SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A review of the University of Notre Dame’s core curriculum that will examine and likely make recommendations regarding the historic institution’s Catholic identity is being played close to the vest among officials charged with the study.
Typically, a review of Notre Dame’s core curriculum is conducted every decade, and this one takes place at a time when the issue of Catholic identity at “Our Lady’s University” and other Catholic institutions of higher learning remains a hot-button one for many U.S. Catholics.
The core-curriculum review committee includes 14 members of Notre Dame’s faculty and staff and is chaired by Gregory Crawford, dean of the College of Science, and John McGreevy, dean of the College of Arts and Letters. Both declined to speak to the Register.
Among the three focus groups formed to advise the committee is one entitled the Catholic Mission Focus Group, whose chairman is Mark Roche, professor of German language, literature and philosophy. Roche is also a member of the larger core-curriculum review committee.
Roche said in an email that “it would be inappropriate for me as a committee member to speak with the media when we are still in the midst of our campus discussions.”
“The curriculum review is in the early stages of an at least two-year process, and a variety of proposals are being discussed,” Dennis Brown, the university’s spokesman and vice president for news and media relations, said in an email message that declined to discuss the review.
“We won't offer observations on the process until it is complete and recommendations, if any, are adopted,” Brown added.
‘The Most Important Component’
The current requirement that all undergraduates take two theology courses signals the university’s commitment to its Catholic identity. But some at Notre Dame are concerned that this requirement could be changed.
“The core curriculum, with the theology requirement, is probably the most important component of Catholic identity,” said John Cavadini, director of the Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame, former head of the theology department and a member of the Catholic identity focus group.
“I think that there is a real possibility that we could lose the requirement of two theology courses. There is a lot hanging in the balance with this review. And there seems to be an aggressive push behind radical change, which they are now starting to call ‘bold change.’”
“Theology is the only discipline with a formal tie to the Church,” Cavadini continued. “If you sever that tie between the core curriculum and the theology requirement, you sever the last formal or structural tie between the Church and the curriculum as a whole.”
Msgr. Michael Heintz, who teaches courses on the history of Christianity in Notre Dame’s theology department and is director of the department’s master of divinity program, echoed Cavadini’s concerns. Msgr. Heintz said that some are worried that the basic theology requirement will be altered so that it could be met by courses loosely defined as “Catholic studies.”
Another faculty member speculated that a course on Milton’s Paradise Lost or Shakespeare plays that have theological content could be offered under the Catholic-studies umbrella and thus approved as an acceptable alternative to a traditional theology course.
Msgr. Heintz said that such courses could be “very appealing” as a way to meet theology-curriculum requirements but “could be construed so broadly that they would not have much theological content.”
Faculty members have been invited to contribute their ideas to the core-curriculum review committee.
Father Miscamble’s Concerns
Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, who teaches in Notre Dame’s history department, wrote a letter calling for the university to both maintain and even strengthen its emphasis on Catholic identity through the curriculum.
In his hard-hitting Nov. 11 letter, Father Miscamble claimed that Notre Dame has “given up on providing some kind of integrated curriculum appropriate for the leading Catholic university we regularly proclaim ourselves to be.”
He urged the committee to use the review to address what he viewed as problematic areas of the curriculum.
Father Miscamble quoted Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 address to U.S. Catholic educators in Washington, in which he said that “every Catholic educational institution is a place to encounter the living God, who, in Jesus Christ, reveals his transforming love and truth. This relationship elicits a desire to grow in the knowledge and understanding of Christ and his teaching.”
“We all know well that, in many ways, intellect has been detached from morality in the contemporary and utilitarian university,” Father Miscamble wrote to review-committee chairmen McGreevy and Crawford. “Notre Dame must truly dare to be different in contesting this separation.”
Father Miscamble expressed “strong support” for the theology and philosophy requirements of the current core curriculum but said that the course offerings should be improved. He emphasized that while the university has excellent theology instructors, “too often, our first-year students don’t see them when they take foundations courses because they are taught by doctoral students.”
Father Miscamble also proposed an interdisciplinary requirement “that could serve to familiarize students with what might be broadly termed the Catholic intellectual tradition.”
