We periodiclly disseminate bulletins by email on events that bear upon Notre Dame's mission and her Catholic identity. A complete archive is available below. We encourage you to puruse these bulletins and add your comments as you see fit. If you are interested in subscribing, just click here and submit your email address.

December 20, 2011
Missing the Point
All those in governance at Notre Dame have a fiduciary responsibility for the University's essential Catholic character, identity, and mission.  However, the Board Chairman, Richard Notebaert, has a unique role and responsibility.  And as Fr. Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C., asserts in a recent Irish Rover article, "there is good reason to believe Mr. Notebaert is ill-suited to this important role."

November 28, 2011
Identity Crisis
As a part of its technology infrastructure, Notre Dame provides all students access to the Internet and unfiltered access to pornography.  In this bulletin we describe, among other happenings, the University's role in the distribution of pornography to students...on their parent's dime! 

October 24, 2011
Carter Snead to Lead The Center for Ethics & Culture
Carter Sneed of the University's Law School selected to succeed David Solomon as the Director of the University's Center for Ethics & Culture. 

October 20, 2011
He thought I meant what?
Notre Dame protests of the government's proposal that employers, including Catholic institutions like Notre Dame, include coverage for birth control in their employee health insurance plans.

September 17, 2011
How Else Can You See It?
Despite encouraging developments respecting embryonic stem cell research, the University may subordinate the Church's teaching on this important issue when secular values such as academic prestige and business relations are at stake.

August 27, 2011
Rally Sons of Notre Dame
In this bulletin, we bring you "Saving Notre Dame's Soul," an extraordinary interview of Father Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C. by Kathyn Lopez of the National Catholic Reporter along with a video of highlights of his stirring leading address at the 2009 Rally on campus organized by students in opposition to the honoring of President Obama.

August 3, 2011
As if No One Would Notice
We bring you glad tidings: For almost a decade the Notre Dame Board of Trustees has harbored one of the nation's most prominent promoters of embryonic stem cell research, Dr. Marye Anne Fox. We and others have highlighted her membership. Now we have discovered by sheer chance that she has silently slipped away without a word from either her or the University. Wonder why?  So did we!  In this bulletin, we describe how we learned of this welcome departure and what might be inferred from it. At the same time we say goodbye to two of our own board members who have faithfully served Sycamore's mission since its inception while we welcome two new members to fill the vacancies.

June 8, 2011
Beating Around the Bush
In this bulletin, we describe the misdirection employed by top leaders of the University in their effort to salvage the appointment to the board of trustees of a long-time supporter of pro-abortion organizations and what this sorry episode means in the struggle for the soul of the University.

May 27, 2011
What's Our Story Today?
The University says that it sought dismissal of the charges against the ND88 after two years of supporting their prosecution because it was moved by a spirit of reconciliation and communion with the pro-life dedication of the ND88.  But the facts tell a different story.   

May 20, 2011
Just Stop Talking!
We have discovered that the contributions of Roxanne M. Martino, the new Notre Dame Trustee, to the stridently pro-abortion Emily's List are even more extensive than previously reported. What's more, we've learned that the Chairman of the Board has assured the other Board members that Ms. Martino didn't know what she was doing. Will the Board members and the Fellows who elected Mrs. Martino accept this patently bogus explanation? 

May 19, 2011
Goliath Strikes Again!
The Alumni Association flexes its muscles and forces a chance in venue for our Annual Breakfast, Bill Dempsey's letter to the Fellows about the appointment to the ND Board of Trustees of Roxanne M. Martino, and the ND88 litigation continues at the 11th hour.

May 16, 2011
Notre Dame Fellows Elect Pro-Abortion Trustee
The Cardinal Newman Society last week reported the stunning news that the Chicago businesswoman just elected to the Notre Dame Board of Trustees, Roxanne M. Martino, has in recent years contributed sizable sums to pro-abortion groups.

May 5, 2011
ND 88 Free at Last
Thomas More Society's Relentless Legal Defense Wins Justice for Pro-Life Activists at Notre Dame.

