In the last four decades – now including this one –  the University of Notre Dame has had one national football championship. Since 1988 – none. There are now several entire generations of fans who have no idea that there was a time when “college football” and “Notre Dame” were synonymous.

I grew up in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1950s,  a cradle catholic, attending catholic schools through high school (and then through college at a university there which was then, but is now not really, catholic)  and by the time I was ten I had watched the 1940 movie, “Knute Rockne-All American,” several times. Having watched the movie about World War I soldiers, “The Fighting 69^th,”  I knew well the source of the nickname, “The Fighting Irish.”  The “Fighting 69^th” was the U.S. Army’s New York City 69th Infantry Regiment. Robert E. Lee gave it that nickname when his troops fought against the regiment during the American Civil War.

Before I was a teenager, and most probably unlike the overwhelming majority of students, staff and recent alumni of the school today, I knew: the significance of the phrase “Dorais-to-Rockne;” the import of the names “Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, Layden, and  Gipp;” and why some students there had been referred to as the “Seven Mules.” Along with whistling the Colonel Bogey March, I sang, from memory, the Notre Dame fight song.

Rockne, Texas, which I visited as a child, was named in 1931 by a vote of catholic elementary school children there who chose this name to honor the legendary Notre Dame coach, Knute Rockne,  who had recently died in a plane crash in Kansas. The College Football Hall of Fame, [he was inducted in 1951], identifies Rockne as “without question, American football’s most-renowned coach”. He still today has the record as the winningest coach of all the major college football programs.

To those of us who believed, we knew, deep in the core of our souls, that it was not the “luck of the Irish” – it was true miracles, football miracles, Saturday after Saturday, that God bestowed on the golden domers who took the field in the name of Our Lady, Jesus’s mother. We knew, beyond belief, that through the intercession of this dear Lady and in response to the pleas of nuns in convents across the country who were seated around radios, rosaries in hand, listening to the games, and praying for “our boys” to win, that the miracles would flow.

Holy Mary,  Pray For Us

Bear with me on this: the time of the decline of Irish football fortunes and the secularizing of the university named after Our Lady, Jesus’s Mom,  coincide.  Coincidence?

Decades ago, a small cadre that had taken over the university had aspirations of totally controlling it and seeing that it became a financially flourishing  “Tier 1” secular institution – a dream yet to be achieved. Exercising the power which they had secured, they had the university declare itself “independent” of any Catholic Church authority. This cadre, and now its progeny since the late ‘60s, have pursued an un/non/and-or anti-catholic agenda. They include trustees, presidents, vice presidents, officers, deans, department heads, professors, staff, faculty, students, and alumni. Also included are those – faculty, executives, students, and alumni – who by their silence have supported the cadre who have taken over the university.

Holy Mother of God,
Holy Virgin of virgins,
Mother of Christ, pray for us.

LOL ’67: No Laughing Matter

At a conference of catholic university executives and officers, spearheaded by a then-president of the university [now dead], the 1967 Land O’ Lakes Conference produced  a list of less than ninety-five theses which was published after the conference ended and whose core tenet was that “the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom.”

Mother of the Church,
Mother of Mercy,
Mother of divine grace, pray for us.

It Was Worse, Much Worse Than Simple Control

The LOL manifesto of those who took over the University Notre Dame declared that the teaching authority of the Church was “external” to the university.  This “Non Serviam” echoed the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute (Jer 2:20).

Church Magisterium

The [only] Magisterium of the Church

The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.” This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith.”

Mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles: “He who hears you, hears me”, the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.

The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 85-87, 100; emphasis added).

In accord with the teaching authority of the Church, and “at divine command,” bishops and the pope – “alone,” “solely,” “only” – decide what is right and wrong, moral and immoral, to be believed and to be rejected, dogmatic, and strictly in accord with catholic teaching and tradition. No one else and no other group does this or can do it. No one.

Mother most amiable,
Mother admirable,
Mother of good counsel,
Mother of our Creator,
Mother of our Saviour, pray for us.

Irish Magisterium

Contrary to divine command, the only “command” the cadre received and receives to the present time, was and is the self-magisterium it created, originating with its own members.

The cadre’s schemes were not in the least subtle. Their claim to “autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind,” was both a public declaration of their success in taking over total control – in earthly terms – of  Our Lady’s school;  and also a public profession of their independence from any bishop or pope, and from the authority of the Church. They declared not only that they were the new theological sheriffs in South Bend, but that they were the only theology enforcement force for Our Lady’s university. Some even set themselves up as an uber-magisterium that could teach and preach to the Church.

