On September 16, 2009 Fr. Jenkins emailed the Notre Dame community to announce new pro-life initiatives at Notre Dame.  Here is our response:

We at ReplaceJenkins.com welcome and applaud any action by our alma mater that works to protect human life and to bring clarity on church teaching regarding the evil of abortion and embryonic stem cell research.  As such, the ‘action items’ named in the letter recently released to the Notre Dame community by Father Jenkins, taken at face value, are deemed very good.  In isolation, any such steps can be objectively seen as positive and, indeed, expected from a university that chooses to call itself Catholic.  The context of their arrival, however, creates more questions than answers.  Therefore, in the spirit of ‘dialogue’ as suggested by Father Jenkins, we post the following rhetorical questions to him, all of which are born of his recent letter dated September 16. 

1. Can you assist us, Father Jenkins, in reconciling the irony of your protesting for life in Washington, while having arrested (and not yet dropped charges against) those who did the exact same thing on our campus?
2. Why do these initiatives commence now?  You have been invited to the March for Life annually, for years.  Yet you elect to involve yourself this year.  You must concede why one might interpret your decision as reactively pro-life, and not proactively pro-life.  Is your visit born of a sincere effort to commence a campaign in defense of the unborn, or is it merely designed to assuage the lamentations of those in the Notre Dame community who are so disturbed by the University’s negligence in matters of human life? 
3. Why protest outside the White House, when you now have an open dialogue with President Obama?  You promised us all that by giving Barack Obama an honorary degree, we would open a path to direct and respectful discourse.  Would he not, therefore, invite you into his house to speak directly to him and his peers about the sanctity of human life the way we invited him into ours to speak about the proper definition of Catholic debate?
4. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, when can we expect the rest?  We welcome the new task force you are creating and applaud your trip to Washington in January.  But you must recognize how much more is in your power to do.  Can we expect to see television commercials articulating Notre Dame’s pro-life view and activities during televised football games?  Will Notre Dame provide any funding for the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life and its creator, the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture?  And, Father Jenkins, when can we expect you to humbly and sincerely approach Bishop D’Arcy to request his counsel on how Notre Dame can atone for its insult to his authority and heal the damage done by its willful disregard of, and disassociation with, the Catholic Church?

It is our conviction that these questions, and others like them, reveal insufficiencies in both the content and purpose of Father Jenkins’ recent letter.  Honest answers to such questions may help Notre Dame alumni and supporters embrace more completely Father Jenkins’ intended message.  Perhaps more importantly, we hope such questions received humbly and openly by Father Jenkins and the Notre Dame Administration might assist them in both understanding the gravity of the grievances of the alumni community, and formulating a more commensurate response to truly and effectively make Notre Dame a completely Catholic and pro-life institution.

Sincerely,

ReplaceJenkins.com

July 8, 2009:  ReplaceJenkins.com sent this letter to each of the University Fellows.  To date none have responded:

Dear Fellow,

We, a group of Notre Dame graduates who are deeply devoted to our university, felt compelled to create a website entitled www.replacejenkins.com. The purpose of the website was to give Notre Dame donors who no longer wish to donate to the university a vehicle by which their contributions could be tallied in order to demonstrate to the administration their disappointment in the university’s actions.  We write to you today to express how you, the Fellows, can help to heal and repair the damage of these corrosive actions and how you can return to your alumni community the enthusiasm they once felt to financially support our University.

We believed the drastic step of our website had to be taken in order to indicate the widespread discontent felt in the Notre Dame family because of the erosion of Catholicism at the university, erosion that has culminated in the invitation to President Obama to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree and to be the 2009 Commencement Speaker.  Fr. Jenkins’ name was used in the website title because he has repeatedly and obstinately championed and defended the decision to honor President Obama in ways that dismissed the sincere and sober objections of alumni and Church leaders.

The website organizers affirm that Notre Dame has always been distinguished from other universities by its Catholic tradition and maintaining that tradition and reputation is essential to its future.  Without a strong Catholic identity, Notre Dame would become merely another Midwest university with a beautiful campus and with, perhaps, some esteem among academic secularists about which to boast.  Unfortunately, over the past several years, Notre Dame’s Catholicity has been rapidly eroding.  The board and faculty at Notre Dame have decided to wager the school’s Catholic identity in the hunt for a new identity among the secular, academic “elite”.  In essence, they have imprudently forfeited what they uniquely possess, for something they do not.

There is a great deal of evidence that demonstrates Notre Dame's drift from Catholicism to secularism.  Evidence can be seen in the statistic that the number of Catholic instructors at the university has dropped from close to 85 % in the 1970s to 53% in 2005.  Further evidence of this pattern can be seen in the statement by a professor who was quoted as saying that he regarded Catholicism as “false” and that he had a moral obligation to “disabuse” his students of their faith.  But perhaps no statement better underscores this damaging trend than the April 2008 statement by the Faculty Senate, “The University should not compromise its academic aspirations in its efforts to maintain its Catholic identity.”

