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In this bulletin, we relate how the University and its Alumni Association (NDAA) have quickened their undermining of Church teaching on sex, marriage, and gender time through celebration of Pride Month; the promotion of the Alumni Rainbow Community of Notre Dame (ARC ND); the validation of gender theory; and a startling quest for more LGBTQ students.
Here’s what’s happened:
Pride Month
Pride Month is dedicated to the full LGBT agenda, particularly same-sex marriage. As Human Rights Watch declared:
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Marriage equality remains an issue at the forefront of Pride.
Indeed, at Notre Dame Professor Joel Mittleman (Sociology, Gender Studies) called attention to Pride Month because he saw a threat to same-sex marriage:
[indent/] When even foundational rights like marriage equality appear newly uncertain, this year’s Pride is a time not only to celebrate, but to organize.
Accordingly, since the Church teaches homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” that “under no circumstances can be approved” (Catechism 2357), a Catholic organization that celebrates Pride Month gives scandal.
That was why we criticized the university’s celebration of Pride Month last year. So we were pleased to see the university let this year’s June Pride Month pass in silence.
Until we discovered the NDAA had taken over.
The NDAA opened June with a Facebook invitation “to join ARCND to celebrate” Pride Month, and our limited search showed that alumni clubs in Boston, , El Paso, Quad Cities, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and New York did just that, with the New York Club’s Facebook site featuring a rainbow-colored Empire State Building superimposed over a silhouette of the Golden Dome.
The Boston club in particular went all out with invitations to alumni to eyebrow-raising events sponsored by others — “Love Conquers All Drag Show” and “Drag Bingo” – and its own “Pride Night at Fenway Park.”
Alienation of alumni
At the same time, since ARCND was bound to divide, we weren’t surprised to find that many clubs, perhaps most for all we know, ignored the NDAA.
One club president wrote us:
[indent/] I was particularly upset when I received my LGBTQ+ Tool Kit from Notre Dame, which encouraged me to celebrate Pride Month and spread the LGBTQ+ queer message throughout my Club community.
[indent/] I tolerate and love ALL of God’s children, regardless of their personal choices, but I will not use my position as [a club president] to celebrate, promote, and encourage deviant behavior. If that becomes a requirement of Club Presidents, I will submit my resignation the same day.”
At least one club has already suffered major disruption. We have confirmed that, due to resignations over ARCND, the Oklahoma City club is left with no officers and only three board members. Its Facebook site does not record any activity after an April, 2001 announcement of the formation of ARCND.
NDAA, ARCND, and Same-Sex “Marriage”
We have previously recounted:
- How NDAA collaborated with the unofficial Gay & Lesbian Alumni Club of Notre Dame (GALA) to establish ARCND;
- How GALA has repeatedly evidenced its hostility to Church teaching on sex, marriage, and gender;
- How NDAA appointed appointed the same-sex married president of GALA as the chair of ARC ND; and
- How half of the ARC leadership team is in same-sex marriages.
We have now examined the entire membership of ARCND and find what one would expect, namely, that its marriage model is same-sex marriage. While most of the 503 alumni members don’t disclose marital status, 109 (22%) report same-sex marriages.
More, a recent NDAA video continues its practice of publicizing same-sex married alumni under a “We Are Notre Dame” banner — but this time with an interesting twist.
The new video opens with an image showing a rainbow superimposed on the Dome and Basilica; it continues with ARCND endorsements by three persons with the familiar refrain, “We are Notre Dame”; and it closes with the exhortation “Pride Month is Over But Our Work is Just Beginning.”
But this time NDAA didn’t identify their spokespersons, so we investigated and identified two of them as Paul Burke, the chair of ARCND, and Jennifer Grubb, a board member.
Both are in same sex marriages.
NDAA did not question our finding, nor did it respond to our request to identify the third spokesperson.
LGBTQ Student Admissions
In an illuminating Irish Rover article about the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program, Joe DeReuil, the new Rover editor-in-chief, reported what admissions officer Don Bishop had to say about how the program impacts admissions.
Bishop explained that initially “diversity was only meant to be race and ethnicity, then it was broadened to include “socio-economic,” and now “it’s included additional cultural orientation, which may include but not be limited to LGBTQ.
[indent/] [T]hose are probably the biggest right now: race, ethnicity, socio-economic, LGBTQ, and Gender.
That is to say, the drive now is to attract to Notre Dame more students from a cohort the vast majority of whom are hostile to Church teaching.
