“I express my full support for Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades and his statement condemning the recent appointment of Associate Professor Susan Ostermann to be director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame. 

“Bishop Rhoades has rightly identified why this decision is scandalous. Given Ms. Ostermann’s public record of radical advocacy that is fundamentally opposed to the dignity of human life, placing her in a leadership role at a Catholic university is incompatible with the mission and moral witness Notre Dame claims to uphold. Such an appointment causes confusion among the faithful and undermines the Church’s consistent ethic of life, which is central to Catholic social teaching.

“Catholic social teaching cannot be selectively invoked while rejecting its foundational principle — the inviolable dignity of the human person from conception to natural death. To do so is not only intellectually incoherent but a direct slap in the face to the Church’s moral tradition. Academic freedom does not obligate a Catholic university to entrust leadership to those whose public positions contradict essential moral truths. I join Bishop Rhoades in urging the University of Notre Dame to reverse this appointment and to reaffirm, in both word and deed, its commitment to authentic Catholic education and witness.”

• Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois received his Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree from the University of Notre Dame. He also taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School from 2016-2021.

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