Notre Dame’s New President Says University Must ‘Build Bridges’ in a Broken World| National Catholic Register

Notre Dame’s new president thinks that the world is in trouble — and that the university he’s now tasked to lead is uniquely poised to help.

Calling upon the Notre Dame community to embrace the role of “bridge builders” in a fragmented society, Holy Cross Father Bob Dowd said in his Sept. 13 inauguration speech that the university’s Catholic identity makes it “distinctive” among other elite universities and gives it “a special responsibility” to address the crises of the day, from ongoing wars to rising levels of religious disaffiliation.

“In a polarized world drawn to the confines of either-or thinking, our Catholic mission calls us to embrace both/and,” Father Dowd told the university’s board of trustees, faculty, and student body, just moments after he was formally installed as Notre Dame’s 18th president.

“Both faith and reason; both the life of the mind and matters of the heart; both disciplinary and multidisciplinary research and teaching; both a local and global presence; both deeply Catholic and welcoming of people of all faiths and none,” he said.

Father Dowd didn’t speak of bridge building in only aspirational terms. He also laid out concrete plans to make Notre Dame more globally orientated, more internally connected and more widely accessible — including a bold new initiative that earned a standing ovation.

During his speech, Notre Dame’s new president announced that the university would go “need-blind” and “loan-free” for undergraduate students. The measure, which includes replacing loans in financial aid packages with “gift aid,” will allow more international students and those from lower-income families to access a Notre Dame education.

Father Dowd also announced his intention to “redouble our efforts to create an environment and cultivate a culture [on campus] that allows us to have difficult conversations, and become the bridge-builders the world needs.”

He also spoke of the need for Notre Dame to become more multi-disciplinary, highlighting several examples of academic cross-over, such as economists working with medical professionals and policy experts to address the opioid crisis.

The Notre Dame “Difference”

Throughout his inauguration address, delivered to Notre Dame’s board of trustees, faculty and student body inside the Purcell Pavilion, Father Dowd sought to place the Catholic university in the company of other elite institutions, while also emphasizing its distinctiveness.

He proudly noted that last year Notre Dame became the first faith-based institution to join the Association of American Universities, a group of premier research institutions, but also noted that the university is called to offer a holistic education, a standard that can’t be met by merely achieving elite status.

“Which means it includes all the demands placed on our peer institutions, and then some, since we cannot simply look at how others rank us to understand how faithfully we have lived out our mission,” he said.

Notre Dame is consistently ranked among the top 20 national universities by U.S. News, and currently has the eighth-largest endowment in the country, at more than $17 billion.

In his address, Father Dowd warned that “even corners of the Church can be infected” by the “either-or” thinking that defines a polarized world.

“When this happens,” he said, “we label others, and perhaps even label ourselves, either left or right; either liberal or conservative; either traditional or progressive. Our humanity reduced to an ideology.”

Pointing to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was “full of grace, and open to God and open to others,” as a model bridge builder, Father Dowd said that Notre Dame’s outward-facing efforts require a strong moral foundation “so that we don’t get swept away by fast-moving currents or buckle under pressure.”

“And as bridge-builders,” he continued, “we must use this foundation to reach out even further, stretching ourselves beyond the familiar and the comfortable.”

Generational Event

The inauguration of the Indiana native, Notre Dame graduate, and longtime professor and administrator was the climax of a Sept. 11-13, campus-wide celebration that included everything from a performance by a legendary Irish folk band, The High Kings, to an Inauguration Ball for students.

On Sept. 12, Notre Dame hosted a forum of global leaders to discuss a question posed by Father Dowd: “What do we owe each other?” Notre Dame graduates Joe Donnelly, a former Blue Dog Democrat senator and U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, and Admiral Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke about promoting peace in a divided world. Sanda Ojiambo, a high-ranking United Nations official who previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Africa, spoke about ways that business can have a positive global impact.

The forum was emceed by Meghan Sullivan, a Notre Dame philosopher who was recently tapped to lead the university’s new and controversial virtue ethics center. Some campus voices have expressed concern that the Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics is not sufficiently grounded in Catholic principles, and will undercut the already established de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture.

Hours before the inauguration ceremony, a special votive Mass of Mary, Seat of Wisdom, was celebrated in the campus’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart, featuring readings from Proverbs, St. James, and St. Luke’s account of the Visitation that emphasized wisdom’s connection to humility and charity. Bishop Patrick Neary of St. Cloud, Minnesota, a fellow Holy Cross cleric and longtime friend of Father Dowd’s, presided at the Mass due to the new university president testing positive for COVID.

And following his reception of the presidential medal and university mace, and his acceptance of the presidency, Father Dowd knelt and received a blessing from Fathers Edward “Monk” Malloy and John Jenkins, his two immediate predecessors.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades, the ordinary of Notre Dame’s Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, concluded the inauguration ceremony with a benediction. He asked Mary to intercede for Father Dowd that he may be “tender, strong, and true,” lines taken from Notre Dame’s Alma Mater song, famously performed at the end of Fighting Irish sporting events.

Bishop Rhoades also prayed that Father Dowd would carry out Notre Dame’s mission, “born from the heart of the Church,” a reference to St. John Paul II’s encyclical on Catholic education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

A Humble, Principled Leader

Father Dowd undoubtedly faces enormous challenges in executing Notre Dame’s stated ambition to become a top research university in the world while also remaining faithful to its Catholic commitments.

But those who spoke at the inauguration ceremony events consistently highlighted Father Dowd’s suitability for the task.

Dawson Kiser, Notre Dame’s student body president, described Father Dowd as a “brilliant leader, who strives to serve God and others in all you do.” He also encouraged the Holy Cross priest to more fully represent the true spirit of Notre Dame, “pursuing greatness to glorify God and promote human flourishing” in all that he does as president.

Bishop Neary, who grew up in the same northwestern Indiana county as Father Dowd, described the new university president during his homily as talented but humble, open but principled, and animated by a “heart full of zeal for the apostolate.”

The Holy Cross bishop urged his conferee to make Notre Dame a “Eucharistic community” that welcomes all and prepares its students to be “missionary disciples,” and encouraged Father Dowd to continue to remain steadfast in prayer.

“Never be intimidated by your weaknesses, but see them as invitations to rely upon Jesus, who loves you.”

National Catholic Register