And it seems to be working. Bill Dempsey wrote information officer Dennis Brown that we had been told “more LGBT students were admitted [last year] than at any time in the past” and asked him to tell us if that was incorrect. “If I have it right,” Bill concluded, “of course you need not reply.”
He did not.
Finally, in a related action Notre Dame assumed management of GALA’s scholarship program for “qualifying LGBTQ+ students.”
LGBT Recruitment Case Study
This “affirmative action” LGBT program presumably accounts for the appointment as “Recruitment Representative” of graduate students like Lau Ortiz-Mercado (whose preferred pronoun is “they”).
Describing Ortiz-Mercado as “a passionate activist and social rights advocate,” the English Department reported:
[Indent/][T]hey participate in several organizations that seek to bring visibility to the challenges faced by members from marginalized and underrepresented sectors, including latinx and BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] students, and members of the LGBTTQIA+ community.[indent\]
“Passionate” is perhaps too conservative an adjective for rancorous tweets like this:
[Indent/]If you celebrate #pride but don’t support the current riots for @BlackLivesMatter let me tell you you’re a hypocrite.” [Indent\]
Having completed graduate work at Notre Dame, Dr. Ortiz-Mercado has just become an “Academic and College Advisor” at Culver Academies, a prominent Indiana secondary school. In introducing “them” to the Culver community, the school told of “their” LCBTTQIA, BIPOC and Latinx activism and led with “their” Notre Dame credentials.
[indent/]Dr. Lau Ortiz-Mercado is joining Culver Academies . . . after having spent the last five years as a Graduate School Representative and Recruiter for the University of Notre Dame. [indent\]
Having represented Notre Dame to prospective students as a Recruitment Representative, Dr. Ortiz-Mercado is now the face of Notre Dame to students and parents at Culver.
Gender Theory at Notre Dame
The Church teaches that a person’s sex and gender are one and unchangeable from birth. Pope Francis has denounced it as a “great falsehood” and “a great enemy of marriage.” And the Congregation for Catholic Education has warned that it has caused an “educational crisis.”
As Pope Benedict XVI declared:
[quote] The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious. People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being./[quote]
But this “profound falsehood” seems no longer obvious to Notre Dame. Rather, the contrary. A “New Student Requirement Form” asks:
[indent/]What sex were you assigned at birth on your original birth certificate?[indent\]
[indent/]What is your current gender identity? (Male; Female; Transgender/Male/Transgender man/Female to Male (FTM); Transgender Female/Transgender Woman/ Male to Female (MTF); Genderqueer – neither exclusively male nor female; Other; Choose not to disclose.)[indent\]
[indent/]Preferred Pronouns.[indent\]
Thus does the university implicitly confirm these young men and women in their grievous error.
Theology Department, God, and preferred pronouns.
Notre Dame’s Theology Department is evidently beset by a gender controversy on a rather higher plane – the “preferred pronouns” to be used in referring to God.
In its “Inclusive Language Statement,” the Department acknowledges “the ongoing debate and conflicting views about gender-sensitive language for God,” and declares:
[indent/]As a result, the department currently adopts no formal policy statement concerning language for God.[indent\]
However that may be, one may hope that in this estimable department the dominant practice accords with Scripture, tradition, and the Catechism in uniformly in countless instances using masculine terms with respect to God, a spirit without gender.
Paragraph 370 of the Catechism is succinct:
[indent/]In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman (emphasis supplied). [indent\]
Trustees’ Task Force Report
In June of last year, a Board of Trustees task force issued a comprehensive ’Report on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’’ that has possible ramifications respecting the Catholic identity of the school that we will examine in a later bulletin.
For present purposes, the report is important for two reasons:
First, it provides no warrant for either the admission of more of LGBT students or an LGBT alumni group. The focus is exclusively on improving representation of “Black, Hispanic/ Latino, Asian, and Native American members of this community.”
Second, the Task Force recommended “ongoing Board oversight of these critical initiatives.”
Accordingly, we will provide the Board with our Open Letter to Dolly Duffy and our related reports about how the administration’s and NDAA’s actions are undermining Notre Dame’s Catholic mission and character.
The Open Letter
These developments underscore the gravity of our Open Letter requesting Dolly Duffy to explain NDAA’s actions. We urge all who have not joined the letter to do so now.
Conclusion
The Church teaches that, while persons with a homosexual orientation “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and while “every sign of unjust discrimination “ must be avoided, homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” that are “intrinsically disordered,” “contrary to the natural law,” and “under no circumstances [to] be approved.”
