Notre Dame’s Abortion Advocate Appointment Exposes Conciliar Apostasy
EWTN News reports (February 5, 2026) that University of Notre Dame students, including Chinese adoptee Anna Kelley, protest Professor Susan Ostermann’s appointment as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. The Notre Dame Right to Life executive board cites Ostermann’s pro-abortion writings describing pro-life laws as “white supremacy” and her consultancy for the Population Council – an organization complicit in China’s one-child policy enforcement through forced abortions. Ostermann defends her appointment by invoking “academic freedom” and “plurality of voices,” while Holy Cross priest Fr. Bill Miscamble calls the appointment “untenable.” This episode reveals the spiritual bankruptcy of institutions claiming Catholic identity while embracing anti-life ideologies.
Sacred Truth Versus “Academic Freedom”
The students correctly identify the contradictio in adiecto (contradiction in terms) of a Catholic university appointing an abortion advocate. Ostermann’s defense relies on the modernist distortion of “academic freedom” – a concept condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors: “Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood” (Error #3). Her claim to support Notre Dame’s “focus on integral human development” while promoting abortion constitutes theological fraud. Quas Primas definitively establishes that Christ’s kingship demands “all relations in the state be ordered on the basis of God’s commandments” (Pius XI, 1925). There exists no “plurality” concerning intrinsic evils – only truth versus error.
Population Council’s Genocidal Legacy
Ostermann’s affiliation with the Population Council implicates her in China’s demographic genocide. The council’s collaboration with Communist authorities in enforcing abortion policies directly violates Casti Connubii: “Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects” (Pius XI, 1930). Kelley’s testimony as a one-child policy survivor exposes the bloody fruits of this anti-life ideology. That Notre Dame would elevate an accomplice to such crimes demonstrates the conciliar sect’s complete abandonment of Gaudium Evangelii – the Church’s missionary imperative to convert nations rather than accommodate their errors.
Theological Subversion Through Language
Ostermann’s rhetoric follows the modernist playbook condemned in Lamentabili Sane: “Revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Error #20). By framing pro-life laws as “racist,” she employs Marxist critical theory to subvert Catholic morality. This aligns with the conciliar sect’s embrace of liberation theology, which Paul VI tolerated and Bergoglio institutionalized. The students’ letter correctly identifies this as advocacy “in an inflammatory way,” but fails to recognize it as formal heresy against Humanae Vitae‘s immutable teaching that abortion constitutes “abominable crime” (Paul VI, 1968).
Institutional Apostasy at Notre Dame
Fr. Miscamble’s opposition, while commendable, remains insufficient. As a Holy Cross priest serving an institution that permits abortion advocates on faculty, he participates in the scandal. Notre Dame long ago ceased being Catholic when it embraced the “Land O’Lakes heresy” in 1967 – declaring independence from ecclesiastical authority. The university’s continued use of Marian imagery constitutes spiritual deception, fulfilling Our Lord’s warning about “ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15). True Catholics must heed Pius XI’s injunction: “It is unlawful to follow one line of conduct in private life and another in public” (Ubi Arcano, 1922).
Conclusion: Return to Christ the King
This scandal confirms the prophetic warnings of St. Pius X: “The enemies of the Church are no longer waiting to disperse her from without; they are stationed in her very bosom” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 1907). Until Notre Dame and all conciliar institutions repent by submitting to pre-1958 magisterial authority, they remain complicit in the Culture of Death. Let faithful Catholics heed the students’ courageous witness by rejecting all compromise with modernity and working to restore the Social Reign of Christ the King.
Source:
Adoptee from China, student leaders speak out against Notre Dame abortion advocate appointee (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 05.02.2026