University of Notre Dame students will stage a candlelit “March on the Dome” on Friday to demand that the school rescind the appointment of a radically pro-abortion professor.
The protest responds to the recent naming of Professor Susan Ostermann as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. They say the appointment directly contradicts Catholic teaching and the university’s mission.
The demonstration is set for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27, beginning with a procession from Main Circle to a stage on South Quad, where student leaders will speak. It will conclude with a blessing of candles by Holy Cross Father Bill Miscamble and a Rosary at the Grotto led by the Militia of the Immaculata.
Organizers describe Ostermann’s “outspoken advocacy for abortion access” as standing “in direct opposition to Church teaching.”
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The event was inspired by a February 11 statement from Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who expressed “dismay and strong opposition” to the appointment.
“The decision is causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond,” the bishop said, urging university leadership to “rectify this situation.” He also invited the faithful to pray at the Grotto, “invoking [Mary’s] prayers that Notre Dame will always stand firm in her commitment to the Gospel of her Son, the Gospel of Life.”
Luke Woodyard, a co-organizer, said the bishop’s words provided a clear call to action.
“The Bishop did not urge us to sit silently and watch our Lady’s University fall before our eyes; he gave us a clear call to action,” Woodyard said.
Gabe Ortner, the other co-organizer, called the appointment “the last straw in a long series of University actions counter to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity.”
The march calls on University President Father Robert Dowd, CSC, to use his authority to enforce the school’s Catholic mission and rescind the appointment.
Student leaders scheduled to address the crowd include Anna Kelley, president of Notre Dame Right to Life; Lucy Spence, editor-in-chief of The Irish Rover; and Theo Austin, Students for Child-Oriented Policy president emeritus.
Kelley, a Catholic adoptee from China, said she takes personal offense at the appointment.
“As a Catholic adoptee from China, I take personal offense at this appointment. I am choosing to speak out with my own testimony to bring attention to the real-life consequences that [Professor Ostermann’s] ideology promotes,” she said.
Spence described the appointment as “astonishing coming from a university dedicated to the mother of an unplanned pregnancy.”
“The decision should be viewed as none other than a slap in the face to every woman here,” she said.
The march is organized by Woodyard and Ortner in collaboration with Notre Dame Right to Life, Knights of Columbus Council 1477, The Irish Rover, Students for Child-Oriented Policy, Militia of the Immaculata and Children of Mary. All members of the Notre Dame community and friends of the university are invited to attend.
Most recently, an Illinois bishop has joined the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend’s Bishop Kevin Rhoades in sharply criticizing the University of Notre Dame’s appointment of a professor who publicly advocates for abortion to lead one of its research institutes
The Catholic leader is calling the decision scandalous and detrimental to the Church’s teachings on life.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, issued a statement expressing full support for Bishop Rhoades and urging Notre Dame to reverse the appointment of associate professor Susan Ostermann as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, effective July 1.
“Such an appointment causes confusion among the faithful and undermines the Church’s consistent ethic of life, which is central to Catholic social teaching,” Bishop Paprocki said.
He added that such a piecemeal approach “is not only intellectually incoherent but a direct slap in the face to the Church’s moral tradition,” and that “academic freedom does not obligate a Catholic university to entrust leadership to those whose public positions contradict essential moral truths.”
Bishop Rhoades, whose diocese encompasses Notre Dame, issued a Feb. 11 statement expressing “dismay” and “strong opposition” to the appointment, which he said is “causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond.”
“Professor Ostermann’s extensive public advocacy of abortion rights and her disparaging and inflammatory remarks about those who uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death go against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission,” Bishop Rhoades wrote.
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Another Catholic bishop in Virginia has called on the University of Notre Dame to rescind its appointment of an outspoken pro-abortion advocate to lead one of its academic institutes, citing the decision as “unsettling,” causing scandal and undermining the school’s Catholic identity and mission.
Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington issued a statement expressing “dismay” and “strong opposition” to Notre Dame’s selection of associate professor Susan Ostermann as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, effective July 1.
Burbidge wrote that he had read “many of the op-ed pieces co-authored by Professor Ostermann” and found her “public and uncompromising support for abortion” disqualifying for a leadership role at a Catholic university.
He described the appointment as going “against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission” and as “causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond.”
“I call upon the leadership of Notre Dame to rectify this situation,” Burbidge stated. “The appointment of Professor Ostermann is not scheduled to go into effect until July 1, 2026. There is still time to make things right.”
The bishop referenced the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, noting its directive that Catholic universities ensure fidelity to Church teaching in appointments.
Students for Life of America has downgraded the University of Notre Dame to an “F” grade on its Christian Schools monitoring project. The pro-life group is citing the school’s recent appointment of a professor described as an “abortion radical” to a leadership position as a direct betrayal of its Catholic identity and pro-life principles.
The controversial appointment, announced January 8 and effective July 1, has sparked widespread backlash from bishops, faculty, students and alumni. Ostermann, who joined Notre Dame in 2017 as a global affairs professor, has co-authored multiple op-eds defending legal abortion and criticizing the pro-life movement, including linking aspects of it to “white supremacy” and “racism.”