This proscription, once widely shared, has become more and more unpopular over a remarkably short period of time. Colleges and universities have led the way, scorning traditional Christian values as odious and branding hateful those who express them. In these circumstances, it is deeply disappointing – if, sadly, unsurprising — to see the Jenkins administration act as if this constitutive Church teaching does not exist instead of standing fast with the Church against the tides of the times.
9 Responses
As the mother of a daughter who developed a same-sex sexual inclination as the result of the perfect storm, I Love my daughter, as I Love all my children, and because I Love my daughter, I desire that she, like all my children, develop healthy and Holy relationships and friendships that are grounded in authentic Life-affirming and Life-sustaining Love, and thus respectful of the inherent Dignity of all beloved sons and daughters.
I am particularly heartbroken that Our Lady’s University would decide, during the month of June, dedicated to The Sacred Heart Of Jesus, Our Lord And Savior, to not only tolerate, accommodate, justify, affirm, and now celebrate sexual relationships and thus sexual acts that regardless of the actors or the actor’s desires, even if the actor’s be a man and woman, united in marriage as husband and wife, are physically, psychologically, mentally, and spiritually harmful, and deny the inherent Dignity of every beloved son or daughter. The only question that we must ask the administration of Our Lady’s University is what is the redeeming value in the toleration, accommodation, justification, affirmation, and celebration of demeaning sexual acts among any persons, and how do demeaning sexual acts affirm the inherent Dignity of the human person who is first and foremost a beloved son or daughter, worthy of being treated with Dignity and respect in public and in private.
J.M.J.
First and foremost, reordering persons according to sexual desire/inclination/orientation, which sexually objectifies the human person and denies the inherent Dignity of being, in essence, a beloved son or daughter, is in direct violation of God’s Commandment regarding lust and the sin of adultery.
Authentic Love, which is always rightly ordered to the inherent personal and relational Dignity of the persons existing in a relationship of Love, is devoid of every form of lust.
What separates marriage from every other Loving relationship, is the ability and desire to exist in relationship as husband and wife. The marital act is Life-affirming and Life-sustaining, and can only be consummated between a man and woman who have both the ability and desire to exist in relationship as husband and wife. Marriage cannot both be and not be, existing in relationship as husband and wife, simultaneously. Catholics recognize and affirm that Christ instituted The Sacraments Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, grounded in respect for The Sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death, and respect for the Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament Of Holy Matrimony, as all Catholics are Called to Holiness in private as well as in public. to witness to Perfect Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
Regardless of the actors or the actor’s desires, the desire to engage in a demeaning act of any nature, does not change the essence of the demeaning act. Regardless of the actors, or the actor’s desires, even if the actors be a man and woman united in marriage as husband and wife, demeaning acts, including demeaning sexual acts, deny the inherent Dignity of being a beloved son or daughter. It is not unjust to discriminate against demeaning sexual acts and thus demeaning sexual behavior, in fact, Authentic Love requires that we do not tolerate, accommodate, justify, or affirm demeaning sexual acts and cooperate with denying the inherent Dignity of a beloved son or daughter, which is evil.
All Catholics are Called to Holiness in private as well as in public, thus every Catholic, in communion with Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church recognize that this statement is anti Christ and by denying The Deposit Of Faith, ipso facto separates oneself from The Body Of Christ:
“If there is a union of a private nature, there is neither a third party, nor is society affected. Now, if the union is given the category of marriage, there could be children affected. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help shape their identity.”
This statement of Apostasy denies The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and the fact that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, while denying sin done in private is sin.
“It is not possible to have Sacramental Communion without Ecclesial Communion”, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), for it Is “ Through Christ, With Christ, And In Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, (Filioque), That Holy Mother Church, outside of which there is no Salvation, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, (Filioque), exists. Those Baptized Catholics, who deny The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, even if the Baptized Catholic has been elected to The Papacy, having not repented of their denial of The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, being both anti Filioque and anti Papacy, ipso facto, become part of a schismatic church created in their own image.
Dear Blessed Mother Mary, Mirror Of Justice And Destroyer Of All Heresy, Who Through Your Fiat, Affirmed The Filioque, and thus the fact that There Is Only One Son Of God, One Word Of God Made Flesh, One Lamb Of God Who Can Taketh Away The Sins Of The World, Our Only Savior, Jesus The Christ, thus there can only be, One Spirit Of Perfect Complementary Love Between The Father And The Son, Who Must Proceed From Both The Father And The Son, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity (Filioque), hear our Prayer that A True Pope, and those Faithful Bishops In Communion With Christ and His Church, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, will do The Consecration Of Russia to your Immaculate Heart, exactly as you requested, visibly separating the counterfeit schismatic church from The True Church Of Christ, and affirming The Filioque. Although at the end of the Day, it is still a Great Mystery, It is no Mystery, that we exist, because God, The Communion Of Perfect Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque) Exists.
