Theology brings all other subjects to its proper order, and into a cohesive and coherent synthesis.

KEEPING THEOLOGY AT NOTRE DAME

by Sandra Laguerta

As a diocesan seminarian studying with the Sulpicians in Paris, a young Basil Moreau wrote to the rector at the seminary in Tessé about an unquenchable desire—about, actually, a vocation:

I am burning with this desire [to preach in some country parish], and should love to be already engaged in this work. Need I tell you? At times, this desire is so strong that I feel my whole heart on fire. When I get into my bed, which I regard as my grave, I should like to wake up and find myself in the midst of some peasants. How I would teach them! How I would bring them back to God!

Fifteen years later, Fr. Moreau founded the Congregation of Holy Cross, the religious community that founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842. One hundred seventy-three years later, the University finds itself far from the small primary and secondary school it started as. Each freshman class has higher test scores and grade point averages than the preceding class, the faculty continues to distinguish itself by receiving prestigious research grants and by publishing outstanding work, and the multi-billion endowment continues to grow.

Despite all of these accomplishments, the University of Notre Dame in 2015 has much in common with the French peasants Fr. Moreau desired to preach to in 1827. Simply, Notre Dame suffers from spiritual poverty. It was the zeal of Fr. Moreau “to make God known, loved, and served, and thus save souls” that led to the founding of the Congregation of Holy Cross and to the apostolate to evangelize through and with education. But the University of Notre Dame risks jeopardizing that mission if its proposal to drop a theology requirement is adopted.

Every ten years there is a curriculum review and unfortunately, students and faculty have reported a real possibility of losing the two-course theology university requirement for every undergraduate student at Notre Dame, no matter the student’s college (Arts and Letters, Science, Engineering, Architecture, or Business).

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