Our Mission

Formulated last semester:

1. The New Tractarians are a group of students at the University of Notre Dame dedicated to promoting the Catholic University according to the teaching of Ex Corde Ecclesiae and the tradition of John Cardinal Newman.

2. We acknowledge that a Catholic University provides essential development of the knowledge and skills necessary for a specific discipline or profession, but we emphatically maintain that this cannot come at the expense of the cultivation of the mind and person as a whole.

3. We understand that a Catholic University is a unified collection of colleges, schools and departments and therefore it should work to create a cohesive intellectual environment substantiated by a diversity of disciplines in pursuit of a Catholic understanding of Truth.

4. We understand that a Catholic University has a specific place in the world academic discourse with a specific Catholic message to bring to the academic community.

5. We understand that a Catholic University should be under the active jurisdiction of the Church with the understanding that, as the Bride of Christ, the Church has been endowed with special graces in pursuit of Truth that in no way interfere with the proper activities of a Catholic university.

6. As Catholics, we are endowed with the Truth from which we should start our intellectual pursuits. There are things we believe beyond dispute that should form every decision we make.

7. Because the University of Notre Dame is recognized throughout the academic sphere as an important exemplar of Catholic higher education, we assert that it is in a unique position to uphold and promote the authentic identity of a Catholic university on account of its rich intellectual tradition and history of excellence.

8. As Cardinal Newman says, to know all things we must first try to know about God because God is the origin of all things. The Church, in her Tradition and Scripture, serves as the primary source of our knowledge of God. As such, our knowledge of God in light of Church teachings should inspire our study of the world around us, since to know God is to know his creation. Through regular discussion and writing, The New Tractarians hope to intellectually engage in the Truths of our faith, while at the same time partnering our theological pursuits with our fields of study and our general experience of university life. It is our hope that our internal work will stand as an example of what we are trying to promote in the university as a whole.

Our Shepherd prods the Notre Dame Community

Today, Notre Dame officially welcomed His Excellency Bp. Kevin Rhoades to the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese and to Notre Dame with a Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Music was provided by the Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, three members of which are in the New Tractarians. However, this was not the highlight. Fr. Jenkins, president of the University stood up at the end of Mass, thanking the Bishop and giving him a crosier as a gift accompanying it with an explanation that the Bishop was the Shepherd, and often had to "prod" his flock. Earlier in the Mass, the Bishop gave an explosive exposition of what it meant to be a Catholic University in the United States. It was interspersed with why Notre Dame was significant to him. A couple thing stood out. He said very explicitly that Notre Dame was a Catholic University. This is important, considering what many people, many intelligent and respectable people say on the subject. Bp. Rhoades appears to believe in Notre Dame. However, he was emphatic about what the Bishop's role in the University was. An "inside agent" not an outside one. He said that it was his intention to be just that. Another interesting point, especially relevant to the New Tractarians was his declaration that a Catholic University should pervade its teaching, learning, curricular and extra-curricular activities with the Truth. Finally, he used the words "Catholic Identity" at least four times and was extremely pressing in his admonition for Notre Dame to retain its Catholic Identity.

It was a homily worth the read, and if I can get a copy, I will. Don't believe otherwise, but that Notre Dame is fortunate in Rome's pick for its shepherd. Someone who will prod us when we need it, just as Fr, Jenkins said.

Spring 2010

A new semester has arrived. With it comes another opportunity for the growth of the New Tractarians. We will once again be meeting regularly and discussing topics relevant to a faithful university.

Our work is of utmost importance. Everywhere people are despairing, and not even just bitter cynics but also well-meaning people. It's almost heartbreaking to see the disappointment that Notre Dame and other Catholic Universities are causing. In times like these, when tragedy after tragedy strikes our world, the world needs the voice of truth. The Church is that Voice, as it is the Body of Christ. The University, as a place of higher education is a huge instrument in this effort. Any instrument can go out of tune; sometimes so much that the strings or valves need replacement. However, just because a valuable instrument was given a horrible paint job, or bad strings installed (and not may can deny that Notre Dame was a valuable instrument at one time) doesn't mean it must be destroyed. We must carefully wash off the ugly paint, restring it and re-varnish it. However, although we can help, it is not we who do this work but the master builder, the Stradivarius. In short, it is God's work and it is only by uniting our work to his can we be successful, fruitful and faithful.

