"There are disquieting signs that an effort may be afoot to do away with the University’s own Mission Statement requirement that there be a majority of Catholics on the faculty ..."

This reminds me of something a former inmate of the Indiana State Prison told me. While in prison and very much embittered, he had been taught the "Our Father," which he prayed daily. Then one day it occurred to him that in praying "forgive us ... as we forgive those who trespass against us," he was asking God to treat him the same way he was treating other people. And so he came to an important decision: He stopped praying the Lord's Prayer.

Happily, he subsequently became a good Catholic and loving husband and father. May Notre Dame's path of fidelity to her calling be less convoluted than my friend's.

Thanks for running Fr Miscamble's article.

It might be worthwhile to say a word about "disquieting signs"respecting the Mission Statement. That statement declares that Notre Dame's Catholic identity "depends upon" the "continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals" on the faculty. Father Malloy said this was designed to mean "more than a mere majority." At last public count, there was only a "mere majority", namely, 53%, and that included nominal and dissident Catholics. Still, there was at least an arithmetical majority.

In his recent interview with The Irish Over, Father Robert Sullivan said: "The goal of the University is to annually exceed 50% in the hiring of instructional faculty. This year, the goal was excededed in every School and College except one." He declined to say what has happened as a consequence. That is, he did not disclose whether last year’s slim Catholic majority of 53% has stabilized or has been further eroded. The article reports that “the administration has at this time declined to release a full breakdown of the data, instead focusing on the long term."

It is difficult to resist inferring that, if a majority still exists, it has further shrunk. Moreover, it seems clear enough that there will be further serious deterioration if the annual rate of hiring is merely that described by Father Sullivan. With retirees heavily Catholic, it seems evident that a hiring rate far above 50% is necessary even to maintain the status quo. Father Miscamble says two-thirds. Project Sycamore estimated between 60 and 70% and advised the University that it would use that figure unless told it was wrong. We were not so told.

At some point, presumably, what has happened will be explained and prospects for compliance with the Mission Statement -- that is, for the future of Notre Dame as a genuinely Catholic University -- will become clearer. One may hope so, at any rate.

This article seems to contradict Fr. Jenkins statement in his "Closing Statement on Academic Freedom and Catholic Character". He stated "This is a Catholic University". Explaining, "That is why the Catholic tradition must not only inspire our worship and our service on campus; it should help shape the intellectual life of the university". I applaud Fr. Miscamble for writing his article and hope it doesn't cost him his position.

Mike McFadden '57