S$ecularization

“Follow The Money” – as is so often the case when a group takes over an institution – helps to explain, in part, the cadre’s designs on Our Lady’s University. If “abandon Catholicism, its teachings, and its authority” = a significant increase in sources of money of all kinds for the school and top-school level income for those in charge, their choice was easy.

Fear-mongering about Notre Dame’s financial future helped hasten the school’s abandonment of catholicism. In a 1987 essay in the New York Times, a president of the university (who has since died) issued a dire warning:  if Our Lady’s University did not rid itself of Church control, the courts would rule that it receive none of the increasing torrent of government money flowing to higher education.

This was, of course, a lie. The lie worked. Worldly funding sources surged and the university became less dependent on alumni and the faithful for financial support — with a concomitant decrease in reason or motivation to listen to them, accommodate them, honor their wishes,  or allow them to have any say about or influence over the cadre’s decisions and policies.

Thousands of truly catholic alumni have decided not to support the university.

Via vociferous claims to “academic freedom,” and alarms about government funding drying up, the secular magisterium folks took over control of the 100s of millions of dollars worth of the university’s assets, finances, property (real and intangible), research dollars and endowment. Judas was a schoolboy extorting lunch money on the playground compared to this.

Mother most pure,
Mother most chaste,
Mother inviolate,
Mother undefiled, pray for us.

Mandatum? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Mandatum!

Beginning in 1983, the Church’s canon law required that theologians teaching in a catholic university received a “mandatum” from the local bishop. Such a required mandatum indicates that the theologian intends to teach in accord with the teachings of the Church.

It is necessary that those who teach theological disciplines in any institute of higher studies have a mandatum from the competent ecclesiastical authority. (Canon 812 of the Code of Canon Law).

Pope John Paul II’s 1990 document, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (an apostolic constitution on higher education) referred to this requirement. It discussed no exceptions. In 2001, the U.S. bishops began requiring the mandatum.

The Once-fightin’ Irish magisterium quickly corrected the Church. One (in)famous Notre Dame faculty member [now dead] declared publicly, in America, the Society of Jesus magazine, that “I shall not seek a mandate because the requirement of a mandate compromises the academic integrity of the faculty and the university.” Until he died, he never recanted that statement. Another professor of theology stated publicly that he “resented” the fact that Catholics should have to swear fidelity to their faith. The then-president of the university, along with the then-chancellor of another college, called requiring the mandatums “positively dangerous.”  The faculty senate voted unanimously that the guidelines published by the catholic bishops be ignored.

To date, it is not possible to determine if all Notre Dame theology professors have requested a mandatum from the local bishop, of if any or all of them have received one.

Publicly Honoring Baby Killers  & Promoters of Various Intrinsic Evils

The cadre has awarded the university’s Laetare Medal, the “oldest and most prestigious honor accorded to American Catholics,” to Joseph Biden, the person who was the most pro-death, pro-abortion, pro-intrinsic-evil president in U.S. history. While he was vice president, he had a laboring oar in assisting then-President Obama in implementing a Department of Health and Human Services regulation that forced Notre Dame and other Catholic institutions to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to all employees. Biden continued to advocate for redefining marriage to include “same-sex marriage” [which itself is an intrinsic evil] and other intrinsic evils until January 19, 2025. Notre Dame said it was honoring  Biden for his dedication to “genuine public service” despite complaints from the local South Bend bishop. President Biden, even as a puppet of Barry Soetoro, was the most visible and influential icon for all the intrinsic evils advocated for and promoted by the Party of Death.

In 2009 President Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at the university and was awarded an honorary doctorate which bears the words, translated, “Our Lady.”  Notre Dame’s President ignored the pleas of countless students and faculty and rejected the request of the local bishop to un-invite the president and not to publicly honor  him with the degree. Until Joseph Biden was elected, President Obama was the most pro-abortion pro-intrinsic-evil president. He was on record, before he was elected president, as having voted against legislation that would have stopped the killing of a baby who was alive and had survived an abortion.

No invitation was, or has been, extended to the Donald John Trump, the most pro-life president in America’s history to speak at a university commencement.

Virgin most prudent,
Virgin most venerable,
Virgin most renowned, pray for us.

Vagina Monologues & Queer Film Festival

Despite Notre Dame’s president’s statement that no anti-Semitic play or speech would ever be permitted at Notre Dame since it would be “opposed to the values of a Catholic university,” there has been an on-campus homosexual film festival and administration-approved on-campus performances of the obscene and anti-catholic play “The Vagina Monologues.”

