90+ ND Faculty and Staff Deem HHS Accommodation Unacceptable

More than ninety faculty and staff members from the University of Notre Dame have joined "over 300  leading scholars, university presidents and other academic administrators, activists, and religious leaders from a multitude of faiths... in a statement rejecting the HHS mandate requiring employers to provide, directly or indirectly, insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives, and also rejecting President Obama’s so-called “accommodation” of religious liberty as a mere “accounting trick” that changes nothing of moral substance."

To read the full letter, click here. The names of the signers from the University of Notre Dame have been listed below:

Margaret F. Brinig
Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law
Notre Dame Law School

Daniel Costello
Bettex Chair Professor Emeritus
College of Engineering, University of Notre Dame

Ann W. Astell
Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

Don P. Kommers
Robbie Professor of Political Science Emeritus
University of Notre Dame

Robert M. Gimello
Research Professor of Theology and of East Asian Languages and Cultures
University of Notre Dame


Tom Pratt
Dept of EE, College of Engineering
University of Notre Dame

David W. Fagerberg
Associate Professor
Department of Theology
University of Notre Dame

Peter M. Kogge
Ted McCourtney Prof. of Computer Science & Engineering Concurrent Professor of Electrical
Engineering, Univ. of Notre Dame

Michael J. Crowe
Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus
Program of Liberal Studies
University of Notre Dame

Msgr Michael Heintz, PhD
Director, Master of Divinity Program
Department of Theology
University of Notre Dame

John Uhran
Emeritus Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
University of Notre Dame

Thomas A. Gresik
Department of Economics
University of Notre Dame

W. David Solomon
Associate Professor of Philosophy
University of Notre Dame

Dr. Kirk Doran
Assistant Professor of Economics
University of Notre Dame

Tonia Hap Murphy
Mendoza Pre-Law Advisor
Associate Teaching Professor
University of Notre Dame

Jim A Seida
Viola D. Hank Associate Professor of Accountancy
Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame

Jeffrey J. Burks
Assistant Professor of Accountancy
University of Notre Dame

Adrian J. Reimers
Adjunct Assistant Professor
University of Notre Dame

Patrick Griffin
Department Chair and Madden-Hennebry Professor of History
University of Notre Dame

Richard W. Garnett
Associate Dean and Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

John Cavadini
Director, Institute for Church Life and Associate Professor of Theology,
University of Notre Dame

Christian Smith
William R. Kenan Professor of Sociology & Director
Center for the Study of Religion and Society
University of Notre Dame

Gary Anderson
Hesburgh Professor of Theology
University of Notre Dame

Harindra Joseph F. Fernando
Wayne and Diana Murdy Endowed Professor of Engineering and Geosciences,
University of Notre Dame

William N. Evans
Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics
University of Notre Dame

Alfred J. Freddoso
John and Jean Oesterle Professor of Thomistic Studies
Concurrent Professor of Law
Philosophy Department
University of Notre Dame

M. Katherine Tillman
Professor Emerita, Program of Liberal Studies
University of Notre Dame

Walter Nicgorski
Professor, Program of Liberal Studies
University of Notre Dame

Philip Bess
Director of Graduate Studies and Professor of Architecture
University of Notre Dame

Paolo Carozza
Professor of Law and Director, Center for Civil and Human Rights
University of Notre Dame

John F. Gaski
Associate Professor of Marketing
University of Notre Dame

Duncan G. Stroik
Associate Professor of Architecture
University of Notre Dame

Rev. Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C.
Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

Kenneth Garcia, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts
University of Notre Dame

Gerard V. Bradley
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

Amy Barrett
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

Sean Kelsey
Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Philosophy
University of Notre Dame

Gabriel Said Reynolds
Tisch Family Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology
University of Notre Dame

William K. Kelley
Associate Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

David O’Connor
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Concurrent Associate Professor of Classics,
University of Notre Dame

