The Observer is a student-run, daily print & online newspaper serving Notre Dame, Saint Mary's & Holy Cross. Learn about us.
-31 posts tagged "Catholic church"
Observer Editorial Board | Friday, September 20, 2019
University President Emeritus Fr. Theodore Hesburgh once called Notre Dame “a place where the Church does its thinking.” Although the origin of Hesburgh’s words have been lost to time, their meaning remains clear: Notre Dame could be a sanctuary for Catholic reflection – a meeting ground for the Church to convene and bring about concrete
Ashton Weber | Tuesday, September 10, 2019
On the first day of July 2009, exactly 49 days after I turned nine years old, Fr. Geoffrey Drew was named the new pastor of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, my parish since I was nine months old. Almost immediately, he became my favorite priest. The way he preached was bold and provocative. He was unafraid to
Observer Staff Report | Wednesday, May 1, 2019
The 2019-2020 Notre Dame Forum, titled “Rebuild My Church: Crisis and Response” will focus on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, University President Fr. John Jenkins announced in press release Wednesday. “While we must never fail to be honest and forthright about terrible acts of abuse and failures of oversight, the forum is
Letter to the Editor | Thursday, April 11, 2019
I am a woman. I have two X chromosomes. I have female secondary sex characteristics. I have longer hair. I have a feminine face. I am a woman. I am a Saint Mary’s student. I am doing fine. I am receiving a wonderful higher education. I am a STEM major. I will
Jack Lyons | Friday, March 22, 2019
When describing relations between the Catholic Church in America and the Vatican, John L. Allen Jr. compared the climate to a game where two men take turns kicking each other until one of them gives up. “We are not actually engaged in a patient search for understanding,” he said in a lecture at Holy Cross
Letter to the Editor | Friday, October 5, 2018
“Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been pasturing themselves! Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep?” These words from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel are painfully true today. Starting this past summer, the Catholic Church in the United States has found herself once again amidst great scandal with the news of Archbishop Theodore
Sara Schlecht | Friday, September 28, 2018
The Catholic Church can’t manage to stay out of the news. A recent wave of sexual abuse accusations against priests has Catholics and non-Catholics alike criticizing the Church’s handling of these widespread problems. These things were at the forefront of my mind as I traveled with 33 other Saint Mary’s students and several professors to
Natalie Weber and Mary Steurer | Wednesday, September 12, 2018
In the aftermath of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, members of the Notre Dame community gathered Tuesday in a discussion hosted by Campus Ministry to grapple with the sexual abuse crisis facing the Catholic Church. “There’s going to be no resolution at the end of this,” Fr. Pete McCormick, director of Campus Ministry, said. “But
Jackie O'Brien | Wednesday, September 12, 2018
It has happened again. Yet another clerical sex abuse case in the Catholic church has appeared on the front pages of our national and international newspapers. For over seventy years, over a thousand survivors experienced sexual abuse at the hands of over three hundred priests in Pennsylvania. And it seems again that the Church did
Campus Ministry | Monday, September 10, 2018
I came of age in a church that has consistently been marred with scandal. I was 14 when the stories of systematic child abuse and the subsequent cover-ups in Boston made headlines in 2002. My parish pastor was accused of sexually assaulting a minor in the year that followed. In 2012, the bishop who confirmed