Back in 2007, Father Miscamble wrote an article, “The Faculty Problem,” which spotlighted Notre Dame’s mixed record on hiring new faculty who would help strengthen and advance its Catholic identity.
The article chided Notre Dame for stopping short of offering a faculty position to the famous Catholic historian Eamon Duffy, author of The Stripping of the Altars, while at the same time extending one to an atheist Chaucer scholar. Now, seven years later, Father Miscamble expressed the hope that the curriculum review would address Notre Dame’s faculty-hiring policies.
“Let me simply say that the faculty issue is crucial,” he said in an email to the Register. “Notre Dame must build upon the presence of the committed faculty presently there to recruit more devoted teachers and scholars who want to offer a distinctive Catholic education for its students.
“Only if this task is successfully accomplished will Notre Dame rest secure in its Catholic identity. This must be appreciated by all, but especially by those who undertake the curriculum review. We must have the faculty willing to teach the courses that a Catholic university must provide its students.”
More Support for Strong Catholic Identity
Another faculty member, who serves on the larger core-curriculum review committee and asked not to be named, agreed that preserving the university’s Catholic identity is essential to what makes Notre Dame a great institution.
“Of course, the Catholic world is concerned, and that is right and proper,” the faculty member said, stressing that “Catholic identity is so important at Notre Dame that it needed a focus group devoted to it.”
The faculty member is not Catholic, but he said he especially values the Catholic Church’s teachings about social justice and described Notre Dame as “a great research university that is also faith-based.”
If Notre Dame did not maintain its Catholic identity, he concluded, “it would not be a great university.”
Sister Ann Astell, a Notre Dame theology professor, said she would love to see the theology requirement for undergraduates strengthened.
“I certainly hope the theology requirement will stay as it is or even be increased,” she added. “That is my hope, but I don’t know if it is my expectation.”
In her own letter to the core-curriculum review committee, Sister Ann made a strong pitch for the theology requirement.
“For the Catholic educational process, according to Edith Stein, the goal of ‘realizing the natural potential of the individual person’ is inseparable from the ‘supernatural goal of human perfection in Christ,’” she wrote. “For that reason, philosophical and theological study is simply the indispensable, defining mark of Catholic education.
“Indeed, Christ himself is the Teacher, as the great mosaic on the wall of Hesburgh Library announces.”
Register correspondent Charlotte Hays writes from Washington.
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Bill Cline, although I understand your point, I think that it is far too rigid and restrictive…absolutism of yes/no. I doubt that any of the posters would deny or oppose
the theology and philosophy courses adhering to church teaching. In the name of education and all that a university stands for, that would come to a quick halt when voices are no allowed to be heard. In allowing speakers with differing viewpoints is not affirming the content of what is said. Without
‘dissent’ no further learning is possible, nor would learning be successful without countering, without peer review or the many mechanisms of correction available as has science.
All Institutions who use “Catholic” in any way, shape, or form in their identity or makeup need to STRICTLY adhere to the Teachings of the Church. This MUST encompass EVERY facet.
That’s the beginning and end of the discussion.
Sister Ann Astell, Theology Professor at Notre Dame, has it exactly right. The goal of Catholic education should be to equip students to realize Perfection in Christ. In their Personal, as well as their Professional, lives. There can be no other goal for Catholic education.
How do we achieve Perfection in Christ?
Jesus gave us the answer. In The Sermon On The Mount [Matthew 5].
Which He concluded by saying – “Be ye perfect…..” [Matthew 5:48 KJV]. All the theology courses that I have taken over my 75 years did little to help me achieve Perfection in Christ. What helped, in the end, was an intense, line-by-line, personal study of The Gospels.
And, that’s what Notre Dame, and every Catholic University, should be doing. Making students – Catholic and non-Catholic—even those at the Doctoral level – study Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. On their own, or in a formal class-room setting. Then, taking an independently-set [say, at Georgetown] and independently-marked [say, at Villanova] test whenever they are ready. And, not being allowed to proceed to the next level of education until – including repeats and remedials – they have a secured an A in the Matthew/Mark/Luke/John/ examination.