Joseph Kaboski
David F. and Erin M. Seng Associate Professor of Economics
University of Notre Dame

Vincent Phillip Muñoz
Tocqueville Associate Professor of Political Science
Concurrent Associate Professor of Law
Department of Political Science
University of Notre Dame

John O’Callaghan
Director, Jacques Maritain Center & Associate Professor of Philosophy,
University of Notre Dame

Daniel Philpott
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Notre Dame

Mary M . Keys
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Notre Dame

Eric Sims
Assistant Professor of Economics
University of Notre Dame

Mike Pries
Associate Professor of Economics
University of Notre Dame

Edward Maginn
Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Associate Dean for Academic Programs, The Graduate School
University of Notre Dame

Angela M. Pfister, J.D.
Associate Director, Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture
Concurrent Instructor, Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame

O. Carter Snead
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

Stephen F. Smith
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

Phillip R. Sloan
Professor Emeritus, Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History and
Philosophy of Science
University of Notre Dame

Richard A. Lamanna
Emeritus Professor of Sociology
University of Notre Dame

Fr. Ronald M. Vierling
Rector, Morrissey Manor
University of Notre Dame

Rev. William R. Dailey, CSC
Visiting Associate Professor
Notre Dame Law School

Thomas A. Stapleford
Associate Professor, Program of Liberal Studies
University of Notre Dame

Thomas P. Flint
Professor of Philosophy
University of Notre Dame


Daniel J. Costello, Jr.
Bettex Prof. of Elec. Engr., Emeritus
University of Notre Dame

Nicole Stelle Garnett
Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame

James O'Brien
Associate Teaching Professor
University of Notre Dame

Matthew J. Barrett
Professor of Law
Notre Dame Law School


Marian E. Crowe
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Visiting Scholar, Program of Liberal Studies
University of Notre Dame

Trent Dougherty
Department of Philosophy
Baylor University
Visiting Research Professor
University of Notre Dame

Charles E. Rice
Professor Emeritus
Notre Dame Law School

Thomas Gordon Smith
Professor of Architecture
University of Notre Dame

Dr. Dan Hubert
The Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy
University of Notre Dame


David S. Younger
Assistant Director
Italian, Classics, German, and Russian Programs
Office of International Studies
University of Notre Dame

Kelley M. Shrock
Operations Specialist
University of Notre Dame Investment Office

Bartley Burk
Social Sciences/Hispanic Cataloger
Hesburgh Libraries
University of Notre Dame

Judy Hutchinson
Assistant Director
Office of International Studies
University of Notre Dame


Craig Tiller, RA, LEED®AP
Senior Director, Project Management
Facilities Design and Operations
University of Notre Dame

Joseph A. Reimers
Technology Support Assistant III
University of Notre Dame Kresge Law Library

Michael A. Zenk
Director, Post Award Financial Management
Office of Research
University of Notre Dame

Mary K. Daly
Program Coordinator, University Life Initiatives
Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame


Michael A. Mogavero Ph.D
Director of Undergraduate Studies
The University of Notre Dame

Greer Hannan
Program Coordinator
Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture

William G. Schmitt
Communications/Media Specialist
Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI)
Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE)
University of Notre Dame

Joseph S. O'Hannigan
Senior Associate Director of Executive Programs
Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame

Diane C. Freeby, SMC '88
Editor/PrayND, Notre Dame Alumni Association
University of Notre Dame

Al Bucci
Director of Regional Development
University of Notre Dame


Judy Madden, M.A.
University of Notre Dame

Richard F. Klee Jr. CPA
University Tax Director
University of Notre Dame

Lynn M. Hubert
Director of Regional Development
University of Notre Dame

Beth Bubik
Life Initiatives Program Coordinator
Notre Dame Alumni Association

Anthony Monta
Associate Director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies
University of Notre Dame

Luke Conway
Associate Regional Director of Development
University of Notre Dame

William E. Dotterweich
Chairman of the Advisory Board
Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture

Donald L. Stelluto, Ph.D.
Associate Director,
Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study


Elizabeth Kirk
University of Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life

Kathryn Lopez: Where are the women? They are the young leaders at Notre Dame.

