Welcome to NDCatholic.com
Pro-life students protesting president Obama at their own graduation ceremony.
NDCatholic.com is designed to assist Notre Dame students who want to receive an authentic Catholic education at Notre Dame. The faculty profiles on the website identify 141 members of the faculty of the College of Arts & Letters who will serve students well in their quest.
About 100 of these profiles were prepared by Rev. Wilson D. (Bill) Miscamble, C.S.C., who was admirably suited to the task. A longtime faculty member and well known to countless Notre Dame alumni, Father Miscamble is a nationally recognized historian and former chairman of the History Department and rector of Moreau Seminary. He consulted students and other faculty, but the final judgments were his.
At its début, the website contained a welcoming video by Father Miscamble as well as his written introduction. They are here no longer. We eliminated both upon receiving this message from Father Miscamble addressed to Bill Dempsey, the chairman of Sycamore Trust:
Dear Bill, I regret that I can say only that I am required to end my involvement with the NDCatholic site and am not at liberty to say why.
We have discussed this most unfortunate development in one of our 2014 bulletins. Here, it is enough to say that the recommendations remain, that we are building on this base, and that we have added about forty faculty members to the list based upon information from knowledgeable sources in which we have absolute confidence. We have not attempted to replicate Father Miscamble’s informative descriptions for these new entries and instead rely upon the biographical information published by the university, but this does not mean that the new entries are in any way less deserving of consideration.
The importance of this collection arises from the radical deterioration of Catholic presence on the Notre Dame faculty. This phenomenon is the product of the drive by successive administrations for acceptance by secular academe. As we have shown in a recent bulletin, committed Catholics no longer come anywhere close to the majority required by the school’s Mission Statement.
The consequences of this steep decline in Catholic faculty have been described in concrete terms by Professor Emeritus Walter Nicgorski, another long-serving and highly regarded teacher and scholar:
It is increasingly the case today that a young person going through the critical and formative years of a Catholic education at Notre Dame might not encounter a practicing Catholic informed and engaged by the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Nevertheless, as the information on this website shows, students who select teachers and courses with care can secure what may be the finest Catholic education available anywhere.
This website not only furnishes much-needed guidance to students in choosing wisely but also will be helpful to those, like us, who are often asked whether they should send their sons or daughters to Notre Dame, given what they have heard about its loss of Catholic identity. They can now better be assured that their children can secure a solid Catholic education in an environment in which there are also many opportunities outside the classroom for deepening their faith.
We emphasize, as did Father Miscamble, that this list is by no means exhaustive. Father Miscamble was prevented from augmenting it, and although we have added a number of new names, the list is certainly still not complete. As a practical matter, it never will be. Students should consult also the somewhat shorter list published each semester by The Irish Rover (and parents and alumni should subscribe to the Rover) and consult trusted faculty and fellow students.
We hope this website will serve well those students who seek a Catholic education at Notre Dame as well as parents and students in search of a university at which students can deepen their understanding of the Church in its teachings and spirit – and that it will thereby well serve the University.