For undergraduates—this is how the program “Perfection in Christ” would work. Matthew in the freshman year; Mark in the sophomore year; Luke in the junior year; John in the senior year. Students not being allowed to the next class till an A has been secured – including repeats and remedials – through an independently-set and independently-marked examination.
Without seeming to be harsh—any Catholic and non-Catholic student who does not want to participate in this Program should, also, not be allowed to participate in the life of the Catholic University. That is, please seek admission elsewhere.
The message from Catholic education should be clear: if students want the benefits of a Catholic education, they should be prepared to learn Catholic values. Perfection in Christ. Not remain firmly secure in their secular ideas and ideals – while brandishing a Notre Dame [or other Catholic] degree. – Egbert F Bhatty
Interesting and timely piece. However, let’s not be so naive as to assume the professoriat is educated enough to know Catholic tradition. Why the piece itself contains evidence to the point: “Another faculty member speculated that a course on Milton’s Paradise Lost or Shakespeare plays that have theological content could be offered under the Catholic-studies umbrella and thus approved as an acceptable alternative to a traditional theology course.” Protestant Milton was nothing like Catholic (he was Oliver Cromwell’s Latin Secretary) and Shakespeare was not obviously Catholic in his plays. “Theological content” is not really Catholic tradition, at all events. Not offer a position to Eamon Duffy? He could have saved the unnamed “faculty member” from fantasizing so freely about the English Renaissance. To be honest, it will be years and years before Catholics inside and outside of the academy catch up with their tradition.
Countless Notre Dame students lose their faith while at the university, or shortly after their departure.
Longtime law prof Charles Rice put the case succinctly: the university has the responsibility to teach them - rigorously and thoroughly, just like their other courses - what it is they are abandoning.
@Yo, I have to disagree with you. I believe it is the students who will be graduating with little or no debt who will be tomorrow’s leaders. There will be a handful of Notre Dame grads (the very rich and the very poor) who will not be in debt up to their eyeballs, but the vast majority of ND grads will not be impacting the world with their faith and their great intellects because they must chain themselves to a decent income to pay off their loans.
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I am fortunate that my children see their Catholic cousins drowning in debt from Notre Dame, Boston College, and few of the Ivies. One nephew (Cornell engineering grad, debt 100k+) is living with his girlfriend, trying to save up money to pay for their wedding. A married niece (she and her husband are both Notre Dame grads, debt 150k+) is stuck in a job she detests and would love to have children, but they feel they can’t. You guessed it - student loans. Another nephew (BC, debt 80k+) is on Wall Street, in a job he’s not crazy about but at least he’s paying back his debt. These young people are not Catholic leaders. They’re victims of their circumstances (and their poor choices). But it is articles like this one that perpetuate the false importance of a prestigious education that have kids choosing stupid, life altering paths.
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Meanwhile, a school like Catholic U, which is not as expensive as ND in the first place, will knock a minimum of 20 grand off its price tag for a kid with Notre Dame level stats. State flagships will often be even cheaper. All their honors colleges are full of high stats, capable kids who would have been decent applicants for prestigious colleges. Where are the Catholic leaders of tomorrow? For sure, there are some at Notre Dame, but there are far, far more doing the financially prudent thing and attending a good enough undergrad that will not leave them slaves to their college related debt.
For those that don’t know the Catholic culture at Notre Dame, consider this:
1. Over 100 Masses are celebrated on campus every week.
2. Each dorm and most academic buildings have chapels, with Mass celebrated several times per week.
3. There is a Holy Cross priest or religious in residence in most dorms.
4. Notre Dame is one of the largest universities to also have a major seminary located on its campus. (Moreau Seminary for the Congregation of Holy Cross)
5. Liturgy at the Basilica is the center point of life for many on campus.
6. Adoration is offered in chapels on a daily basis around campus.
7. There are many priests and religious on faculty in various departments.
Please consider these and many other items before passing judgment. ND is quite Catholic, and it continues to be a leader in many other ways for the Church.
What’s the point of calling a University “Catholic” if it isn’t suffused with “Catholic” education! Even math courses have a faith aspect! (Only God is “infinite”...!)
