The Fighting Irish may be tearing it up on the football field (and once again toying with major dad’s emotions as they head into the college playoffs), but back at the auld sod from whence the football team springs – the CATHOLIC University in South Bend, Indiana – there has been some verbal artillery flying and battles fought of their own since the 10th of November.
That was the day the University announced a set of ‘refreshed staff values’ as part of a fall staff town hall.
University leaders discussed Notre Dame’s response to the changing higher education environment, academic updates, and a new set of staff values at the Fall 2025 Staff Town Halls on October 29 and 30.
Vice President for Human Resources Heather Christophersen opened the 45-minute sessions by inviting audience members to look around Washington Hall and enjoy the recently refurbished murals inside the 144-year-old venue. She then introduced University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., who began with a prayer and words of thanks.
“Thanks for everything you’re doing this first half of this semester,” Father Dowd said. “I know it’s been very busy, and I’ve had countless people come up to me and compliment how beautiful the grounds are, how incredibly friendly everyone they have met has been, and how welcoming this community is.”
Father Dowd highlighted the University’s top priorities, which are guided by its mission: supporting current employees, ensuring a Notre Dame education is accessible and affordable, and advancing Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework. He ended by thanking staff members for being “agents of hope” and embracing the spirit of the 2025–26 Notre Dame Forum theme, “Cultivating Hope.”
Who pays any attention to that crap, right? There are so many schools and so many administrations being inundated with paperwork and announcements,…seriously, who cares?
Well.
Only the world, when you’re Notre Dame.
And when your ‘refreshed values’ sort of drop the part about being Catholic.
Yeah. Yeah.
Somehow, the university with a ‘touchdown Jesus’ decided that the religious part needn’t pester their staff any longer.
🍀Notre Dame just dropped the explicit requirement for staff to “understand, accept, and support” its Catholic mission from the university’s core values.
They’ve been drifting from their Catholic roots for years, but now they’re officially abandoning them.
Watching one of… pic.twitter.com/mwoYhX2xSF
— UnitasSacra (@UnitasSacra) November 20, 2025
…Watching one of America’s great Catholic universities go from “Catholic mission” to “global identity” is sad.
The vice-president for Human Resources said that the language mandating staff ‘accept and support the CATHOLIC mission’ of the school was ‘stale.‘
Loyalty oaths and mission statements are so last century.
And of course, her name is Heather. I guess Karen was taken.
…Both the Catholic News Agency and the Notre Dame Observer reported on the changes, pointing out that the university claimed the changes were made because the previous values were too “generic.” Previously, the staff values were listed as (emphasis added):
Accountability: Takes responsibility and ownership for decisions, actions and results. Accountable for both how and what is accomplished.
Teamwork: Works cooperatively as a member of a team and is committed to the overall team objectives rather than own interests.
Integrity: Demonstrates honest and ethical behavior that displays a high moral standard. Widely trusted, respectful and honorable.
Leadership in Excellence: Demonstrates energy and commitment to improving results, takes initiatives often involving calculated risks while considering the common good.
Leadership in Mission: Understands, accepts and supports the Catholic mission of the university and fosters values consistent with that mission.
Those have been changed to values that, despite the justification, seem significantly more generic:
Community: Treat every person with dignity and respect
Collaboration: Work together with honesty, kindness, and humility
Excellence: Pursue the highest standards with a commitment to truth and service
Innovation: Embrace opportunities with creativity and dedication
Notre Dame’s VP for Human Resources, Heather Christophersen, told the Notre Dame Observer that the previous value statement had been described as stale.
It must have come as something of a shock when outraged cries shook the ivory and crystal towers inside the sacred university grounds.
No word if Touchdown Jesus wept.
Catholics across the country were furious. I mean, you expect crap like that from, say, Georgetown.
The University of Notre Dame in Indiana has taken out the reference to staff support for its Catholic mission from its values statement, prompting strong backlash from Catholics across the country. pic.twitter.com/JTON452VB8
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) November 19, 2025
But not from Notre Dame, where students could safely hold a rosary for Charlie Kirk.
Students at Notre Dame University had been praying the Rosary for Charlie Kirk.
Video: @severson_luke pic.twitter.com/CtMaueMlpp
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) September 10, 2025
A place where, unlike the hate-filled, ‘violent’ fliers found on Georgetown’s campus, Notre Dame’s independent Catholic campus paper eulogised him.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk hit the Irish Rover hard. In Kirk, we saw ourselves: young, conservative, and energetic students trying to uphold the Christian principles we hold dear, in response to the rising tide of the far left. Through his organization Turning Point USA, his social media presence, and his speaking tours, Kirk occupied the same space as the Rover: the campus quads, classrooms, and screens of Gen-Z America.
The fundamental message that Charlie Kirk promoted—one that inspires the Rover as well—was hope.
Charlie Kirk’s message reflected a supernatural view of politics—a politics involved in matters of the world, but for the purpose of truth, common good, and Christianity, not as a mere power game. His goal was to create a politics of hope. The Catechism teaches that the virtue of hope “takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude.”
Following Kirk’s assassination, prominent voices on both the right and the left have united around a system of free speech, modeled after Kirk’s own habit of conducting intense but respectful conversations with political adversaries. Such a response is honorable, especially considering the shocking number on the left who have refused to condemn the violent act, or worse, celebrated it outright.
The dweebish school president, Father Robert Dowd, a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, spent the intervening days ignoring the raging controversy and going about his presidential business.
Although he did make one visit after the dropping ‘Catholic values’ decision that, in retrospect, might have played a part in subsequent events.
Father Dowd had a European vacation. Met the boss.
And, well, huh.
What was that topic of conversation again?
Father Dowd extended greetings and prayers from the Notre Dame family as he met with Pope Leo on Friday.
Their conversation centered on the role Notre Dame and other Catholic universities can play in supporting the Church, addressing the challenges of our times, and fostering… pic.twitter.com/njxRVBputl
— University of Notre Dame (@NotreDame) November 17, 2025
…Their conversation centered on the role Notre Dame and other Catholic universities can play in supporting the Church, addressing the challenges of our times, and fostering human flourishing. Pope Leo also bestowed a blessing upon all members of the Notre Dame community.
It’s hard to ‘support the church’ if you act as if you’re not a part of it to begin with, no?
Funny that. Not long after the globe-trotting Father Dowd got home, the winds shifted.
It’s like a miracle or something.
The University of Notre Dame reinstated “Catholic Mission” among its staff values after it opted to drop the language. https://t.co/gU9atm5M0R
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) November 21, 2025
And it is still not perfect nor anywhere near as robust as the previous, stale version…
Too late. pic.twitter.com/dIeCs2xcv9
— Matt Williams (@MattWi77iams) November 22, 2025
…but at least it has ‘Catholic’ in it somewhere.
And I am howling at Dowd’s ‘thanks to constructive feedback.’ The constructive, lion-sized ass chewing he may have gotten?
…In a Nov. 21 staff announcement, Notre Dame President Robert A. Dowd, CSC, said commitment to the school’s Catholic mission was referenced in the preamble to the new four staff values announced at a town hall meeting last week “as a way to show its overarching importance.”
“Thanks to some constructive feedback we received, we now realize that placement is causing confusion and that some could interpret that not as elevating our mission as we intended but as a sign of diminishing commitment,” he said. “To avoid any further confusion, we have now included the language on Catholic mission as the first of our five core values.”
“Catholic Mission” is now listed first in the university’s staff values, with the description: “Be a force for good and help to advance Notre Dame’s mission to be the leading global Catholic research university.”
We’ll never know.
But, jeez – I sure hope so.
(GO IRISH!)
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