Meanwhile, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the University of Notre Dame’s decision to appoint a pro-abortion professor to lead one of its academic institutes.
The Catholic leader is calling it poor judgment that opposes Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life and the protection of the unborn.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, who currently serves as USCCB president, said in a statement posted Friday on X that he fully supports Bishop Kevin Rhoades in challenging Notre Dame to rectify the appointment of the professor, who “openly stands against Catholic teaching when it comes to the sanctity of life, in this case protection of the unborn.”
Ostermann has co-authored at least 11 opinion columns since May 2022 advocating for abortion, describing laws protecting unborn babies as “forced pregnancy and childbirth” amounting to “violence,” “sexual abuse” and “trauma,” and arguing that abortion is “freedom-enhancing” and “consistent with integral human development.”
She has also linked opposition to abortion with white supremacy and racism, and served as a consultant for the Population Council, which promotes abortion and has worked with the Chinese government on its one-child policy.
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, became the latest church leader to criticize the appointment Thursday, saying he stands “in support of Bishop Rhoades and share his concern.”
“Catholic institutions must faithfully reflect the truth of the dignity of every human life in both their mission and their leadership,” Conley said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
His statement followed similar rebukes from Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, who both expressed solidarity with Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend on Wednesday.
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Rhoades, whose diocese includes Notre Dame, issued a strongly worded statement that day expressing “dismay” and “strong opposition” to the naming of Susan Ostermann as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. He said the appointment “is causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond” and urged university leaders to “rectify this situation.”
Ostermann, an associate professor of global affairs and political science at Notre Dame since 2017, was appointed to the post effective July 1, according to a university announcement last month. She has co-authored at least 11 opinion columns between May 2022 and May 2024 advocating for abortion and opposing laws that protect unborn babies from it.
In those writings, she has described such laws as “forced pregnancy and childbirth” amounting to “violence,” “sexual abuse” and “trauma,” linked opposition to abortion with white supremacy and racism, and argued that abortion is “freedom-enhancing” and “consistent with integral human development.”
Ostermann has also served as a consultant for the Population Council, an organization that promotes abortion and has collaborated with the Chinese government on enforcing its one-child policy.
Rhoades said Ostermann’s public support for abortion and her “disparaging and inflammatory” criticism of the pro-life movement “go against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission.” He added that her views “should disqualify her from an administrative and leadership role at a Catholic university.”
Barron, in a post on X, described Ostermann as “not simply ‘pro-choice’ on the question of abortion; she is a sharp critic of the pro-life position and those who advocate it.” He said she has “gone so far as to characterize the anti-abortion stance as rooted in white supremacy and racism, and she has insinuated that the Catholic commitment to integral human development implies the support of abortion rights.”
Barron called the appointment “repugnant to the identity and mission of that great center of Catholic learning.”
Aquila, also posting on X, thanked Rhoades for his statement on “the most unfortunate appointment by Notre Dame that truly tarnishes Our Lady’s University & what it means to be Catholic.” He prayed that “those who can rescind this terrible appointment will do so” and for the “conversion of hearts.”
The controversy has led to resignations from two scholars affiliated with the Liu Institute: Robert Gimello, a research professor emeritus of theology, and Diane Desierto, a professor of law and global affairs. Gimello said his continued association under Ostermann would be “simply unconscionable — this regardless of whatever considerable talents and accomplishments the appointee might otherwise bring to the job.”
He doubted anyone “so hostile to, or dismissive of” Catholic moral principles “could do justice to Notre Dame’s properly Catholic endeavors in and about Asia.”
Rev. Wilson D. Miscamble, a Holy Cross priest and professor emeritus of history at Notre Dame, called the appointment a “travesty” that exposes “the hollowness of the claim that Catholic character informs all Notre Dame’s endeavors.”
Students from Notre Dame Right to Life opposed the decision in a letter to the campus newspaper, arguing that Ostermann’s work with the Population Council “violates the dignity of human life” and renders her “unfit to serve as head of the Liu Institute.”
Anna Kelley, the group’s president and a Catholic adoptee from China, said: “As a Catholic adoptee from China, I take personal offense at this appointment. I am so blessed to have escaped the fate that Professor Ostermann’s work has inflicted on so many innocent Chinese lives. Because I have been given the gift of life, I am choosing to speak out with my own testimony to bring attention to the real-life consequences that her ideology promotes.”
Notre Dame defended the appointment, describing Ostermann as “a highly regarded political scientist and legal scholar” qualified to lead the institute. Officials said those in leadership positions must make decisions “guided by and consistent with the university’s Catholic mission” and reaffirmed the school’s “unwavering commitment to upholding the inherent dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life at every stage.”
A retired University of Notre Dame sociology professor has publicly declared he is “done” with the institution, accusing it of failing its Catholic mission. Although not a response to it, as his decision came before the appointment, it comes amid ongoing controversy over the appointment of an outspoken pro-abortion advocate to lead one of its research institutes.
The university’s website proclaims: “Consistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church on such issues as abortion, research involving human embryos, euthanasia, the death penalty, and other related life issues, the University of Notre Dame recognizes and upholds the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.”