In a recent article for the National Review, Kathryn Lopez writes about attending the 2012 Edith Stein Conference, hosted and organized by undergraduate women at Notre Dame. 

Lopez writes about the Conference:

A group of young women there invited me, among others, to speak about the “vulnerability” of all things, at their seventh annual Edith Stein Project conference. Stein — a canonized saint who was killed at Auschwitz —  was both a Carmelite sister and a philosopher and university professor. The women of Notre Dame find in her a role model in both the intellectual and the spiritual realms — a courageous, well-integrated life. 

These students were — to quote the title of their conference — “Encountering Vulnerability,” with a rare healthy, honest openness to tried and true models. They cited Pope John Paul II as saying, “No amount of economic, scientific, or social progress can eradicate our vulnerability to sin and to death.” In conference materials, the undergraduates commented: “This gives us good reason to guard ourselves carefully in situations where we could be harmed; however, in trying to protect ourselves, we often come to fear our vulnerability.”
The young women — who were joined by many of their male classmates — were interested not in political mantras but in practicalities: How do we confront reality rather than coming up with policies and pills to help us try to escape the inescapable? 

The task of the weekend conference was to ask, as its organizers put it: “Perhaps there is a flip side to vulnerability. In addition to examining ways in which it may be misused, we must also consider its value. If vulnerability is intrinsic to us as human beings, is there a proper place for it in our identity and our relationships?” 

The answer lies, in part, in Saint Paul, who recognized that “it is when I am weak that I am strong.” And the exploration of the “defenseless vulnerability of love” is a weekly task at Notre Dame, as part of the Identity Project, in which students meet each week to reflect on Catholic teaching on women, femininity, and masculinity. The answer, too, is in their identity as Christians who present themselves regularly for Mass and Reconciliation, seeking sustenance from Providence, which no earthly power or principality can match. 

The Edith Stein conference and the weekly related meetings attract almost as many young men as women — not surprisingly, inasmuch as their discussions are about the complementary nature of men and women. “Women and men have to understand femininity and masculinity if they are going to relate to one another in any kind of healthy way,” explains Margaret Kennedy, a junior and an accounting major. 

Notre Dame has been criticized for giving cover to the Obama administration, particularly through having awarded the president an honorary degree at its 2009 commencement. But there is something different happening there in the wake of the HHS mandate. One of the first people I heard from after the president’s faux “accommodation” was law professor Carter Snead, who has circulated a letter declaring the president’s position “unacceptable” — a letter hundreds of academics and other leaders have signed. 

The young men and women of the Stein Project have no illusions about the challenges they face on campus and beyond. “I understand that I am not living my life only for myself,” Kennedy tells me. “And I am making choices that reflect that.” Confronting vulnerability is at the top of the list. “What we typically think of as a negative is actually a positive,” she says: Feminism dictates that “we’re not allowed to be vulnerable, but we cannot escape that vulnerability. By hiding ourselves from it we don’t actually escape it.” 

“Contraception,” she says, “is but a mask,” covering up our vulnerabilities. It’s like alcohol, she adds: “a way not to confront our fears or take responsibility for our actions.”Claire Gillen, a history major graduating in May, is getting married to her high-school sweetheart that same month. “Adults, especially, tell me I’m too young, I should be established in a career,” she says. But as for the students, “Honestly, I know very few people who don’t want to get married. They’re happy to see someone truly happy.” They are tired of forced war-between-the-sexes hostilities. 

In reality, the answer to the question “Where are the women?” — which every abortion-advocating feminist group is now milking for fundraising — is: on the committee’s secondpanel. Those who asked the question the most, as an act of political showmanship, didn’t stick around long enough to meet the woman, Dr. Laura Champion, who runs Calvin College’s medical services. And the more long-term answer is: They are the young leaders at Notre Dame, who have a lot to teach those who have been suppressing or denying reality for all too long about who we are and what we need and want.