Of course, the Vagina Monologues and the Queer Film Festival both also underscore the degree to which the university has abdicated its commitment to that which distinguishes it from other universities.  Obviously, however, the most striking piece of evidence that Notre Dame is no longer the committed Catholic university it once was is the invitation to the nation’s leading abortion advocate to receive an honorary degree at graduation, in spite of the U.S. Bishops’ 2004 declaration that such action not be taken. 

With the invitation to President Obama, Notre Dame’s leaders have trampled the school’s image and reputation as a leading Catholic university.  The fact that 350,000 people signed the Cardinal Newman petition and that over 1,500 Notre Dame alumni notified us through our web site that they are withholding over $16 million in contributions is all the evidence needed to demonstrate that the university's identity has been severely damaged.

Intertwined with this is the question of Notre Dame’s relationship with the Church.  Evidence that this relationship has been shattered can be seen in the statements of 84 Bishops who have condemned the university for its recent actions. A sample follows:

Bishop William Murphy – “Notre Dame tarnished its image and its capacity to witness”

Bishop Michael Jackels – “.. . this invitation . . . is an embarrassment”

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio – “...the invitation has caused an uproar and a division within the Catholic community”

Bishop Lawrence Bryant – “It is with shock and deep distress” that Notre Dame is honoring “one of the most pro-abortion politicians ever to appear on the American stage”

Bishop George Thomas – “I am particularly disappointed” in Fr. Jenkins’ leadership

Bishop Pena – “. . . the 350, 0000 petitions of Catholics consider your actions to be scandalous and inconsistent with Notre Dames mission to showcase how Catholic faith can positively influence modern life”

This represents a scant portion of the loud chorus of Bishops, priests, and Catholic lay people who condemn the actions of the university.

On behalf of the thousands of Notre Dame supporters who are devastated by the recent actions of the university and who correctly recognize that the university needs to regain the reputation it once proudly held, we ask that the Fellows attempt to re-establish and correct Notre Dame’s severely damaged image.  The Fellows must be willing to have the courage to restore Notre Dame’s Catholic identity through these measures:

1.      Fr. Jenkins has to be replaced because he has become the symbol of a weak and non-committed leader who does not have the courage to stand by and promote his Catholic principles.

2.      All present and future Fellows at the university must be individuals who are inspired to promote the Catholic values that are expected of the school’s leadership. 

The legacy of the Fellows should be to equip the University of Notre Dame graduate with the knowledge needed to be a strong Catholic leader in society - - not just a socially successful individual.

3.      The Fellows should institute procedures to insure that the mission statement requirement of a “predominate number of Catholic intellectuals” on the faculty is met.  That requirement is certainly not met today with a scant arithmetical majority.  “Catholic” in this context must mean committed and faithful Catholics.  Self proclaimed dissenting and nominal Catholics not only do not suffice, they seriously detract.  Future faculty appointments must be unashamedly and unabashedly, Catholic.

And, the Fellows must recognize that a predominant number of Catholics across the University at large is insufficient; each Department should also have a predominance of Catholic faculty.

The Fellow’s success should be judged by the number of intellectually superior and truly Catholic professors that are hired under its watch.   Notre Dame’s ranking in US News and World Report must be subordinated to its image as a truly Catholic university.

Non-Catholic faculty should be briefed and led to understand, in no uncertain terms, that the Catholic identity and mission of the university receives priority over secular academic ranking.

4.      The Fellows and the Board of Trustees must provide unfaltering support to on-campus Catholic organizations. Organizations such as pro-life groups, outreach clubs, and student ministries on campus are all groups that should be given strong support by the administration.  Currently, and shamefully, most of these groups are all but ignored by the existing administration.

5.      The Fellows must insure that the Board of Trustees does not stray from Catholic principles. 

Finally, the Fellows should be completely aware that the University of Notre Dame’s progress toward a secular identity is rapidly becoming irrevocable.  Regrettably, we soon approach a paradigm whereby any attempt to re-establish a Catholic identity will become impossible. 

If that tragedy does happen, and the university completes its march to secularism, the Fellows should fully realize that under their guidance the prominence that once belonged to Notre Dame was lost. What will remain is another university, dedicated to a secular and godless curriculum, and robust in ideals that count as nothing to the Blessed Mother nor to the Church her Son founded.  Notre Dame, which was once the beacon of Catholic education, will have abandoned its own family, Catholic America, for the fickle attention of another family, secular America.  Sadly, it will find itself bereft of its once fiercely-loyal alumni, fans, and donors. 

Please reestablish Notre Dame’s Catholicism.  Please assume the courage and motivation to return the source of pride that was once embraced by so many Notre Dame supporters.  The power and, ultimately, the responsibility rests in you to return to Notre Dame a proper sense of priority that, like the words etched in stone on the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, reads “God, Country, Notre Dame”.

Sincerely,

ReplaceJenkins.com