April 27, 2011
Faculty Senate Snubs President
In this bulletin, we lead with an account of a stunning rebuff by the Notre Dame Faculty Senate of Father Jenkins for his participation in the March for Life, further evidence of the radically weakened Catholic presence on the faculty.

April 4, 2011
The Teacher, The University and Sycamore
In this bulletin, we mark the recent anniversary of the passing of one of Notre Dame's greatest teachers, scholars and Catholics, Dr. Ralph McInerny, by recounting his mounting distress over the weakening of the Catholic identity of Notre Dame along with his praise of Sycamore Trust. It is indispensable and illuminating, if painful, to see the University through the eyes of one of its longest-serving, most faithful, and most highly respected servants and one of the most illustrious Catholic scholars and laymen of our time. 

March 3, 2011
Becoming Pro-Choice at Notre Dame
In our last bulletin we described the alarming abandonment of pro-life convictions by Notre Dame students, the evidence of pro-choice faculty sentiment, and the open dissent from Church teaching by prominent Notre Dame professors. But we promised better news the next time. So here it is:

January 31, 2011
Did I Say Pro-Life?
An alarming recent study showed that many students become pro-choice at Notre Dame. By the time they graduate, there are as many pro-choice students (42%) as in the general population. Among the reasons may be mixed signals from the faculty. Though the University declared itself pro-life in the wake of the Obama episode, there is reason to think that a large proportion of the faculty is pro-choice, and prominent members of the Theology faculty have been outspoken in their dissent from Church teaching  on abortion. Indeed, the nation's leading "Catholic" pro-choice advocate has welcomed the recent public dissent from Church teaching by one of Notre Dame's most widely known ethicists.

November 9, 2010
Paying the Price of Non-Violence 
Notwithstanding our uncovering evidence that destroys the University's proffered "equal treatment" reason for backing the prosecution of the pro-life ND88 demonstrators, Notre Dame has not relented. It does not deny that, as we discovered, it has let go pro-gay and anti-military demonstrators arrested for trespass. But it unaccountably continues to insist that it treats all those arrested for trespass alike.

October 3, 2010
Notre Dame, The Pope, and Gays
Notre Dame defends a cartoon lampooning the Pope while denouncing one offensive to gays as indications emerge of  pro-gay anti-Catholic bias in faculty hiring. 

September 13, 2010
Unfriendly Fire
Firing of Top Officer deals another blow to Notre Dame's Pro-Life Reputation. Bill Kirk's dismissal by Notre Dame is taken by many to be retribution for his opposition to the honoring of President Obama and his holding athletes to high standards of behavior.

August 12, 2010
The Rover Keeps Barking
The student voice of Catholic identity at Notre Dame will continue publishing.

July 24, 2010
The Price of Independence
The independent student publication The Irish Rover, a strong advocate for strengthening Notre Dame's Catholic identity, faces a severe fiscal crisis.

May 6, 2010
Unforgiven Trespasses
Discrimination Against Pro-Life Demonstrators Continues at Notre Dame. A just-published South Bend Tribune investigation supports Sycamore Trust's discovery that Notre Dame in 2007 shelved trespass cases against pro-gay and anti-military demonstrators. This undercuts the University's justification of its support of the prosecution of the pro-life demonstrators who protested the honoring of President Obama. That justification, advanced again by Father Jenkins in a new statement is: "The University cannot have one set of rules for causes we oppose and another more lenient set of rules for causes we support." But even though his statement was published together with the Tribune report, Father Jenkins did not mention the report, just as the University cut off communications with Sycamore Trust when it asked for comment on these pro-gay and anti-military incidents.

April 18, 2010
Hidden Agendas?
The University undermines it's stance respecting the ND88. Notre Dame, it turns out, has treated pro-gay and anti-military demonstrators much more generously than it is now treating pro-life demonstrators arrested during the Obama episode. And on a different front, on the eve of passage of the health care bill Father Hesburgh, at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request, phoned a key Catholic congressman who was holding out against the health care bill because of its pro-abortion character.

