This Bulletin is the second in a three-part series highlighting presentations by our three distinguished speakers at the Sycamore Trust Annual Breakfast during Reunion Weekend at Notre Dame.
Our first Bulletin featured Professor O. Carter Snead, who proposed a framework for evaluating Notre Dame’s Catholic mission based on the University’s Mission Statement. He identified four pillars that sustain the University’s Catholic identity: its students, faculty, leadership, and the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Of those four, Professor Snead emphasized that “faculty is the ballgame,” calling faculty hiring and retention “the linchpin of preserving the mission of the University of Notre Dame.”
Our second speaker, Sycamore Trust Founder and Chairman Bill Dempsey, examined that faculty question directly. He focused on whether Notre Dame still possesses the “predominant number of Catholic intellectuals” on its faculty that the University’s Mission Statement declares essential to preserving its Catholic identity.
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Speaking by Zoom from his home in Arlington, Virginia, because of the illness of his wife, Mary (who is much better now), Dempsey examined the radical decline in Catholic faculty at Notre Dame since Father Hesburgh was appointed President in 1953, and why he believes it remains the most important long-term issue facing the University.
Dempsey is a distinguished Notre Dame alumnus, Yale-trained lawyer, and longtime advocate for Catholic higher education. A 1952 Notre Dame graduate and class valedictorian, he went on to Yale Law School, served as law clerk to Judge Charles Fahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and later as chief law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States Supreme Court. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., became chief labor negotiator for the railroad industry, and served as president of the Association of American Railroads.
But Notre Dame alumni know him best as the founder of Sycamore Trust, which under his leadership has become the nation’s foremost independent alumni organization dedicated to preserving the Catholic identity of a Catholic university.
Why Faculty Matters
After thanking Professor Snead for his “inspiring” description of many encouraging signs of Catholic renewal on campus, Dempsey turned to the darker story of a decades-long decline in Catholic faculty representation that has become so grave that the administration now conceals the data. The University may well now fail its own test of Catholic identity—“the continuing presence of a predominant number” of Catholic faculty.
The phrase “predominant number of Catholic intellectuals” appears directly in the University’s Mission Statement and is familiar to Sycamore readers. Dempsey reminded listeners that this language was not added casually. It was adopted after intense internal debate at Notre Dame during the Edward Malloy administration over how the University could preserve its Catholic identity while pursuing academic excellence.
Dempsey emphasized that then-President Malloy said that “that means more than a mere majority” – noting that colleges and universities are ultimately shaped by the people who teach, conduct research, mentor students, and establish the intellectual culture of the institution.
Drawing from numerous studies that have looked closely at the dynamics of secularization of formerly religious institutions of higher learning, Dempsey noted that the story of the secularization of these schools is the story of the secularization of their faculties.
Schools such as Yale, Princeton, and the University of Chicago were all founded as Protestant institutions. Over time, however, they ceased to be identified with their founding faith traditions. According to Dempsey, the cause in every case was the “loss by the faculty of its anchor in the founding religion.”
The secularization or Catholic schools began much later in the 1960s, Dempsey said, but has developed more swiftly. It was well along by 1990 when St. Pope John Paul II promulgated his apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae on Catholic higher education in which he emphasized the importance of Catholic faculty.
And in applying this teaching to the United States, the bishops declared:
A Catholic university or college should have a majority of Catholics committed to the witness of the faith.
The Notre Dame Story
Illustrating the urgency of the matter under the Dome, Dempsey traced the decline in Catholic representation on Notre Dame’s faculty during the previous three administrations.
When Father Theodore Hesburgh became president in 1953, Notre Dame’s faculty was approximately 85 percent Catholic. As the University expanded and sought to increase its academic stature, that percentage declined significantly.
Over time, University leaders became increasingly concerned about the implications of those changes.
