About 100 people gathered on the campus of the University of Notre Dame Feb. 27 for an early evening event that organizers had been calling their “March on the Dome” just the day before.
The student-led march had been in the works for a few weeks, conceived originally as a protest, following the Jan. 8 appointment of Susan Ostermann, associate professor in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, as director of its Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.
Ostermann’s appointment outraged many in the Notre Dame community and beyond given her prominent advocacy for legal abortion in contradiction to the Catholic university’s mission and identity. After weeks of outcry, including from Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, head of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ostermann declined her acceptance of the role Feb. 26.
Bishops Rhoades, who had joined students two days earlier praying for Notre Dame at its Marian grotto, welcomed the outcome, explaining “the appointment of persons to leadership positions at a Catholic university is an act of institutional witness, a mission-governance issue.”
“This is not an issue about academic freedom or scholarly engagement,” he said in a Feb. 26 statement. “Academic freedom protects inquiry. It does not require institutional self-contradiction.”
As a result of the news of Ostermann’s withdrawal, Notre Dame sophomore Luke Woodyard told OSV News that the carefully planned “March on the Dome” protest for Feb. 27 had to be reconsidered at the last minute.
He and other campus organizers from Right to Life, Children of Mary, the Knights of Columbus, the Militia of the Immaculata decided that rather than cancel the event, it should now be a prayerful gathering of thanksgiving.
“This is no longer a protest event,” Woodyard told the crowd of students and Catholics from local parishes gathering on campus for the Friday evening march.
“Instead,” Woodyard insisted, “it’s an occasion of gratitude to God and to Our Lady. What started as a protest against an appointment of Professor Ostermann as head of the Liu Institute has become a gathering of thanksgiving and hope for greater respect for life here on campus.”
“Look at all the students who came here today to pray for Our Lady’s university,” Woodyard added. “With your support, we can hold Notre Dame accountable.”
The group was then told that each person would soon receive a small vigil candle. There would be a prayerful procession to Notre Dame’s Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes beyond the university Church and the administration building with its iconic Golden Dome and statue of Mary.
Student groups would be leading everyone in praying the rosary at the grotto, the gathering was told.
Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, a retired history professor at Notre Dame and a very outspoken critic of the recent Ostermann appointment, then led a blessing of vigil candles being distributed throughout the crowd. But his prayer was also a prayer of intercession for the university with a very clear message.
“Pour out your Holy Spirit upon this university,” Father Miscamble began. “Grant her leaders humility and courage; to her faculty, give integrity and wisdom; to her students, give purity of heart and zeal for what is good, true and beautiful. Renew at Notre Dame a steadfast devotion to her Catholic mission – her founding charism. May she never waver in defending the dignity of every human life. May she never grow timid in witnessing to the splendor of your truth.”
Following the rosary at the grotto as the crowd dispersed, Woodyard again returned to the issues which had originally sparked protests and criticism of the university.
“I think that the university was actually scared about what this would do,” he told OSV News, referring to the backlash over Ostermann’s appointment. “I think they realized that the students really cared and they wanted to listen to us.”
The University of Notre Dame acknowledged the student-led march in a Feb. 24 message to OSV News and said, “We respect the perspectives of our students and their desire to be heard.”
Its message explained that Ostermann was chosen to head the Liu Institute “for her expertise in Asian studies,” and maintained that “she respects the University’s position on the sanctity of life” and knew “her role is to support the diverse research of the Institute’s scholars and students, not advance a personal political agenda.”
Woodyard also noted that he’d heard from reliable sources that the university’s president, Holy Cross Father Robert Dowd, had been unaware of the Ostermann appointment and was known to be very “pro-life.”
“We’re here tonight in thanksgiving, but the fight’s not over,” he said. “We are going deeper and trying to find the root causes of this. All these sponsoring organizations have helped us to get a fuller picture of all of this. And some Holy Cross priests have helped as consultants. So, we are celebrating this decision but we know that this is not over.”
He added, “The university can’t just brush this off as an academic freedom issue which happened to make some people mad. It will happen again. We need to seriously revisit our hiring practices and look at the people who make these decisions and hold them accountable to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity.”
Woodyard emphasized that the appointment “was blatantly indefensible.”
“You can’t promote someone to a position of power who espouses things that blatantly contradict the truth that we hold as a Catholic university and should be cultivating within our students,” he said. “We’re going to take this moment to show how we love this university, but loving sometimes means giving constructive criticism. We need to make sure that Notre Dame doesn’t only keep its Catholic identity just in word – but keeps it also in deed.”
