Notre Dame and other such schools are PRIVATELY OWNED (not owned by the Church). That some have embraced secularism is beyond dispute. This is not dissimilar from the fate that beheld formerly pious Protestant schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
Whereas Princeton, Harvard and Yale have lost all vestiges of being any type of religious institution. Princeton is no longer affiliated with the Presbyterian church as it once was.
“Notre Dame and other such schools are PRIVATELY OWNED (not owned by the Church).”
If that’s the case then why are the Bishops having any say in the matter? The schools bear the imprimatur of the Catholic Church and bearing its approval and sanction, come under its authority. The Bishops could easily remove the imprimatur, just as Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth have had done but in not doing so, in spite of their “disapprovals” the Bishops inaction tacitly sanctions the compromising of the teaching of the church.
As the article I posted previously closed with:
“The organization added that these internship programs help explain why a recent survey showed most students and recent graduates of Catholic institutions believe that abortion and homosexual “marriage” should be legal, despite Catholic teaching.”
Copyright @ CNA
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)
The Profile and Mission Statement of Notre Dame repeats over and over again that it is a “Catholic academic community of higher learning, animated from its origins by the Congregation of Holy Cross”. A “Catholic” institution, founded by a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
If it has strayed from the teaching of the church and continues to ignore the warnings of the Bishops, they should remove its Catholic franchise, rather than tolerating the abuse and sending students to hell by their inaction.
“The University of Notre Dame, founded in 1842 by a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is an independent, national Catholic university located adjacent to the city of South Bend, Indiana, and approximately 90 miles east of Chicago.”
“This statement speaks of the University of Notre Dame as a place of teaching and research, of scholarship and publication, of service and community. These components flow from three characteristics of Roman Catholicism that image Jesus Christ, his Gospel, and his Spirit. A sacramental vision encounters God in the whole of creation. In and through the visible world in which we live, we come to know and experience the invisible God. In mediation the Catholic vision perceives God not only present in but working through persons, events, and material things. There is intelligibility and coherence to all reality, discoverable through spirit, mind, and imagination. God’s grace prompts human activity to assist the world in creating justice grounded in love. God’s way to us comes as communion, through the communities in which men and women live. This community includes the many theological traditions, liturgies, and spiritualities that fashion the life of the Church. The emphasis on community in Catholicism explains why Notre Dame historically has fostered familial bonds in its institutional life.”
“A Catholic university draws its basic inspiration from Jesus Christ as the source of wisdom and from the conviction that in him all things can be brought to their completion. As a Catholic university, Notre Dame wishes to contribute to this educational mission.”
“The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic academic community of higher learning, animated from its origins by the Congregation of Holy Cross. The University is dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake. As a Catholic university, one of its distinctive goals is to provide a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity.”