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Notre Dame Goes Catholic
A professor of history at Notre Dame, Rev. Wilson Miscamble — “Father Bill” to his countless friends — has just launched a new website, NDCatholic. Why? Below, a screenshot from the website itself:
The website presents practical advice, listing the profiles of about 100 members of the faculty whose courses students should consider. (“[N]ot all colleagues recommended here are themselves practicing Catholics,” Fr. Bill explains, “nor do they endorse fully Catholic doctrine and teaching.” Fr. Bill isn’t attempting to restore the Spanish Inquisition. He’s attempting to direct students to faculty who take seriously the good, the beautiful, and the true.)
Yes, yes. I know. We have reached a sorry point when a prominent member of the faculty at one of the nation’s greatest Catholic universities concludes that the university’s students require quite a lot of help in attaining a truly Catholic education. But we have reached that sorry point. What’s remarkable is that Fr. Bill has decided to do something about it.
Good Luck to him. I pray he is able to re-Catholicize ND.
Hell, we do this informally at my institution. Us wingers keep a list (in our minds, not written down) of faculty who may or may not be actual wingers, but will still try to deliver a good liberal education, and we direct students as we can to them.
Notre Dame is a secular institution in a Catholic neighborhood (a quote borrowed from elsewhere).
The composition of ND allows it to avoid being Catholic under the terms produced by the Vatican. That in turn permits it to host things such as The Vagina Monologues and other surrenders to the current zeitgeist.
Thanks Peter. I’ll pass it on to my brother the Domer.
Boy, this would be a great guy to interview for the podcast!
Watching the Pitt-ND game this weekend I was almost shocked that the ND in-game commercial included a shot of a girl praying at the grotto. But it was still pretty subtle. Quick shot of grotto. Quick shot of girl close enough that Christians see praying but it could still slip past the non-praying. Whole thing maybe 2 seconds.
Wasn’t that long ago the Brady Bunch was going to church.
From my brother.
Miscamble was always one of the good ones. I didn’t have him as a Prof but friends of mine did. He was in the History department. Went to one of his lectures on WWII and the bomb (I didn’t like his conclusion actually but he was academically honest.)
The ones to watch for were any of the members of the Theology department…. thoroughly leftist and of course the ones always quoted when the NYT came calling. It was one of the only departments where you got dinged for not writing “He or She” etc….
All the conservatives knew to stick with History or Philosophy courses.
We stopped by Notre Dame for college tour for my oldest this last August. I was shocked by how Catholic it is, contrary to its reputation. It’s the only one of the 13 colleges we’ve visited which still has exclusively single-sex dorms. In fact, it’s the only one with any single-sex dorms, if I recall correctly.
We visited because it was a way-point between destinations and it turned into the eldest Chauvinist’s number one pick. Her reason was one of my better moments as a parent: “Mom, all these other schools pander to your preferences; Notre Dame wants you to step up to their standards and be a better person at the end of four years.” Awesome.
Love Fr. Miscamble, too!
Boy, those crazy religionists are dangerous. If even Notre Dame isn’t safe from being taken over by the Catholics…..
For those seeking an authentic Catholic education there are lots of good choices. My oldest son went to Franciscan University of Steubenville and my youngest son is at Benedictine College.
It is a sorry point that UND has to launch this initiative. The premier Catholic University in the USA disgraced itself when it honored President Obama with an honorary degree – in opposition to what the Church teaches. She has a long way to go, but lets pray that Fr. Miscamble can lead the resurgence – I applaud his efforts. And I would say it is not remarkable that he is doing this, it is his, and the other Holy Cross fathers, duty.
They’ll be letting Lutherans into Augustana College next.
Since we’re on the general subject, shameless plug:
http://www.georgetownacademy.com/about/
I’ll skip the story about how this got arranged, but in 1996 my wife and I watched a South Bend Silverhawks baseball game together with the Chair of the Theology Department and his family. I was on a long bicycle tour, and he was chair of the university’s bicycle committee.
We had a good time and went out for a bite to eat together afterwards. I don’t recall his name but could probably look it up. I gathered he was rather leftish in his politics, or at least had some of the usual leftish background from being a student protester in the past. We emailed back and forth a couple of times afterwards.
I learned that he had gotten one of his degrees from the same Lutheran seminary (Concordia, St Louis) from which my father had graduated (back in the early 40s). There was nothing too unusual about that, but I must confess that I was a little surprised that the head of the theology department at a Catholic university wasn’t a Catholic priest. But then, what do I know?
I don’t recall that we discussed any theology.
Did you visit Hillsdale? I think they have them, too.
Oops, I forgot about Hillsdale. We visited in 2014. Yes, I think their dorms are also single-sex. That makes two.
What are administrators thinking?: “Here’s a great idea! How about the inmates run the asylum??!!”
Wait, you mean like the whole building is single sex? At Berkeley our dorms didn’t even have single-sex bathrooms…
Oof.
Yes, fourteen dorms — either all men or all women. And, thirteen of them have chapels where Mass is said three times a week! The emphasis on human dignity and familial love was very impressive — and very Catholic. I’d be completely comfortable if my daughter ended up there.
Not that she wouldn’t be exposed to some left wing lunacy, but a lot would be overcome by the sensibilities of the place. I suspect the liberals there are typical — they live like conservatives and espouse hair brained socialist schemes.
Whatever. It’s everywhere. Daughter has developed critical thinking skills at her Hillsdale-model charter high school. I have hope she’ll figure it out wherever she ends up.
Well, this effort apparently did not end well:
Fr. Miscamble is silenced: An authentic Catholic education isn’t available at the University of Notre Dame…
Fr. Miscamble Can’t Tell Students How to Get a Catholic Education at Notre Dame
The Sycamore Trust sadly sent out an email yesterday saying that Fr. Miscamble “is no longer associated with the website NDCatholic.com.”
What a mess.
Apparently his superiors don’t agree with him. What is up with the CSC order?
In line with the rest of Western Civ., unfortunately. It was nice while it lasted.
Oops. Missed your comment and made a post. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.