Catholic Faculty at Notre Dame

[Domer1997]

I am pleased to see that the recent grant given to Notre Dame establishing an office to recruit Catholic scholars to the university is working very well thus far. Read below about the new dean of the engineering school who recently is relocating to ND from NC State. newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=24006&seltopicid=3427

ND also recently acquired an economist from U. of Maryland who is an excellent researcher and staunch Catholic.

In case readers are unaware of the new strategies of President Father Jenkins and the administration, they are concerned that the Catholic faculty has dropped to only 55%. Fortunately, the Catholic population of the student body stays strong at 85%, of which a very large contingent attends weekly Mass on campus.

Notre Dame has also included in its mission statement that, “…The Catholic identity of the University depends upon, and is nurtured by, the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals.”

I am pleased with this progress to recruit great Catholic scholars and to strengthen even further the university’s Catholic character. I hope that this serves as a role model for other Catholic universities who struggle with the stereotypes placed on religious schools of higher education.

 

[manualman]

Catholic economists and engineers are all well and good. As an engineer myself, however, I can assure everybody that such courses do not discuss religion or religious worldview.

I’ll be impressed when they add some philosophers, historians and theologians with no asterisks after their stated claim to catholicism. The mandatum would be nice too…

 

[KathleenElsie]

Catholic economists and engineers are all well and good. As an engineer myself, however, I can assure everybody that such courses do not discuss religion or religious worldview.

I’ll be impressed when they add some philosophers, historians and theologians with no asterisks after their stated claim to catholicism. The mandatum would be nice too…

 

[Domer1997]

Actually manualman, the chair of the Theology Department, Prof. Cavadini, has stacked every open position over the past several years with very orthodox and devout Catholics…many of which are newly ordained Holy Cross Priests. As for philosophers, the university ranks #1 worldwide in the Philosophy of Religion, so they too are stacked with very devout faculty.

I disagree about economists though. I think it’s very important to have economists which are Catholic to echo the Church’s Social Justice Teaching in an economic classroom setting. …a topic which many Catholics tend to unfortunately ignore in this secular world.

God Bless!

 

[manualman]

That DOES sound encouraging, more so than the original post. I guess when I think ND, I still think of Father McBrien and the plethora of asterisks that SEEM to be involved in his catholic faith…

 

[Elzee]

That DOES sound encouraging, more so than the original post. I guess when I think ND, I still think of Father McBrien and the plethora of asterisks that SEEM to be involved in his catholic faith…

I will love the day when the first thing I think of when I hear Notre Dame isn’t Father McBrien - these changes sound wonderful!

 

[quiet52]

That DOES sound encouraging, more so than the original post. I guess when I think ND, I still think of Father McBrien and the plethora of asterisks that SEEM to be involved in his catholic faith…

Is Fathr McBrien still at Notre Dame? Just wondering.

 

[Domer1997]

Fr. McBrien is still at Notre Dame. One must realize that he is a tenured professor. However, I graduated and I have never once seen the guy in person. I know only of two people who had him as a professor. If I had to guess, I would say that 95% of the students do not have him as a professor. I think he only teaches a couple classes. I never knew of his national reputation. Very few students would even be able to recognize him if he walked by. So, if you think he is influential on the campus…he’s not. He isn’t even a priest within the university’s order (Holy Cross). The most influential priests on campus (at least in the late 90’s) were/are: 1) Fr. Ted Hesburgh 2) Fr. Edward Malloy 3) Fr. William Bauchamp (now at U of Portland) 4) Fr. Scully 5) Fr. Warner and 6) Fr. Peter Rocca. “Non-Holy Cross” priests are ever never very “influential” on the lives of Notre Dame students. There may be Jesuits, Diocesans, Franciscans etc who are professors, but they are just that…professors. It’s the Holy Cross Fathers who pastor to the students and lead them religiously and spiritually. …and McBrien is not and was not ever a Holy Cross. However, to his credit, I have recently been told by a current theology student that he (McBrien) does not dissent from Catholic teaching in the slightest while in the classroom. But, either way, since he’s not Holy Cross, you can rest assured that his voice is small in South Bend.

 

[under_the_dome]

I know this will be a surprise to most people on this forum, but I am very involved with the Catholic faculty hiring issue on campus (I am starting my last yr of undergrad) and I have heard on good authority that, both currently and when he was chair of the Theology department in the early 90s, McBrien was very conservative on the Catholic faculty issue. I have been an outspoken critic of his in the past, so I was quite surprised to hear this myself. Granted, the hires in his department were not exactly of the ilk one might find at Ave Maria or even Catholic U – however he was/is very supportive of the idea that ND should have a predominantly Catholic faculty in general.

Also, I would agree with the post that said he has very limited influence on campus, especially now that he no longer has any decision-making power in the theology department. Non-Holy Cross priests have little influence in general, with the exception of one or two I can think of. I would put the number of students that have him in class even lower than the 5% that the poster above suggested. It is probably closer to about 1-2%. I doubt that many outside his classes would even recognize him, either, as the campus at large isn’t tuned into controversies he’s involved in.