ND stopped being Catholic years ago. Twice inviting barry to speak pretty much put them solidly secular.
To William Horan:
If the Church should abandon the role of educating its children to the state in countries where the state provides universal education, shouldn’t the Church also abandon its role of helping the poor to the state in the countries that have a modern social welfare system?
Some of the news items that come out about Notre Dame certainly dose not hold true to the faith of Catholicism. For example on campus sale of birth control items. There have been a lot of anti catholic things that go on at Notre Dame in my humble opinion. As a Catholic University it cannot give into the culture of death and go with their ideas. I’m just an old man who was taught by IHM & Dominican Nuns and Holy Cross Brothers
What is the point of parents sacrificing funds to send a child to Notre Dame for a “Catholic Education”, if the courses commonly offered tend to push the atheistic “Secular Humanism” view regarding Jesus Christ, the Sacraments and the concept of morality (“Right” and “Wrong” based on the teachings of Christ in the Catholic Tradition)?
There are many colleges that teach a secular view, promoting hedonism and ignoring the Catholic view on morality. You can get that much less expensively and closer to home in most govt-sponsored colleges and universities.
Our youngest daughter graduated from Loyola Marymount. We contributed to their fund drives for several subsequent years until they started giving honorary degrees and invitations to address the graduates to politicians who advocated unlimited government funds to pay for elective abortions.
If they are not going to teach Catholic values, why should we contribute?
TeaPot562
Speculation about the future is not helpful. We need to know the facts about what the future holds for Catholic higher education. Surely the leaders of this and other Catholic colleges realize their souls are at risk if they don’t school Catholic youth in the Faith. God help us.
Action item number one
“A preferential option for the poor” should be maintained in everything we do as a Church.
Here is a good place to start: our Catholic schools and universities. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the poor, the Church should be ready to use its resources for something else which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a church primarily for the middle-class and rich while throwing a bone to the poor. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the middle-class and rich fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic schools must give up general education in those countries where the State is providing it. The resources of the Church could then be focused on Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and other programs which can be kept open to the poor. These resources could then be used to help society become more human in solidarity with the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic schools for centuries. It can get along without them today. The essential factor from the Christian point of view is to cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition, namely, THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too. BUT THE POOR COME FIRST.
Most, if not all of the Ivy league schools, began as Christian seminaries, and existed only to prepare those who wanted to proclaim the faith. In time their identity changed to the point today they are largely strong bastions of secular humanism and Christianity is challenged in every aspect.
Is this the future of Notre Dame and other Catholic universities that have dropped their Catholic identity in name of academic freedom? One would have to assume so given what is NOT happening on these campuses.
Notre Dame needs to take steps to affirm its Catholic identity. In recent years, it has weakened that identity by such things inviting President Obama to speak, despite his pro-abortion views, by producing The Vagina Monologues on campus, and accepting the abortion and contraception provisions of the Affordable Care Act. As Senior Parent points out above, the cost of Notre Dame is prohibitive. If his daughter is not going to receive a Catholic education, she may as well go where education is affordable.
I have every confidence that ND will dilute Catholicism even further until it is a distant memory. They aren’t Catholic now, so why would then come back into the fold?
Senior Parent, even if we are not/cannot send our children to ND, those that are attending ND will be the decision makers and the elites that will make many decisions and pass many laws. It is important that CU provide a solid Catholic identity to these students.
Only two theology classes…how many do the so-called professors have to take?
Catholic schools at every level should be faithfully transmitting the Roman Catholic faith to their students while simultaneously grounding them in the disciplines necessary for a fruitful and catholic spiritual life.
that is the primary role of all catholic educational institutions and is the ONLY thing that separates them from non-Catholic educational institutions.
Bill, a few points regarding your post. It is not in dispute that Notre Dame and a myriad of other Catholic universities whether ultra traditional or progressive ought to have theology courses available affirming the faith.
What is in contention is that a university respects diversity of thought, current ideas, modern science, while respecting age old assumption and to challenge those assumptions. If not, Notre Dame would have it accreditation in peril and lose its respect as a reputable university. As some insist, and your appear to be among the ‘some’, only those espousing church positions be allowed to speak. Such censorship is contrary to education. At a university all voices are to be heard. That last sentence does not imply that the university is endorsing the views of the speaker.