J.M.J.
We express our thoughts through our words and our deeds.
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
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.
When we know longer respect the inherent Dignity of the essence of being, in essence, a beloved son or daughter, brother or sister, husband or wife, father or mother, no one should be surprised that it follows, as the night, the day, that we know longer uphold respect for the desire that our children grow up to be young ladies and young gentlemen, seeking in all things, The Good, The Beautiful, and That Which Is True.
ND sold its soul a long time ago. Short of a change from Jenkins and bot, it will remain so.
Unfortunately, our American culture is now dominated by a totally secular media and Democratic party political philosophy. Bring a personal Roman Catholic does not fit into this culture. Thus a Catholic Notre Dame University can not fit easily into this Culture. Catholic Notre Dame philosophy and church tradition for 2,000 years is not even close to the dominant cultural philosophy for life today in America. In other words the current socially correct poison being breathed by most Americans must not be allowed to drift into the air of Notre Dame period.
I believe; that is all, everything.
Do you desire Salvation for yourself and your beloved or do you desire you and your beloved remain in sin, and not overcome our disordered inclinations towards sin by our denial of Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy?
Do you believe in those Words to believed by Divine and Catholic Faith that have been “Written or handed down by Tradition, that is in the single Deposit Of Faith Entrusted by Christ to His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost”?
Do you believe, “unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more”?
Father “believed deeply not only that Notre Dame held a responsibility for the moral and spiritual formation of its students, but also that the good character and religious convictions of its graduates spoke eloquently to the success of the university’s approach. (Ibid. p. 93)”
Our Blessed Mother’s University cannot be a force for Good, while accommodating thoughts, words, or deeds that promote that which does not serve that which is True, Beautiful, and thus Good.
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.
To deny The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), Is to deny The Divinity Of The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, and thus deny The Sacramental Nature Of Perfect Complementary Love.
“For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the Revelation, the Deposit of Faith, delivered through the Apostles, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost. (Filioque)
27No man can enter into the house of a strong man and rob him of his goods, unless he first bind the strong man, and then shall he plunder his house.“
Thus, Our Lady’s University has been entrusted by Her founders to hold fast to The Deposit Of Faith Entrusted To Our Blessed Mother’s University, Through, With, And In Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost.
Perfect Love does not divide, it multiplies, (Filioque), as in the Miracle Of The Loaves and Fishes
“And calling the multitude together with his disciples, he said to them: If any man will follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: ““and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel shall save it. 36For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul? 37Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul: 38For he that shall be ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation: the Son of man also will be ashamed of him, when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
“28Amen I say to you that all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and the blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme: 29But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, shall never have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting sin. 30Because they said: He hath an unclean spirit.”
It has always been about The Marriage In Heaven and on Earth. The Sacrifice Of The Cross Is The Sacrifice Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), “ For God so Loved us that He Sent His Only Son…”
“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
I agree – I do not want my grandchildren growing up thinking it is “ok” for a man to sleep with another man or to kiss another man in a sexual way! The minds of our children are so confused and propaganda like the poster and the play are simply a way to shove homosexuality down our throats without our permission!
No disrespect for Jeanette’s sincere comment, consider this alternative. Try to view the devolution of values at Notre Dame with some whimsy, with a long view, as the “New Eve” Our Immaculate “Mom of all” might hold. Perhaps Her tears are balanced with a long-suffering Mom’s sense of the struggles and limitations of Her “enfants?” How often in the last century has She seen the leaders, staff, faculty and students of her beloved University be tempted off the “true path of FAith and Truth” by some “next new shiny object,” some “false god” or “secular idol.” Perhaps she summons an indulgent or sardonic smile as she watches the unfolding history and future of Notre Dame? (“Let’s see how many errors little Johnnie Jenkins makes this day, eh?” “How far will he chase unicorns down the rainbow path?” “Will he ever recognize the moments of epiphany placed before him?” “It is so gratifying to see the core, the remnant, faithful students who maintain true values amidst all the temptation spread before them on campus–the few who are pro-life.” “I wonder if My Spouse, My Son, and good old Peter have enough millstones in stock for those who mislead so many of our students?” Huge sigh…;-) Perhaps we need to hear God and Our Lady “laughing?” Steve
To make a mockery of what Catholicism stands for is a gross injustice. Our Lady must be shedding many tears. I do not know how they can continue to say that they are a Catholic University. They should be God centered and not adhere to the secular world.