For Lopez's full article, click here.

To watch videos from the conference, click here

For more information about the Edith Stein Conference and IDND, click here.

Are 98% of Catholic Women on Contraceptives?

In a recent blog post, Lydia McGrew considers the statistic dominating recent discussion: Are 98 percent of Catholic women using contraceptives?

Statistical data from the Guttmacher Institute

Simply put: The claim that 98% of Catholic women are using contraceptives is a false claim, derived in a manipulative way from the statistics included in this post. Linda McGrew elaborates of this falsification in her post:

The survey was limited to women between 15-44. Ah, well, that explains how we weren't including the elderly, but it also means that the silly "percent of all Catholic women" thing should be chucked out right from the beginning. More strikingly, as Neil pointed out to me after looking up the study, itexcluded any women who were a) not sexually active, where that is defined as having had sexual intercourse in the past three months (there go all the nuns), b) postpartum, c) pregnant, or d) trying to get pregnant! In other words, the study was specifically designed (as the prose discussion on p. 8 makes explicit, in bold print) to include only women for whom a pregnancy would be unintended and who are "at risk" of becoming pregnant. Whether or not it included women who considered themselves neither trying nor not trying to get pregnant (there are some such women in the world) is unclear. It's also unclear whether it included women who have had their reproductive organs removed because of some medical problem. Presumably the study was intended to exclude women in both of these categories, as neither would count as a woman "at risk of an unintended pregnancy." 

Now, consider what all of this means as far as the representativeness of the sample for Catholic women. Surely there are a fair number of Catholic women between 15-44 who are not "at risk of an unintended pregnancy" for various reasons. It is plausible that this number is higher among Catholics than among non-Catholics. For one thing, a faithful Catholic woman in this age category who is not married is supposed to be remaining celibate. Hence she won't fall into the "at-risk" category, and by the same token she won't have any use for the "services" that the Obama administration is mandating be provided. Similarly, married Catholic women are probably more likely not to be attempting to avoid pregnancy, even using Natural Family Planning, than non-Catholic women. One would think they are also more likely to be pregnant or postpartum. And so on and so forth. In short, the deliberate design of the study to cover only women who, at the time of the study, were having sexual intercourse while regarding a pregnancy as unintended would be likely to make it unrepresentative of Catholics and particularly unrepresentative of devout Catholics. Yet the study is now being cited to show the percentage of Catholic women generally who are not following the teaching of the Catholic Church in this area! What is wrong with this picture?...

The statistics in the Guttmacher study appear to be okay for the purpose for which the study was originally intended. The intention of the study was to answer something like the following question: "Among women of various religious groups who are now sexually active but do not wish to become pregnant, what percentage use different methods of avoiding pregnancy?" But the purpose for which the statistic for Catholic women from the study is now being used is to argue, "A very high percentage of Catholic women (or, perhaps, Catholic women of child-bearing age) are currently not following the Catholic Church's teachings on sex and contraception and have a use for contraception forbidden by the Catholic Church." 

For that purpose, these statistics are bogus... 

Upon reflection, I have realized clearly an additional major problem with the 98% statistic. It is including all the Catholic women whoexpressly told researchers that they used "no method" to avoid pregnancy. In the table, that is 11%. The 98% statistic is apparently derived by subtracting only the 2% who said that they used NFP from 100%. So women who said they used no method of contraception are apparently being included in a statistic about how many Catholic women use contraception. How's that for crazy? And that's in addition to the problems discussed already in the original post.

To read her entire post, click here.

Dr. Alveda King speaking at IUSB

via the Events Blog for the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture: 

Next Tuesday, February 21, Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will speak on the campus of IUSB. This event was planned in response to the November lecture by Betty Cockrum, president of Indiana Planned Parenthood. It is sponsored by the IUSB Right to Life Club and St. Joseph County Right to Life. The event is free and open to the public. 

