The EWTN News portal reports on a February 27, 2026, prayer vigil at the University of Notre Dame, organized by students after the withdrawal of pro-abortion professor Susan Ostermann from a leadership appointment. The event, co-sponsored by major campus Catholic clubs, shifted from a planned protest to a vigil of “thanksgiving and support for Notre Dame’s Catholic mission.” Students expressed gratitude for the withdrawal while voicing concerns about persistent modernist elements within the administration, particularly Provost John McGreevy. The article frames the outcome as a “victory” in the battle for the university’s Catholic identity, emphasizing a spirit of love and prayer over protest.
This narrative, however, masks a profound and damning theological reality: the “victory” is a superficial, naturalistic triumph within an institution that remains structurally and doctrinally apostate. The entire episode exposes the bankruptcy of a “Catholic identity” detached from the immutable dogmas and moral laws of the pre-1958 Church, revealing instead a sentimental, humanistic project utterly incompatible with the reign of Christ the King.
The Naturalistic Reduction of “Catholic Identity”
The article’s language is dripping with the naturalism condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus Errorum. The focus is on “identity,” “mission,” and “university listening” as if these were ends in themselves. This is a deliberate omission of the supernatural. There is no mention of the state of grace, the necessity of the sacraments for salvation, the reality of mortal sin (specifically, the mortal sin of public, obstinate heresy and scandal committed by a professor advocating abortion), or the final judgment. The “Catholic mission” is presented as a vague institutional ethos—a “positive vision”—rather than the exclusive mission of the one true Church to teach all nations and baptize them, commanding belief in all that she defines (cf. Lamentabili sane exitu, prop. 22; Quas Primas, Pius XI).
The prayer vigil’s stated purpose—”thanksgiving and support for Notre Dame’s Catholic mission”—is a masterpiece of modernist equivocation. It thanks a human institution for a tactical retreat, not God for the conversion of a sinner or the defense of His law. This mirrors the “false striving for novelty” condemned by St. Pius X, where the “heritage of humanity” (here, a vague Catholic ethos) is “rejected” in favor of a new, evolutionist concept of mission. The students’ love for “her Catholic mission and her identity” is a love for a symbol, not for the Deposit of Faith. It is the same error as proposition 58 of Lamentabili: “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him.” Notre Dame’s “identity” is treated as a developing concept, not a sacred, unchangeable trust.
The Silence of Damnation and the Omission of Hierarchical Duty
The most grave omission is the complete silence on the canonical and theological consequences of Professor Ostermann’s public heresy. A Catholic who publicly and obstinately promotes abortion—calling it “freedom-enhancing” and attacking
Source:
Students pray for Notre Dame’s Catholic identity after dispute over pro-abortion professor (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 28.02.2026