(OSV News) — The naming of a pro-abortion faculty member as head of a Catholic university research institute is “a direct slap in the face to the Church’s moral tradition,” an Illinois bishop said, while several recipients of the school’s top pro-life award have called it a “betrayal.”
The controversy has even echoed within the Vatican, with the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life responding to a question on the matter Feb. 17.
Previous outcries over appointment
Those comments join a surge of previous outcries from several U.S. bishops, former faculty and other Catholic intellectual leaders over the appointment of associate professor Susan Ostermann as director of the University of Notre Dame’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, effective July 1.
The institute is part of the university’s Keough School of Global Affairs, of which Ostermann — who specializes in the study of regulatory compliance, comparative politics and environmental regulation, with a focus on South Asia — has been a faculty member since 2017.
The move, announced Jan. 8, has raised alarm due to Ostermann’s robust public endorsement of legal abortion, and her work as a consultant for the Population Council, an international research and policy firm that works to advance “sexual and reproductive health, rights and choices” as a key aim.
Severing affiliation with institute
Two current Notre Dame faculty — Diane Desierto, professor of law and global affairs, and professor emeritus of theology Robert Gimello — severed their affiliation with the Liu Institute following news of Ostermann’s appointment.
Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, issued a statement Feb. 11 expressing “dismay” and “strong opposition” to the university’s decision, which he said was “causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond.”
Ostermann’s “extensive public advocacy of abortion rights and her disparaging and inflammatory remarks about those who uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death go against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission,” said Bishop Rhoades, noting he had read many of the opinion pieces in which Ostermann had articulated her defense of abortion.
‘Full support’ for Bishop Rhoades
In a Feb. 16 statement, Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, expressed his “full support” for Bishop Rhoades on the matter.
Ostermann’s “public record of radical advocacy” is “fundamentally opposed to the dignity of human life,” said Bishop Paprocki, who also serves as chairman of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
As a result, said Bishop Paprocki, “placing her in a leadership role at a Catholic university is incompatible with the mission and moral witness Notre Dame claims to uphold.”
‘Appointment causes confusion’
“Such an appointment causes confusion among the faithful and undermines the Church’s consistent ethic of life, which is central to Catholic social teaching,” he said.
Bishop Paprocki stressed that “Catholic social teaching cannot be selectively invoked while rejecting its foundational principle — the inviolable dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.”
Such a piecemeal approach “is not only intellectually incoherent but a direct slap in the face to the Church’s moral tradition,” said Bishop Paprocki.
‘Essential moral truths’
“Academic freedom does not obligate a Catholic university to entrust leadership to those whose public positions contradict essential moral truths,” he said, echoing Bishop Rhoades’ call to rescind Ostermann’s appointment to the institute.
On Feb. 2, Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, had written directly to Notre Dame president Father Robert A. Dowd, a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, posting an image of the document on X Feb. 17.
In his letter, Bishop Conley said Ostermann’s appointment was “profoundly troubling” since Notre Dame is “one of the premier Catholic universities in the country.”
‘Catholics must stay resolute’
“As the world and the Church continue to grow ever more divided, we as Catholics must stay resolute in our beliefs, and refuse to capitulate,” wrote Bishop Conley. “In the end, it will not be the success of our programs, but on our fidelity to Christ that we will be judged. It is certainly not too late to intervene and reconsider this appointment.”
On Feb. 16, several recipients of Notre Dame’s Evangelium Vitae Medal — named for St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical and bestowed as a lifetime achievement award for pro-life witness — penned an open letter of protest to Father Dowd over the Ostermann appointment.
The letter, published in Notre Dame’s independent student newspaper The Observer, was signed by several nationally recognized pro-life figures, including legal scholar Helen M. Alvaré of George Mason University, a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.
‘Profound sadness’ over appointment
With Ostermann’s appointment prompting “shock, scandal, disbelief and outrage,” the letter’s authors said they wished to add “more more” reaction: “profound sadness.”
“Every recipient of this award has, at some point in their work on behalf of life, suffered the ‘slings and arrows’ of the powers that be due to our countercultural insistence upon the value of every human life at every stage,” said the signatories. “But we suffered them gladly (or sometimes even hardly noticed them!) because our Catholic community, our Catholic faith, accompanied us, shielded us and wielded with intellectual vigor and even joy its 2,000 years of faith and reason in defense of life.”
“Nothing stings more than betrayal by one’s community — especially by an institution with such an admirable and urgently needed mission,” they wrote.
‘Please ally with us’
Citing Scripture, they urged Father Dowd to “please ally with us as, together, we make a brave stand for the defense of these defenseless human beings, against the ‘wisdom of the world’ (1 Cor 1:27).”
Signing the letter with Alvaré were Mary Louise Solomon on behalf of the late W. David Solomon, founder of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, which confers the Evangelium Vitae Medal; and de Nicola fellow Richard M. Doerflinger, who serves as an adjunct fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center and as a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Academics Mary Ann Glendon, professor emerita of law at Harvard University, and William J. Thorn, professor emeritus of journalism at Marquette University, also endorsed the letter, as did Mother Agnes Donovan, founding superior general of the Sisters of Life.
Parents of 8 Notre Dame alumni
Married couple Dr. Phyllis W. Lauinger and Anthony J. Lauinger, the latter of whom serves as vice president of the National Right to Life, noted in their signatures they were parents of “eight Notre Dame alumni.”
EWTN reported that during a Feb. 17 Vatican press conference, Msgr. Renzo Pegoraro, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, responded to a question on the controversy and the role of Catholic universities in upholding Church teaching on abortion.
Msgr. Pegoraro affirmed that abortion “is not acceptable as a practice,” and said society, as well as individuals, must take responsibility to aid women and couples in avoiding “the idea that abortion could be a solution to a difficult pregnancy or problem.”
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
