Catholic Bishop Rebukes Notre Dame for Appointing Pro-Abortion Professor

The Catholic bishop whose diocese includes the University of Notre Dame has sharply criticized the school’s decision to appoint a professor known for her pro-abortion advocacy to a key leadership role.

The church leader is calling the move a cause of scandal and urging university officials to rescind it.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend expressed “dismay” and “strong opposition” to Notre Dame’s naming of Susan Ostermann as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.

In a statement issued today, Rhoades said the appointment “is causing scandal to the faithful of our diocese and beyond.”

Ostermann, an associate professor of global affairs and political science at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs since 2017, was appointed to the position effective July 1, according to a university announcement on January 8. She has co-authored at least 11 opinion columns between May 2022 and May 2024 advocating for abortion and opposing pro-life laws to protect babies.

In her writings, Ostermann has described laws banning abortion as “forced pregnancy and childbirth” amounting to “violence,” “sexual abuse” and “trauma.” She has erroneously linked pro-life opposition to abortion with white supremacy and racism, called crisis pregnancy centers “anti-abortion rights propaganda sites” that are “fraudulent,” and argued that abortion is “freedom-enhancing” and “consistent with integral human development,” a principle tied to Catholic social justice.

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Ostermann has also served as a consultant for the Population Council, an organization that promotes abortion and has worked with the Chinese government on enforcing its one-child policy.

Rhoades, citing Ostermann’s public support for abortion and her “disparaging and inflammatory” criticism of the pro-life movement, said such views “go against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission.”

He added that her advocacy and remarks about pro-life advocates “should disqualify her from an administrative and leadership role at a Catholic university.”

The bishop expressed hope that Ostermann would “explicitly retract” her pro-abortion positions and change her views on the issue, but noted that the appointment understandably creates confusion about Notre Dame’s Catholic mission and identity.

Leadership roles, Rhoades said, “have [a] profound impact on the integrity of Notre Dame’s public witness as a Catholic university.”

“I call upon the leadership of Notre Dame to rectify this situation,” Rhoades said. Noting the July 1 start date, he added: “There is still time to make things right.”

The controversy has prompted backlash within the Notre Dame community.

Two scholars affiliated with the Liu Institute resigned in protest: Robert Gimello, a research professor emeritus of theology and expert on Buddhism, and Diane Desierto, a professor of law and global affairs.

Gimello said his continued association with the institute under Ostermann would be “simply unconscionable — this regardless of whatever considerable talents and accomplishments the appointee might otherwise bring to the job.” He added that he doubted anyone “so hostile to, or dismissive of” Catholic moral principles “could do justice to Notre Dame’s properly Catholic endeavors in and about Asia.”

Rev. Wilson D. Miscamble, a Holy Cross priest and professor emeritus of history at Notre Dame, called the appointment a “travesty” that exposes “the hollowness of the claim that Catholic character informs all Notre Dame’s endeavors.”

Students from Notre Dame Right to Life also opposed the decision in a letter published in the campus newspaper The Observer, arguing that Ostermann’s work with the Population Council “violates the dignity of human life” and renders her “unfit to serve as head of the Liu Institute.”

Anna Kelley, president of Notre Dame Right to Life and a Catholic adoptee from China, said: “As a Catholic adoptee from China, I take personal offense at this appointment. I am so blessed to have escaped the fate that Professor Ostermann’s work has inflicted on so many innocent Chinese lives. Because I have been given the gift of life, I am choosing to speak out with my own testimony to bring attention to the real-life consequences that her ideology promotes.”

Notre Dame has defended the appointment, describing Ostermann as “a highly regarded political scientist and legal scholar” qualified to lead the institute.

University officials said those in leadership positions must make decisions “guided by and consistent with the university’s Catholic mission” and reaffirmed the school’s “unwavering commitment to upholding the inherent dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life at every stage.”

Rhoades referenced the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which emphasizes bishops’ responsibility to promote and strengthen the Catholic identity of universities. The document directs that Catholic universities preserve their identity in part through leadership aligned with Church teachings.

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