March 15, 2010
Pro-Gay Agenda at Notre Dame
Notre Dame students mount a campaign to promote homosexual rights at Notre Dame while the student newspaper, supporting the campaign, refuses to print a column by a distinguished professor of law emeritus explaining the Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality.

February 7, 2010
Bishop Rhoades on Catholic Identity
In a recent interview, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Notre Dame's new bishop, said he wanted "to foster and promote" Notre Dame's "Catholic identity and mission." He is, he declared, "committed to the full implementation" of Pope John Paul II's constitution for Catholic universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. But Notre Dame falls short of Ex Corde in important ways. Read about Bishop Rhoades's goals and how Notre Dame falls short in our latest bulletin,

February 2, 2010
Ralph McInerny, Requiescat In Pace
One of Notre Dame's most beloved professors and distinguished scholars, Dr. Ralph McInerny has died.  For more than a half century, Dr. McInerny inspired and counseled countless students, lectured widely, and wrote countless works of philosophy and fiction. As the face of Catholic philosophy and teaching at Notre Dame, which he loved beyond measure, it was with ever-increasing anxiety that this legendary professor witnessed the erosion of the University's Catholic identity.

Read about Dr. McInerny and his appraisal of the current state of affairs at Notre Dame

December 23, 2009
Fr. Jenkins Leaves Millennium Promise
Father Jenkins and Board Chairman Emeritus Donald Keough have left the Millennium Promise's board of Trustees, with its strong pro-abortion and pro-contraception policy.  

December 20, 2009
Update on the ND 88 & the Gay Rights March
The University continues to dissimulate about the 88 pro-life activists charged with trespassing at commencement as well as the use of student funds to participate in a Washington gay rights march. 

November 18 , 2009
How Pro-Life Is Notre Dame?
Notre Dame Greets a New Pro-life Bishop While Father Jenkins Continues to Serve on a Pro-abortion Board. While Father Jenkins was declaring Notre Dame to be staunchly pro-life notwithstanding its honoring of President Obama, news broke that he serves on the board on an organization, Millennium Promise, which promotes abortion and artificial contraception in its anti-poverty work. And now another pro-life champion has been appointed to succeed Bishop John M. D'Arcy as Notre Dame's bishop. Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, who wrote Father Jenkins in support of Bishop D'Arcy in the Obama affair and who regards it as his responsibility to "promote the strengthening of Catholic identity" at Catholic colleges and universities in his diocese, says that he looks forward to a "close personal and pastoral relationship" with Notre Dame.

October 25, 2009
Gays Marching, Five More Years for Jenkins
University supports students' participation in "Gay Rights" March; Father Jenkins is reappointed President; Father McBrien disparages Eucharistic Adoration. On the heels of Father Jenkins's announcement that he will, for the first time, participate in the Washington, D.C. March for Life came the startling news that the University had approved the payment of expenses of students participating in a gay rights March with an agenda colliding with fundamental Church teachings. Then the University announced that the Board of Trustees, praising Father Jenkins for his commitment to the Catholic character of the University, had elected him to another term as President. As a sidelight the press reported an unsettling liturgical lunge by Father Richard McBrien.

October 9, 2009
Notre Dame Washes its Hands
Notre Dame's Board meets next Friday amid increasing pressure for it to fulfill its fiduciary duty under the University's governing documents to keep the University Catholic. At the same time, Father Jenkins excludes leaders of established faculty and student pro-life organizations from his new task force and washes the University's hands of the trespass prosecutions of the pro-life protesters at Commencement.

August 25 , 2009
Bishop D'Arcy on "The Church and the University"
In the current issue of America, Bishop John M D'Arcy writes of Notre Dame's failure to "witness to the Catholic faith," its sundered relation with its bishop and the Church, and the Board of Trustees' lamentable inertness in the Obama episode, while retired Archbishop John R. Quinn misses the point. 