The concern reached a particularly significant point during the Malloy administration, when Catholic faculty representation declined into the mid-fifties. The resulting debate eventually led to the adoption of the present Mission Statement affirming that:
Notre Dame’s Catholic identity depends upon the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals.
That history is especially noteworthy because it demonstrates that faculty composition is not merely a concern raised by outside observers. Catholic faculty has long been recognized by Notre Dame itself as essential to preserving the University’s Catholic character.
The chart’s lowest point coincides with the beginning of Rev. John I. Jenkins’s presidency, the controversy over the on-campus production of “The Vagina Monologues,” and the founding of Sycamore Trust in response to concerns about Notre Dame’s Catholic identity. The most recent publicly available data on the religious composition of the faculty, released in 2019, showed that 54 percent identified as Catholic. Since then, the University has declined to release updated figures.
The Transparency Problem
Even if Notre Dame possesses many outstanding Catholic scholars—and it clearly does—are their numbers sufficient for a controlling voice to sustain the University’s Catholic identity over the long term? The administration’s actions raise grave doubt.
During Sycamore Trust’s first thirteen years, the administration furnished data on Catholic faculty representation each year, and each year we published that information. That allowed alumni and other interested parties to evaluate Notre Dame’s progress in fulfilling its own Mission Statement commitments.
But when that figure dropped to 54 percent in 2018, the administration shut the door. Since then, it has not responded to repeated requests for the faculty data.
Dempsey declared:
I personally think that’s unconscionable.
The University represents to parents, students, donors, alumni and the public that it is Catholic, and it says to be Catholic it must have a predominant number of Catholics on the faculty.
But it refuses to disclose whether or not it does.
As Dempsey observed, donors, alumni, students, parents, and other members of the Notre Dame family are entitled to know whether the institution is living up to its own stated commitments.
In the seven years during which the University has hidden the data, it is surely possible, if not probable, that Catholic faculty are now a minority, even counting dissenting and non-practicing Catholics. The University may well no longer meet its own test of Catholic identity.
Note: A fuller examination of the faculty issue—including the historical data, faculty trends, the role of mission hiring, and the implications of the University’s decision to discontinue disclosure—will be the subject of a forthcoming Bulletin.
Hope and Confidence
Although Dempsey’s presentation focused on serious concerns, it ended on a distinctly hopeful note – praising Notre Dame’s faithful students, dedicated faculty members, sacramental life, and enduring Catholic culture.
It’s a grand place still, notwithstanding the problems that we’ve encountered.
Most importantly, he expressed confidence that Notre Dame’s future remains in God’s hands.
I have absolute faith that the Blessed Mother will not let her university stray far from the Church of her Son and Lord Jesus Christ.
He concluded with words from St. John Paul II that served as both encouragement and challenge:
Never, ever give up on hope. Never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged.
Professor Snead’s presentation highlighted the encouraging signs of Catholic renewal visible across campus. Bill Dempsey’s remarks reminded listeners why those signs matter—and why continued vigilance regarding faculty composition remains essential if Notre Dame is to preserve the distinctive Catholic mission that makes it worthy of the name of the Blessed Mother’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
O God of Truth and Love, You have called us into a loving and faithful relationship with You. Your Son identified Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and called us to follow Him wherever He goes.
In their care for and guardianship of the University and the students it serves, may the administrators of the University of Notre Dame always commit themselves to the pursuit and embrace of the Truth, which alone can set us free.
May the Holy Spirit lead them into all truth and recall them to it in times of peril. May they embrace the sorrow that comes from being different from, and rejected by, the world, so that they may rejoice always in the goodness of the Lord.
In the day of battle, may they joyfully take courage in Him who has already overcome the world.
We make our prayer through the intercession of Notre Dame, Our Mother, and 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.
The above prayer is by Sycamore Trustee Father John Raphael (’89). To join us in regular prayer projects such as our Novena for Catholic Education and our Meditation on the 12-Days of Christmas, please join our Apostolate.
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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.