The university president condoned and permitted the play to be performed despite his statements that the play contains “no hint of central elements of Catholic sexual morality,” but instead, “contains graphic descriptions of homosexual, extra-marital heterosexual, and auto-erotic experiences.” The play includes a graphic depiction of the seduction, and therefore statutory rape, of a sixteen year-old girl by an adult woman. In a “say-what? “ moment, the president also stated the “portrayals stand apart from, and indeed in opposition to, the view that human sexuality finds its proper expression in the committed relationship of marriage between a man and a woman that is open to the gift of procreation;” and that “the repeated performance of the play and the publicity surrounding it suggest that the university endorses certain themes in the play, or at least finds them compatible with its values.”

Presentations of the play on campus have coincided with an international “V-Day campaign.”

“The Notre Dame Queer Film Festival” was founded in 2004. This name was changed to “Gay and Lesbian Film: Filmmakers, Narratives, Spectatorships.” Then in later years, the name was changed to “Qlassics: Reimagining Sexuality and the Self in Recent American Cinema.” The series has also been  called the “GlobaLGBTQ+ Film Festival.”

There is no more poignant, insightful, and incisive fact that epitomizes what the cadre has done to Our Lady’s University than to take the words “Notre Dame Queer Film Festival,” – i.e. “Our Lady Queer Film Festival” –  and juxtapose them to these words about Jesus’s Mom, the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Virgin of Virgins, Mother most pure, Mother most chaste, Mother inviolate, Mother undefiled,  Immaculate Conception.

Our Lady told us that all generations will call her blessed. What has been allowed at her university cannot be what those singing the Notre Dame Victory March mean when they say “cheering her name.”

Virgin most powerful,
Virgin most merciful,
Virgin most faithful, pray for us.

Promoting the Business of Abortion

The university has held conferences on campus with abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood present and with organizations such as the Population Council to explore its Irish magisterium alternatives to true Catholic teaching on birth control and contraceptives. Numerous pro-abortion and pro-death speakers have been invited to the university to speak, including presidents of Ireland and of the United States who have been and are the most-visible and most vocal supporters of abortion businesses.

Mirror of justice,
Seat of wisdom,
Cause of our joy,
Spiritual vessel,
Vessel of honour,
Singular vessel of devotion,
Mystical rose, pray for us.

The university provided a public platform for then New York Governor Mario Cuomo to inform the world that Catholic teaching allowed a politician to be “personally opposed” to abortion, but he could then enable abortions or promote them via a public office he holds, and could, in good conscience, advocate for legislation do in this. A plethora of politicians since then have relied on that lie to secure catholic votes.

Because of the tens of millions of babies killed in abortion in America, many of them killed solely because of their sex, or killed due to their race, this is one of the most pernicious examples of the effects of the Once-fightin’ Irish magisterium.

Tower of David,
Tower of ivory,
House of gold,
Ark of the covenant,
Gate of heaven, pray for us.

The editorial board of the  Observer, a student newspaper funded in part by the fees paid by all students (at the three schools: the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College), has stated publicly that  the Church’s teaching on sexuality is presented in  “hateful and discriminatory language” and that this has “no place on our tri-campus.” Implicitly, this board is asserting that the university, its faculty, and its students should accept the Once-fightin’ Irish magisterium and should reject the magisterium of the Church.

Morning star,
Health of the sick,
Refuge of sinners,
Comfort of the afflicted, pray for us.

The university provided “spousal benefits” to same-sex couples, asserting – falsely – that this agrees with Catholic teaching in support of traditional marriage. Some of those speaking on behalf of the university claimed – falsely –  that “relevant civil law” required this.

Queen of Angels,
Queen of Patriarchs,
Queen of Prophets,
Queen of Apostles,
Queen of Martyrs,
Queen of Confessors, pray for us.

Sin As Virtue

The secularist cadre has seen to it for decades that the university promote pro-homosexual actions and pro-homosexual-action-based relationships. It published a clearly pro-homosexual-actions statement that, inter alia, quoted with implicit approval, statements of President Biden with links to the Human Rights Campaign  —  a homosexual actions activist organization that denounces the “intolerant” Catholic Church.  Pride Month was promoted at the university as “a time to recognize the contributions of LGBTQ+ Americans and raise awareness about efforts for equal justice and equal opportunity for the LGBTQ+ community.”   Included on the school website was a long quotation from President Biden praising the pro-homosexual-action agenda as a “liberation movement:”

Queen of Virgins,
Queen of all Saints,
Queen conceived without original sin,
Queen assumed into heaven,
Queen of the most holy Rosary,
Queen of peace, pray for us.

Hope? Always

Could this all be remedied at what once truly was Our Lady’s University?  Could the Saturday miracles flow again?

