The central problem at Notre Dame is that these fine words are not acted upon in a remotely consistent and thoroughgoing manner. Various programs, centers, and institutes scattered across campus, and a certain number of individual faculty members, do work hard to engage the Catholic intellectual tradition. But at the institutional level, with the university as a whole, Notre Dame’s leaders are equivocal about that Catholic mission and make decisions and pursue practices that undermine it.
Compared to most other places, Notre Dame has many good things going on. But compared to what it could and should be—what it says it wants to be—Notre Dame is a disappointment. It’s not just that the university hasn’t reached its potential, it’s that it hasn’t seriously tried. Sustained engagement with the Catholic intellectual tradition happens in pockets, but leaders avoid the institutional efforts that would make this engagement consistent and integrated.
What might such efforts look like? To begin with, Notre Dame’s leaders should be consistently clear and vocal about the purposes and entailments of a university with a Catholic mission. Department chairs and deans should understand and support that mission by being intentional and careful in recruiting faculty who understand (or are willing to learn about) the mission of a Catholic university and can in good faith commit to supporting it in their own ways.
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