Call for Notre Dame to be a Catholic university, and you will undoubtedly feel the wrath of the University. David Wemhoff, Class of 1979, did just that, and he was banned from speaking at Reunion Weekend this year.

Wemhoff, who hosted seminars during reunion weekends for alumni, publicly criticized the administration of Notre Dame for allowing such things as "The Vagina Monologues" and "The Queer Film Festival". On November 1 ,2006, the South Bend Tribune published Wemhoff’s article, "Notre Dame’s Leader Should Know and Love the Faith "which was received with enthusiasm by people of all walks of life. Wemhoff also helped bring to light the existence of a powerful homosexual subculture on the University as well as a viscerally and virulently anti-Catholic faculty that appeared to be controlling the direction of Notre Dame.

Wemhoff called for the resignation of the current president of Notre Dame, John Jenkins, CSC, who allows an anti-Catholic agenda at Notre Dame. From some of his statements and actions, Wemhoff says that Jenkins neither knows nor loves the Faith. Jenkins based his decision to keep things like the "Vagina Monologues" a part of campus life on an erroneous concept of academic freedom. Jenkins said that academic freedom "ensures that faculty have the ability to research, create, teach, and express themselves in accord with their own best judgment". Under this definition, professors could teach Marxism as a good ideology that should be followed. (Some alumni say that liberalism is already the unofficial creed of the place.)

The Roman Catholic Church defines academic freedom thusly: "The Church, accepting the legitimate autonomy of human culture and especially of the sciences, recognizes the academic freedom of scholars in each discipline in accordance with its own principles and proper methods, and within the confines of the truth and the common good." (Ex Corde Ecclesiae ["ECE"] I, 29) "The truth" refers to the Roman Catholic Faith, so the Church directs that all teaching must be accepting and supportive of the Faith. Lacking this proper understanding, refusing to accept this fundamental operating principle for Catholic Universities, Jenkins makes sure that Notre Dame is on a trajectory away from the Faith. And, by not adopting and acting in accordance with this definition of academic freedom, Jenkins goes against the Apostolic Constitution known as Ex Corde Ecclesiae. An Apostolic Constitution is defined as "a document in which pope promotes and promulgates law" (Catholic Almanac (2005), p. 134.)

The situation has grown so bad at Notre Dame that Wemhoff sent a detailed letter to Archbishop William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The August 15, 2005 letter listed a large number of long-running abuses at Notre Dame and it called for action by the Vatican to either bring the University back in line with papal directives or to formally cut Notre Dame off from the Church.

One troubling matter that Wemhoff uncovered was the apparent failure of the local bishop, John D’Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend, to enforce the requirement that professors be approved to teach theology by the issuance of what is called a mandatum. In an email exchange with Richard McBrien, CSC, it was revealed that McBrien never applied for a mandatum though he was a theology professor at Notre Dame. He wrote that if he had so applied, Bishop D’Arcy would have given him one. The mandatum, a requirement contained in ECE, is a requirement that theology professors will be true to the Faith and not teach heresy. And heretical teachings have been a problem for some time at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame, which has for a long time preached the gospel of social justice, does not seem to practice what it preaches. For several years running straight, workers have petitioned the administration for a living wage and the right to unionize. And the administration repeatedly turns down their requests while planning a development just outside the front gates of the University that is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The number of Catholic faculty at Notre Dame is suspect, at best. Perhaps more than 50% of the faculty is Catholic, but whether they know and love the Faith or whether they are merely nominal Catholics are two different things. Indeed, Wemhoff uncovered stories of faculty standing for the Faith and being punished for their fidelity.

Then, there is the well-documented situation where faculty members from the University participated publicly in advancing a city ordinance that would have elevated sexual orientation to a protected class. This subversion of the morals of the surrounding community was stopped by a grass-roots revulsion to such evil. The University has also opposed a modest expansion of Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Holy Father, in the surrounding neighborhood.

Wemhoff detailed these and a number of other abuses by Notre Dame at the seminars he hosted during the Reunion Weekends in 2004, 2005, and 2006. His seminar, entitled "What’s Going On At Notre Dame?", presented talks from scholars, professors, and other knowledgeable people as to the anti-Catholic shenanigans at the home of the Fightin’ Irish, which calls itself the pre-eminent Roman Catholic University in the United States. Perhaps most importantly, Wemhoff explained to the alumni at the well-attended gatherings just what a Catholic University should be as set forth in Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution.

And, after every year’s presentation, Wemhoff was heartily thanked by the Alumni Association for his seminar. And, after every year’s presentation, Wemhoff received thanks and applause from the seminar attendees.

This year, however, Wemhoff was not sent an invitation to present a seminar. When he called to inquire, Chris Bellairs, Assistant Vice President for University Relations and Associate Executive Director Alumni Association, blamed Wemhoff for the refusal by the Alumni Association to issue him an invite. Bellairs then attacked Wemhoff’s character, and said that Wemhoff’s presentation upset some alumni. Wemhoff responded that the truth can hurt, and that a university which calls itself Catholic has to actually be Catholic or else it should not call itself Catholic.

The University at the same time has undertaken a blitz through its media channels to claim it is Catholic. For instance, in the Notre Dame Magazine that goes to tens of thousands of alumni several times every year, there have been a number of articles in recent editions about Notre Dame being a Catholic school. That is quite a lot, and is reminiscent of the old saying which is "Methinks the Lady doth protest too much." It’s clear that what Wemhoff and other alums are doing to expose what is really happening under the Dome is having an effect on the administration, which appears nervous. Indeed, the nerves of Jenkins and others must have been a bit frayed when the Vatican sent Archbishop Miller to visit the place in October, 2005 to talk about the necessity of Catholic Universities being Catholic.

Wemhoff is a Roman Catholic, an attorney, and a staunch pro-life advocate. He is the founder of Presence Media, Inc., a media company that hosts a couple of websites that advance the teachings of Roman Catholicism. Wemhoff regularly presents the tenets of the Faith through a number of different media. He is also a co-founder of Truth Helps, Inc., the sponsor of www.groundpickle.com, an internet outreach to youth so as to inform them about making the right decisions when it comes to alcohol, smoking, sex, and peer pressure.

When asked what he thinks of the actions by Bellairs and his alma mater in banning him from speaking, he said "It is upsetting, but at the same time we all knew it was coming. While it will hire pro-abortion former governors and permit all sorts of dissent to official Church teaching, all in the name of academic freedom, the University administration will not allow criticism of itself. Now," Wemhoff added, "they will allow the loyal, and ineffective, opposition, to host seminars. That’s the so-called Sycamore Group and that group doesn’t want to change anything – they just keep the façade that there is something good about Notre Dame. And that helps keep the money rolling in."

Wemhoff continued, "You see, having a Catholic reputation, or `flavor’ as one person said, allows for a great niche market. But I, and other Roman Catholics, are not worried about markets. We are worried about souls. Someone from the class of ’54 put it really well when he said, how can we build an environment at the University that nurtures and strengthens the Faith for the students so that they lead good lives, and their souls are saved? That is what motivates me. I’m just too Catholic for Notre Dame."