Currently our plans are as follows:

• Discussions concerning the Theology of work and other similar things.

• Having speakers from different disciplines come and talk on the impact of theology (in the technical Newman definition) on their disciplines

• Proposing seminar style one credit courses on theology in different disciplines

If anyone has any suggestions for topics for discussion, please feel free to bring them up. We're always looking for new topics.

Here it is, folks: The Mission of the University of Notre Dame, with my comments. Let me tell you, I was impressed by how good it sounds, and how poorly it's actually executed. If Notre Dame followed THIS Mission (it is its Mission, after all.), then there would not be any doubt that it was a Catholic University.

"The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic [See, this is the first thing they say] academic community of higher learning, animated from its origins by the Congregation of Holy Cross. The University is dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake.[Truth] As a Catholic university, one of its distinctive goals is to provide a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity. [This is one of our goals, to promote explicitly connecting Catholic thought with all forms of knowledge. I LIKE this. It is a Great Sentence]

The intellectual interchange essential to a university requires, and is enriched by, the presence and voices of diverse scholars and students. The Catholic identity of the University depends upon, and is nurtured by, the continuing presence of a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals. [I think predominant means a greater quantity, and from all I've heard, there's not a predominant number of Catholic Intellectuals. In other words, the University is failing in its mission. This is a valid concern that could easily be addressed.] This ideal has been consistently maintained by the University leadership throughout its history. What the University asks of all its scholars and students, however, is not a particular creedal affiliation, but a respect for the objectives of Notre Dame [I can understand that they will allow non-Catholics to go here and teach here, but is it too much to ask people to experience a truly Catholic University if that's what they applied to?] and a willingness to enter into the conversation that gives it life and character. Therefore, the University insists upon academic freedom that makes open discussion and inquiry possible.

The University prides itself on being an environment of teaching and learning that fosters the development in its students of those disciplined habits of mind, body, and spirit that characterize educated, skilled, and free human beings. In addition, the University seeks to cultivate in its students not only an appreciation for the great achievements of human beings but also a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice and oppression that burden the lives of so many. The aim is to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice.[This is considered the "Mission Statement". It has nothing to do with Catholicism. Whatever? It seems like they want to preach but not explicit teachings of the Church. Someday, they have to realize that the Church is the only way to true humanitarianism.]

Notre Dame also has a responsibility to advance knowledge in a search for truth [There's that word truth again. It seems important. What is Truth? If we're searching for it, shouldn't we start with what we already know? Like the teachings of the Church.] through original inquiry and publication. This responsibility engages the faculty and students in all areas of the University, but particularly in graduate and professional education and research. The University is committed to constructive and critical engagement with the whole of human culture.

The University encourages a way of living consonant with a Christian community and manifest in prayer, liturgy and service. Residential life endeavors to develop that sense of community and of responsibility that prepares students for subsequent leadership in building a society that is at once more human and more divine. [Could of course apply to any Christian University. What makes us specifically Catholic?]

Notre Dame's character as a Catholic academic community presupposes that no genuine search for the truth in the human or the cosmic order is alien to the life of faith. [Faith, in the Truth. We search for the truth in the Truth that we believe in.] The University welcomes all areas of scholarly activity as consonant with its mission, subject to appropriate critical refinement. There is, however, a special obligation and opportunity, specifically as a Catholic university, to pursue the religious dimensions of all human learning. [Once again, something very specific to what we want. The Religious dimension of learning. We need to emphasize this. It's all here in the Mission, folks.] Only thus can Catholic intellectual life in all disciplines be animated and fostered and a proper community of scholarly religious discourse be established.

In all dimensions of the University, Notre Dame pursues its objectives through the formation of an authentic human community graced by the Spirit of Christ."

Center for Ethics and Culture Conference at the University of Notre Dame: 11/12-14/09

Wow.

