oremus
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, fountain of infinite Mercy and Love, we worship, praise and adore You!
When You revealed Your Wounded Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque You reminded us of the price You paid for our salvation and of the boundless love You have for each of us.
Through the mission of this holy nun, confirmed by the Church, You invite each one of us to come and behold Your Sacred Heart, which so loves mankind, and is so little loved in return.
You invite us to console You by our own faith, love and devotion offered to You, and You call us to make reparation for all the sins, indifferences, sacrileges and abuses by which Your Divine Majesty is offended.
We at Sycamore Trust join all the faithful of our Notre Dame Family in responding to Your invitation. We pray that Notre Dame will always reverence and honor Your Most Sacred Heart and will reject all that is contrary to Your Goodness, Purity, Mercy and Love. We pray that the campus of our beloved alma mater will become a beacon of light, hope and virtue for all.
May Mary, Our Lady of the Most Sacred Heart, intercede for us as we make our prayer to You, who live and reign with the Father, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
Submit Your Mass Intention
Father John J. Raphael (’89) offers a monthly Mass for the intentions of our Sycamore Trust community. If you have an intention that you would like him to include at his next Mass, you may submit it by clicking on the following button.