Dr. King will speak at 7 p.m. in The Grille, which is the university’s student cafeteria located in the Administration Building. This is the large building that faces Mishawaka Avenue at the northwest corner of the campus. The cafeteria is at the south end of the building. Parking will be free in any campus parking lot. The nearest parking is in those lots that are off South Esther St.

We encourage all of our members to attend this important event—and please bring anyone you think might be interested in hearing Dr. King. We also encourage you to help spread the word through your churches and neighborhoods.

In Defense of Religious Freedom

In an essay featured in First Things Magazine, Catholics and Evangelicals together seek to defend religious freedom. Among the nearly 70 signers/endorsers are some Notre Dame faculty members: Gary Anderson (Theology), John C. Cavadini (Theology), Lawrence S. Cunningham (Theology), and Daniel Philpott (Political Science).

The essay reads:

Eighteen years ago, this fellowship of Evangelical and Catholic pastors, theologians, and educators was formed to deepen the dialogue among our communities on issues of common concern, to explore theological common ground, and to offer in public life a common witness born of Christian faith. Since our founding in 1994, we have addressed, together, such important public policy questions as the defense of life, even as we have proposed to our communities patterns of theological understanding on such long-disputed questions as the gift of salvation, the authority of Scripture, and the call to holiness in the communion of saints. We hope that this collaboration has been a service to both Church and society; it has certainly drawn us closer together as brothers and sisters in Christ, and for that we are grateful to the Lord of all mercies.

At the beginning of our common work on behalf of the gospel, it did not seem likely that religious freedom would be one of our primary concerns. The communist project in Europe had collapsed; the commitment of Christian believers to defeat totalitarianism through the weapons of truth had triumphed; and throughout the world, a new era of religious freedom seemed at hand.

We are now concerned—indeed, deeply concerned—that religious freedom is under renewed assault around the world. While the threats to freedom of faith, religious practice, and religious participation in public affairs in Islamist and communist states are widely recognized, grave threats to religious freedom have also emerged in the developed democracies. In the West, certain religious beliefs are now regarded as bigoted. Pastors are under threat, both cultural and legal, for preaching biblical truth. Christian social-service and charitable agencies are forced to cease cooperation with the state because they will not bend their work to what Pope Benedict XVI has called the “dictatorship of relativism.” 

Proponents of human rights, including governments, have begun to define religious freedom down, reducing it to a bare “freedom of worship.” This reduction denies the inherently public character of biblical religion and privatizes the very idea of religious freedom, a view of freedom such as one finds in those repressive states where Christians can pray only so long as they do so behind closed doors. It is no exaggeration to see in these developments a movement to drive religious belief, and especially orthodox Christian religious and moral convictions, out of public life.

Given these circumstances, we offer this statement, In Defense of Religious Freedom, as a service due to God and to the common good. The God who gave us life gave us liberty. The God who has called us to faith asks that we defend the possibility that others may make similarly free acts of faith. By reaffirming the fundamental character of religious freedom, we contribute to the defense of freedom and to human flourishing, in our countries and throughout the world.

In making this statement, we confess, and we call all Christians to confess, that Christians have often failed to live the truths about freedom that we have preached: by persecuting each other, by persecuting those of other faiths, and by using coercive methods of proselytism. At times Christians have also employed the state as an instrument of religious coercion. Even some of the greatest leaders in the history of Christianity failed to live up to their own best ideals. As the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, put it, “In the life of the People of God, as it has made its pilgrim way through the vicissitudes of human history, there has at times appeared a way of acting that was hardly in accord with the spirit of the Gospel or even opposed to it.” It is this memory of Christian sinfulness that gives us all the more reason to defend the religious freedom of all men and women today.

Click here to continue reading this article.