The Spirit of Inclusion at Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame strives for a spirit of inclusion among
the members of this community for distinct reasons articulated in our
Christian tradition. We prize the uniqueness of all persons as God’s
creatures. We welcome all people, regardless of color, gender, religion,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, social or economic class, and nationality,
for example, precisely because of Christ’s calling to treat others
as we desire to be treated. We value gay and lesbian members of this community
as we value all members of this community. We condemn harassment of any
kind, and University policies proscribe it. We consciously create an environment
of mutual respect, hospitality and warmth in which none are strangers
and all may flourish.
One of the essential tests of social justice within any Christian community
is its abiding spirit of inclusion. Scriptural accounts of Jesus provide
a constant witness of this inclusiveness. Jesus sought out and welcomed
all people into the Kingdom of God—the gentile as well as the Jew,
women as well as men, the poor as the wealthy, the slave as well as the
free, the infirm as well as the healthy. The social teachings of the Catholic
Church promote a society founded on justice and love, in which all persons
possess inherent dignity as children of God. The individual and collective
experiences of Christians have also provided strong warrants for the inclusion
of all persons of good will in their communal living. Christians have
found their life together enriched by the different qualities of their
many members, and they have sought to increase this richness by welcoming
others who bring additional gifts, talents and backgrounds to the community.
The spirit of inclusion at Notre Dame flows from out character as a community
of scholarship, teaching, learning and service founded upon Jesus Christ.
As the Word through whom all things were made, Christ is the source of
the order of all creation and of moral law which is written in our hearts.
As the incarnate Word, Christ taught the law of love of God and sent the
Holy Spirit that we might live lives of love and receive the gift of eternal
life. For Notre Dame, Christ is the law by which all other laws are to
be judged. As a Catholic institution of higher learning, in the governance
of our common life we look to the teaching of Christ, which is proclaimed
in Sacred Scripture and tradition, authoritatively interpreted by Church
teaching, articulated in normative understandings of the human person,
and continually deepened by the wisdom born of inquiry and experience.
The rich heritage of the Catholic faith informs and transforms our search
for truth and our understanding of contemporary challenges in higher education.
This statement was adopted by the Officers of the University on August
27, 1997, in conjunction with the following open letter to the Notre Dame
Community:
An Open Letter to the Notre Dame Community
The officers of the University have been asked to modify the University’s nondiscrimination clause to include sexual orientation. In spring 1996 the Ad hoc Committee on Gay and Lesbian Student Needs recommended that the officers consider this issue. The Faculty Senate and the Student Senate passed resolutions during the 1996-97 academic year supporting this change. In addition, the College Democrats, a student organization, submitted a petition signed by many students in favor of this change. During the 1996-97 academic year and this past summer, the officers of the University studied this issue—first, in a subcommittee I appointed, and then in the Officers’ Group as a whole.
The officers began their discussions by reflecting on the teachings of the Catholic Church relating to gay and lesbian persons. The church distinguishes between homosexuality as an orientation and sexual activity between homosexual persons. The church teaches that homosexual orientation in a person is neither sinful nor evil. The call of the gospels is a call to inclusiveness—to a recognition of the dignity inherent in each person that flows from our creation in the image and likeness of a loving God, who brings us together as brothers and sisters through Jesus Christ on a common journey back to the God who created us.
The Church also teaches that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are called to live chaste lives in accordance with their vocations as single people, married couples, priests or religious. Specifically, the Church asks all people to reserve sexual union to the covenanted and consecrated union of a man and woman in marriage. Neither heterosexual union outside the permanent bond of marriage nor homosexual union is morally acceptable.
The University has tried to speak with an authentic voice on both of these dimensions of Church teaching—on homosexual orientation and on sexual union. In a number of different settings in recent years, we have stated publicly that we prize the gay and lesbian members of this community as children of God, entitled to the same respect as all other members of this community. Moreover, we deplore harassment of any kind as antithetical to the nature of this community as a Christian community. Our discriminatory harassment policy specifically precludes harassment based on sexual orientation. At the same time and with an equally strong voice, we strive to set policy and make operating decisions—perhaps most notably in the area of student life—in a manner that supports the teaching of the Church calling all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to reserve sexual union to those who are married.
In all of our actions we have been guided by gospel values that we regard as normative for this community. We have premised our decisions and framed our statements on issues relating to the gay and lesbian members of this community on the language of Church teaching. Indeed, we believe that some of the deepest aspirations of this community flow from the law of Christ and not necessarily from civil law.
The University exists, however, within a social and cultural milieu that does not always accept gospel values as normative. Moreover, society at large uses language in ways that mean different things to different people. With respect to this issue, for example, American society does not always use the phrase “sexual orientation” to mean only orientation. Many people use this single phrase in a manner that entangles what we regard as two distinct concepts—homosexual persons and homosexual conduct. Within society at large, the phrase “sexual orientation” sometimes becomes a term that does not admit of distinction between sexual orientation and the manner in which people live out their sexual orientation—a distinction that is critical to us as a Catholic institution.
We have been asked to change our nondiscrimination clause to add sexual orientation as a protected category. Institutional nondiscriminating clauses are highly stylized statements which are legally binding. Neither federal nor state law mandates that sexual orientation be included in nondiscrimination clauses. Thus, like a number of other institutions, our clause does not currently include sexual orientation.
After considerable reflection, we have decided not to add sexual orientation to our legal nondiscrimination clause. To make the change requested would mean that our decisions in this area would be measured by civil courts that may interpret this change through the lens of the broader social milieu in which we live. This, in turn, might jeopardize our ability to make decisions that we believe necessary to support Church teaching. We wish to continue to speak to this issue in the Catholic content that is normative for this community.
Civil law does not constitute the exclusive basis for commitments made within this community. As mentioned above, we regard some of our deepest aspirations as flowing from our call to live the message of the gospels. We choose not to change our legal nondiscrimination clause, but we call ourselves to act in accordance with what we regard as a higher standard—Christ’s call to inclusiveness, coupled with the gospels’ call to live chaste lives. In some senses both of these messages are counter-cultural. It is this dual call that is so deeply rooted in our religious tradition to which we commit ourselves.
We speak in a variety of settings—most notably, in our student life policies—to our affirmation of Church teaching with respect to sexual conduct. As a way of underscoring our equally strong commitment to the Church’s teaching on the dignity inherent in every person as a child of God, we will publish the above statement, The Spirit of Inclusion at Notre Dame, in all University publications.