Notre Dame’s Evisceration of Catholic Identity Signals Apostate Trajectory

The Catholic News Agency portal reports on the University of Notre Dame’s elimination of “acceptance and support for the Catholic mission” from staff values, framing this as part of a broader “update” to institutional priorities. Heather Christophersen, the university’s Human Resources President, claims this change intends to make Catholic mission “all-encompassing” while simultaneously admitting the institution does not monitor staff religious affiliation. The article contrasts this with positive developments in other dioceses – Hartford’s new schools and St. Anselm College’s $40 million donation – presenting Notre Dame’s secularization as merely administrative refinement.

Formal Abandonment of Supernatural Ends

The removal of the Leadership in Mission value constitutes a public repudiation of Notre Dame’s raison d’être as a Catholic institution. Pius XI’s encyclical Divini Illius Magistri (1929) explicitly condemned educational systems that “exclude religious teaching from their curriculum” (n. 48). By stripping staff evaluations of any reference to advancing Catholic truth, Notre Dame implements the very secularization condemned in the Syllabus of Errors: “The entire government of public schools… may and ought to appertain to the civil power” (Proposition 45).

Christophersen’s claim that Catholic mission becomes “all-encompassing” through its elimination from staff values embodies the hermeneutic of rupture – the modernist lie that authentic Catholicism emerges through negation of its defining principles. As Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Modernists employ “ambiguity in their speech” to mask apostasy (n. 42). The new values – Community, Collaboration, Excellence, Innovation – replicate corporate HR jargon utterly divorced from the telos of Catholic education: the sanctification of souls through adherence to revealed truth.

Theological Vacuum Invites Naturalism

Notre Dame’s replacement values constitute pure naturalism, omitting any reference to:

The primacy of grace over human effort
Obedience to divine revelation
The Four Last Things (death, judgment, heaven, hell)

This reduction aligns perfectly with the condemned proposition: “The entire government of public schools… should be fully subjected to the civil and political power” (Syllabus of Errors, Proposition 47). The university now functionally operates under Masonic principles of religious indifferentism, condemned by Pius IX: “Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ” (Proposition 17).

The article’s praise for Hartford diocese’s new schools requires critical examination. While increased enrollment suggests parental rejection of public school decadence, Archbishop Coyne’s statement – emphasizing Catholic schools as refuges from “politics” rather than factories of saints – reveals dangerous naturalism. Authentic Catholic education exists not to provide “less politics” but to form citizens for Christ the King, as Pius XI declared: “The Church… is the authoritative and infallible teacher of the truths of faith and morals” (Quas Primas, n. 21).

Wealth as Substitute for Sanctity

The uncritical celebration of St. Anselm College’s $40 million donation exemplifies the neo-church’s inversion of values. Christ warned, “Woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation” (Luke 6:24). While material resources may aid education, their presentation as primary indicators of success embodies the conciliar church’s embrace of capitalist materialism. The donation’s allocation – business school naming rights, athletic complexes – prioritizes worldly prestige over spiritual goods, fulfilling Pius X’s warning: “The desire for possessions becomes a means to an end… and man is led to find his rest in the accumulation of wealth” (Notre Charge Apostolique, 1910).

The Great Apostasy Institutionalized

Notre Dame’s actions manifest the conciliar sect’s complete rupture from Catholic ecclesiology. As the Syllabus condemned those who claim “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Proposition 18), Notre Dame now functionally equates Catholic mission with secular humanism. This trajectory began with the university’s 1967 Land O’Lakes Declaration asserting independence from Church authority – a foundational document of the conciliar revolution.

The article’s failure to condemn Notre Dame’s apostasy – instead presenting it as neutral “news” – reflects the broader conciliar collapse. Authentic Catholic journalism would echo Pius XI’s condemnation: “When God and Jesus Christ are removed from laws and states… the entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation” (Quas Primas, n. 18). By normalizing Notre Dame’s betrayal, the Catholic News Agency portal becomes complicit in the destruction it claims to report.

Source:
Notre Dame drops ‘acceptance and support for Catholic mission’ from staff values (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 16.11.2025