Of course, there will come a time (or a part of eternity) when all that has been done at Notre Dame is reversed and nullified.  Perhaps in our lifetimes, or not; but most certainly according to God’s will and in God’s time. He has the power, all power. Only He can truly shake down the thunder from the skies, not those who have for some time now tried to bring into being, simply by their words and actions, their own anti-catholic Irish reality.

When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it  . . .  (Job 28:26).  And the Lord answering Job out of the whirlwind, said:  Gird up thy loins like a man: I will ask thee, and do thou tell me. . . . And hast thou an arm like God, and canst thou thunder with a voice like him? (Job 40:1-4)

Multiple Bases for Hope, and Irish TDs

There are reasons to hope: scintillas of light are at the end of the dark un/non/and-or anti-catholic Irish magisterium tunnel:

Time, All Time –  God’s

Many of the cadre are now gone from the university and some are gone from this earth. Those presently exercising some earthly dominion will all eventually be gone, all of them, and none of them will have any office there or exercise any power. Like Ozymandias, they will receive no lasting honors for what they did. No more will they speak on behalf of, nor will they be accepted as, a representative of Our Lady’s University. They will, each of them,

Odds Great Or Small

Very few of the Fighting Irish are needed to win a battle. A few loyal sons, or daughters, are enough. In the Spring of 1924, the politically powerful anti-catholic Ku Klux Klan decided to have a mass rally, picnic, and parade through South Bend, Indiana. To say they were anti-catholic is an understatement. About one in three men (approximately a quarter of a million) in Indiana were then members of the Klan. At this time, Our Lady’s University was a nationally-recognized symbol of Roman Catholicism and of the impact of the Church in the United States. The Klan fully intended to intimidate the university, its faculty, and students and let them know they were unwelcome in their America.

It was a true David vs. Goliath confrontation – a few hundred Notre Dame students against untold hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Klan members. Students gathered at the train station in South Bend, waiting for the Klansmen to arrive, and when they did, angry students beat them as they exited the train and ripped their Klan regalia and robes from them, tearing them to pieces. Later, when the police arrived, Klansmen in other trains did make it into South Bend. Accurate estimates are not available, but the student numbers were easily dwarfed by the huge numbers of men brought in by the KKK.

The Klansmen gathered in downtown areas of South Bend and then word got back to the campus that some students who lived there, off-campus, were being attacked by a mob of the KKK. A hundred or more students left campus to defend their friends – without a care about how many of the Klansmen there were or what odds, great or small, they were facing.

The president of the university, Father Matthew Walsh, an Army chaplain in World War I, arrived in downtown South Bend. The students who had massed there were intent on fighting it out with the Klansmen. Father Walsh’s words and the hand of God cooled the passions of the students. At that same time, there was a spring downpour and the crowds dispersed. The following day Knute Rockne spoke to the assembled students on campus and begged them to listen to Father Walsh and not engage in any more violence. There were no more confrontations, and a few days later the Klansmen departed South Bend.

Coincidentally, Notre Dame played like a champion and won the national football championship that year.

Today there are still some who have no fear in taking on un/non/and-or anti-catholic forces. These “Fighting Irish”  include catholic students, catholic professors, catholic executives and officers, catholic alumni, and catholic staff. These are not “cafeteria Catholics,” “social justice Catholics,” “Catholics for choice,” or “Sunday Catholics”. These are Catholics.  However many there are, that is absolutely enough because they are in league with God their Father, Jesus God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. St. Michael the Archangel and a heavenly legion are at their sides. Right now, they are God’s courageous instruments to make it true to say again, “This is a catholic school, this is Our Lady’s University.”

Loyal Sons, and Daughters

There are many examples. One was a brave young lady who stood out like Notre Dame’s Joan of Arc. It appears she was born to do this and she is not afraid. She published in the Irish Rover, an independent student newspaper, of which she was editor-in-chief, a column critical of the university’s dealing with so-called “gender issues” and noting the university’s failure to abide by correct catholic teaching on the subject. The vitriolic and insulting ad hominem attacks against her, without more, that ensued are a clear indication that she was spot-on in what she said. She has spoken truth to the Irish Magisterial earthly power.

Jesus Loves His Mom

We should never underestimate a Son’s love, nor His ability to shake down divine thunder from the skies in the name of His Mom. It is an absolute certainty that there will come a time in human history, or at the moment of its ending, in which all that has been done by those who  took control of the university will be no more, gone with the wind, and Our Lady, Notre Dame, and her very own true Fighting Irish will win overall.

It is no wonder that her Son has not allowed the Once-fightin’ Irish to play like a champion for so many years.

Mother of Hope, Pray for us.