August 12 , 2009
Tell The Fellows What You Think NOW!
In the wake of the uproar triggered by the Obama episode, Notre Dame's Fellows are scheduled to convene in special session next Friday. Duty-bound to protect the University's Catholic identity, the Fellows have the authority to correct the course of secularization that threatens the soul of the world's top Catholic school. This meeting is a unique opportunity for us...but time is short so act with haste

May 24, 2009
Notre Dame Commencement: As It Should Have Been
Thousands Scorn the University's Tribute to President Obama and Celebrate Instead With Those Students Who, Led by Bishop John M. D'Arcy, in his words Chose "Truth Over Prestige."

May 6, 2009
Notre Dame vs. Church
Notre Dame's imminent honoring of President Obama triggerS a storm of protest.

April 19 , 2009
Protest ND Obama Tribute
Notre Dame's prospective honoring of President Obama unleashes a storm of protest.

February 22 , 2009
ND Website Undermines Catholic Teaching
University continues links to faculty group website recommending pro-abortion organizations, urging more lesbian and homosexual faculty, and more.

December 15, 2008
V-Monologues and Stem Cell Advocates on ND Board (and Moore)
Prominent Notre Dame board members advocate for the Vagina Monologues, stem cell research, and commercial pornography.

December 7, 2008
Status Report and Request for Support
A firmly established Sycamore Trust turns attention to building financial support to further its mission.

October 27, 2008
Father Jenkins's "Creative Contextualization"
Dr. Thomas S. Hibbs reflects on the fallout from and issues raised by Fr. Jenkins's decision to keep The Vagina Monologues on campus.

August 23, 2008
ND Scholar Applauds Sycamore Trust
University scholar calls Sycamore Trust "a model of calm and reasonable yet unrelenting friendly questioning of recent events on the South Bend campus."

August 9, 2008
V-Monologues as Farce
agina Monologues audience shuns "dialogue with the Catholic tradition" prescribed by Fr. Jenkins.

July 5 , 2008
The Pope vs. The Professors
The Pope celebrates Catholic identity; Notre Dame's Mission Statement requires it; the Notre Dame Faculty Senate sidelines it.

April 14, 2008
Would Notre Dame welcome a Professor Ratzinger on its faculty?
As Notre Dame reflects on its heritage in anticipation of the Pope's comments on Catholic higher education, could it be that the students are the most Catholic part of the University left.

March 26 , 2008
V-Monologues Despoil Easter Week
Bishop D'Arcy denounces Father Jenkins's decision to permit the Vagina Monologues Easter week.

March 12 , 2008
Vagina Monologues 2, Bishops 0
The Vagina Monologues will, after all, be performed on campus later this month. We recently reported that some 50 bishops had moved their conference off campus because the play might be produced. Father Jenkins has now decided it will be. He says this "best serves the distinctive" - presumably the Catholic - "mission of Notre Dame."

March 3 , 2008
Decision Pending as Project Sycamore Petitions Father Jenkins
Project Sycamore sends petition with 940 alumni signatures to Fr. Jenkins.

February 10, 2008
Bishops Shun Notre Dame
Vagina Monologues in, bishops out, parents in the dark.

November 7, 2007
University Declines to Release Hiring Results

October 24, 2007
Who Cares if Non-Catholics Predominate on Notre Dame's Faculty?

September 24, 2007
Faculty Site Promotes Material Hostile to Notre Dame's Catholic Character

September 12, 2007
A Must Read Article by Wilson Miscamble, C.S.C

July 30, 2007
The Heart of the Matter - Introduction

July 30, 2007
The Heart of the Matter - Rank Over Religion 

July 30, 2007
The Heart of the Matter - Soothing Melodies, Happy Memories 

July 30, 2007
The Heart of the Matter - The Means to the End  

February 19, 2007
Vagina Monologues Off Campus This Year

February 4, 2007
Preparations Begin for 6th Production of the Vagina Monologues

December 10, 2006
The Challenge to Notre Dame's Catholic Identity

October 17, 2006
Faculty Hiring Trends Hard to Reverse