That is basically all I can say. This weekend, the New Tractarians, with many other members of the Notre Dame community and people from across the country and around the world gathered on Notre Dame's Campus for a Conference on the Common Good entitled "The Summons of Freedom: Virtue, Sacrifice and the Common Good." We went to a number of talks by speakers ranging from the extremely well known Alice Von Hildebrand to the "lowly" graduate students here at ND. Here is a list of the talks that we went to:

• A Summons Unmet: Presidential Triumph and Institutional failure at Notre Dame, May 17, 2009 1) True for us, But not True for You: the Dictatorship of Relativism and the President's Honorary Doctorate 2) Apologia for an Institution and a President: Notre Dame and President Obama give Accounts of Themselves 3) Better Late than Never: Truth and Dialogue at Notre Dame
• Freedom, Goods, and Persons: Christian Responsibility in a Post-Christian Age
• Misconceptions about the Common Good
• Vicious Circles, Virtuous Circles and Getting from One to the Other
• Religious Freedom and the Modern Liberal State 1) Religious Freedom and Its Virtue: The Legacy and Limits of John Courtney Murray 2) Pius XII and John XXIII on Religious Freedom and the Common Good: Re-reading John Courtney Murray's The Problem of Religious Freedom 3) The Modern Political Drama of Man and State: Maritain and the Common Good
• The Demands of Virtue 1) The Capital Sin of Avarice and the Need for a New Asceticism 2) The Call of Duty: Saints, Heroes, and Self-Sacrifice 3) Contribution of Older Women Religious to the Common Good
• Thomistic Themes 1) The Two Ends of Marriage and the Common Good according to Thomas Aquinas 2) A Thomistic Consideration of the Eucharist and the Common Good 3) The Common Good as the Defining Element of Christian Love in the Greek Fathers and Thomas Aquinas
• Divorce as Fracture of the Common Good: Ingmar Bergman on Guilt, Art, and Confession
• Pope Benedict on Modernity 1) The Middle Way: How Caritas in Veritate Illuminates Catholic Social Teaching 2) A Worldview in Three Acts: Pope Benedict's ministry to Advanced Modernity in his Encyclicals 3) Pope Benedict XVI's Critique of Modernity
• Education and Moral Formation 1) Henry Adams and John Henry Newman on Liberal Education 2) Library as Temple: J.P. Morgan on the Reordering of Modern Culture 3) Education as Soulcraft: Exemplary Intellectual Practice and the Cardinal Virtues
• Man and Woman: A Divine Intervention
• Religious Freedom in America Today: "Freedom from", "Freedom of", or "Freedom for"
• God, Notre Dame, Country: Rethinking the Mission of Catholic Higher Education in the United States
• Spacial and Temporal Aspects of the Common Good 1) Easter in the "Meantime": Faith in the Crossfire 2) The Wheel and The Wasteland: Eliot's Celebration of Christian Space in Modern Time 3) Human Happiness and the Built Environment
• Front Porch Republic: The Places of Virtue
• Family, Sex, and a Free Society 1) Chastity, the Foundational Virtue of a Free Society 2) Chastity and the Common Good: True Freedom in Being Bound to Another

And did I mention that there was Mass both Friday and Saturday nights (Mass of Anticipation)? Well, there was. And the Bishop Designate of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese was there and we met him.

This weekend is a lot to process and we probably won't be done for a long time, but it is also much food for thought in our Tractarian line of work, so hopefully the fruits show soon.

11/8/09

We had a meeting yesterday where we discussed many things including:

• Arranging for a representative of the American Chesterton Society to come and speak at Notre Dame
• The specifics of the proposed theology classes for each department/major/college.

We of course realize that WE can't host the American Chesterton being merely an unofficial student group.

Here are the specifics:

• Discussion-sized seminars
• 1 credit
• once a week
• Theology class that concerns the students' disciplines
• 2 professors, one in the discipline, one a theologian or a trained theologian in the discipline

Of course, his Eminence the Cardinal was referenced.

11/1/09

Happy All Saints Day, for those of you who like to celebrate the Church Triumphant.

Happy All Souls Day, for those of you who like to pray for the Church Suffering.

Happy Monday for those of you who have the experience of being a member of the Church Militant.

We had a meeting yesterday. We discussed the bearing of theology on Math and Vocal performance. As usual though, we went of on a tangent, and as also often happens, the tangent was more productive.

Tangent: What if a Catholic University had a Theology course for each field of study? Specifically, we talked about what it would mean to have a Theology course for Architecture/Engineering and Natural Science.

We thought that perhaps this could be something we could write about. Next meeting, we will come up with a good cohesive topic. Look for the first Tract coming soon.