My son is a sophomore at Notre Dame. I read everything like this with some trepidation as I wonder at the Catholic identity there. Father Miscamble’s name is well-known to me as he is a strong voice for upholding and stengthening that Catholic identity. One thing in this article that gives me great comfort is that Dr. Mark Roche is the chairman of the Catholic Mission Focus Group and on the larger committee. I feel confident in his position in assuring NDU has a true Catholic identity. You did not mention that he is also the former Dean of the College of Art & Letters. Hopefully, that means he is as influential among the faculty as he has been on my son. My son is a chemical engineering major, a ‘math & science’ type who went to public school and had no background (and no interest) in philosophy or theology. Dr. Roche was my son’s freshman seminar teacher for both semesters last year. From what I have heard from my son, in what was basically a literature course, Dr. Roche provided a broad and tasty banquet of Catholic teaching and philosophy. This course (and Dr Roche) truly ‘formed in Christ’ my son in areas such abortion that were knit into the curriculum. Looking at Dr Roche’s CV I can see that the idea of a Catholic university is a familiar topic in his previous work. I literally am thanking God that Mark Roche is key to this curriculum review. Thank you National Catholic Register for following this topic.
It is vital that ND has a solid, faithful theology and philosophy curriculum, honoring Our Lord and His Church, the Blessed Mother for whom it is named, and the saints in History. The Catholic tradition is one of Love to Neighbor and also one of excellence in academics, be it Theology, Arts or Sciences. ND, especially because of its fame and visibility, must be a beacon of faithfulness, and show the world how the faithful Catholic is never in conflict with the world of study, knowledge and scientific advancement. Our two oldest kids graduated from ND and may they use what they learned there as lifetime support in both their professional and faith lives.
There is nothing in our Catholic Faith that precludes us from being Good citizens, in fact, our Catholic Faith, serves to complement The Spirit of The Law.
Father John knows that Notre Dame is not a final destination, but rather exists to serve as a beacon of light to help illuminate the way to our final destination, communion with The Ordered Communion of Perfect Love that Is The Blessed Trinity.
No doubt, Our Lady’s University has the ability to be a beacon of light, and no doubt, there are many who desire to be guardians of The Grotto, to give light to that which cannot always be seen in the darkness.
Let us Pray then, for “The Courage to be Catholic”, that in be holding Our Blessed Mother, we behold The Christ.
http://magazine.nd.edu/news/10144-notre-dame-is-not-a-final-destination/
Who cares? Notre Dame is 60 grand. Who can afford that? Poor and very well prepped super smart students who get lots of financial aid and of course, really, really rich folks. There aren’t too many of either kind. The reality is that Notre Dame is filled with a bunch of families in debt up to their eyeballs.
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My oldest is a senior in high school. She’s exactly the kind of kid Notre Dame would want - National Merit, Open Champion Irish Dancer, AP Scholar, Yearbook editor, etc. There are plenty of schools who want her enough to offer her full merit scholarships. So far we’re at 3 and counting. And guess what? They may not have Touchdown Jesus, but they’re good enough to get her a job or to get her into grad school and she’ll be miles ahead of the indentured servants who graduate from Big Name U.
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This is not sour grapes. This is life. Forget about Notre Dame and any other college that will force you into debt slavery and find a good enough school that will allow you to graduate debt free. Every kid who’s good enough to get into Notre Dame is good enough to get a full tuition scholarship somewhere. Look at University of Alabama or Temple for starters.
Catholic Identity and the Core Curriculum NEED to be seriously looked at. I also believe who you bring in as speakers during graduation and other times; need to be expressing the views of The Catholic Church. If you are only there to tickle the ears of the masses without proclaiming Jesus as Lord; you are totally missing the mark. Everything the university does; needs to promote the true teachings of the church. Stop playing games - in the name of academic freedom and diversity. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no. If the university does not want to be “catholic” then be a secular university and cease calling yourself catholic.
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