As the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture's 17th Annual Fall Conference came to a close, William P. and Hazel B. White Director O. Carter Snead announced the establishment of a $1.25 million endowed graduate student fellowship honoring the Center's founding director, David Solomon. "Professor Solomon is the visionary who had the will, the creativity, the insight, the judgment, and the energy to create the Center for Ethics and Culture so many years ago," said Snead. "We are very pleased that, in perpetuity, there will be a David Solomon Fellow in the College of Arts and Letters who will share David's passion for the Catholic mission of the University of Notre Dame."…

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CEC Director Carter Snead was quoted in a widely-published Associated Press article about Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera…

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Ave Maria University's "Academics at AMU" blog recently featured an article about the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture sponsoring 11 undergraduate students to take part in the CEC's 17th Annual Fall Conference, "You Are Beauty: Exploring the Catholic Imagination."…

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More than 750 scholars and artists will gather at the University of Notre Dame for the Center for Ethics and Culture’s interdisciplinary Fall Conference, “You Are Beauty: Exploring the Catholic Imagination,” November 10-12. The conference will feature 90 presentations, including the keynote lecture “Beauty Is Part of God’s Creation” by Etsuro Sotoo, the lead sculptor of Barcelona’s Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, and a closing lecture on the poetry of Wallace Stevens by Mary Ann Glendon, former Ambassador to the Holy See. Additional invited speakers include author and philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, art historian Elizabeth Lev, James Beard Award-winning chef John Besh, Center for Ethics and Culture Senior Distinguished Research Fellow Alasdair MacIntyre, producer of Academy Award winning films Steve McEveety, and the director of Florence’s Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Monsignor Timothy Verdon.…

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The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture will award the 2017 Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal to the Jerome Lejeune Foundation at a Mass and Banquet on April 29, 2017.

“Professor Lejeune was a man of great faith, a brilliant geneticist, and a prophetic voice on behalf of people who suffer from intellectual disabilties,” said O. Carter Snead, William P. and Hazel B. White Director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. “He spent his professional life engaged in cutting-edge scientific research into the genetic causes of disabilities like Down syndrome and trisomy 18. He was motivated by deep compassion and an abiding love for disabled people, born and unborn. Today, the Jerome Lejeune Foundation carries on Professor Lejeune’s work by sponsoring ethically-conducted genetic research, securing healthcare for those with disabilities, and performing advocacy on behalf of the disabled in light of our shared human dignity.” Snead concluded, “The Jerome Lejeune Foundation perfectly embodies the spirit of the Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae…

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Carter Snead, Director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, and Mary O'Callaghan, CEC Public Policy Fellow, delivered presentations on the theme "Disability as a Resource" at the 37th annual Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples in Rimini, Italy, on August 22. More than 350 attendees from around the world gathered for Sunday's keynote session, which also included a special video interview with Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche movement, conducted by noted Italian journalist Maurizo Vitali.…

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Carter Snead, director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture and professor of law at Notre Dame Law School, has written a featured op-ed published on CNN's homepage about Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Tim Kaine…

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On July 22 & 23, the Center for Ethics and Culture presented a special Notre Dame Vita Institute for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the invitation of Archbishop José H. Gomez. More than 100 participants from across Southern California took part in the weekend at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, which was co-sponsored by the Archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice, and Peace. Sessions included presentations on the biological development of the unborn child from his or her earliest stages, legal issues surrounding abortion, physician-assisted suicide, federal policies toward embryonic stem cell research, analysis of popular philosophical arguments in support of abortion, and how to communicate the pro-life message across generations. Participants included nurses, doctors, college professors, priests, religious sisters, parish ministers, and pro-life advocates of all ages.…

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CEC Public Policy Fellow Richard Doerflinger published an op-ed decrying the Obama Administration for its failure to protect conscience rights for health care providers in accordance with its legal responsibility per the Weldon Amendment. Doerflinger writes,

Yet through a mangled interpretation of the statute—one that ignores its plain text and inserts qualifiers and exceptions nowhere found in that text—the administration manages to neutralize the statute. For good measure, it announces that this law, which was repeatedly signed and praised by President Obama, is probably unconstitutional—echoing an argument long advanced by pro-abortionists, but not accepted by any court.

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Carter Snead, director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture and professor in the Notre Dame Law School, issued the following response to Thursday's decision by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt to issue a preliminary injunction against Indiana House Bill 1337, which prohibits abortion based on a diagnosis of disability, sex, race, or national origin. Professor Snead's statement follows:…

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Current and future pro-life advocates and leaders from North America, South America, and Europe gathered on the campus of the University of Notre Dame for a week-long "pro-life boot camp" at the Center for Ethics and Culture's annual Vita Institute, June 18-25. Participants studied the fundamentals of life issues with world-renowned scholars across a wide range of disciplines including social science, biology, philosophy, theology, law, neonatology, and fertility counseling.…

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CNN has published an op-ed by CEC director Carter Snead in which he responds to the Supreme Court's decision striking down key provisions of Texas House Bill 2, which he had provided expert testimony in support of. "The Supreme Court's decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt…

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The ND Center for Ethics and Culture is partnering with the Thomistic Institute and the Catholic & Dominican Institute to cosponsor the 6th Annual Philosophy Workshop, "Aquinas on Politics" at Mount Saint Mary College, June 2-5. Workshop faculty include regular CEC Fall Conference presenters Fr. Thomas Joseph White OP and Fr. Michael Sherwin OP, who will explore the thought of the Universal Doctor on civic life including the common good, the human family, natural rights, and the nature of justice. Participants will discuss St. Thomas's commentary on Aristotle's Politics…

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On Monday, May 30, Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Director and Professor of Law Carter Snead will deliver the inaugural University of Florence “Law and Justice Lecture” in Florence, Italy. The lectureship was established to provide the opportunity for internationally renowned scholars to engage in university-wide interdisciplinary dialogue on pressing matters of law and public policy. The honor also includes appointment as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Florence.…

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Fifteen junior faculty and graduate students from international institutions are gathering at the University of Notre Dame May 23-25 for an intensive seminar on "Economics and Catholic Social Thought." The ND Center for Ethics and Culture is cosponsoring the seminar in collaboration with the Lumen Christi Institute…

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The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture and the Jacques Maritain Center at Notre Dame, in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, are hosting a two-day colloquium on disability and mercy to take place in Rome, June 5–6, 2016. The colloquium will bring together theologians, scholars, historians, persons with disabilities, families, and intentional Christian communities for shared discussion about disability and the ways in which mercy, properly understood, requires friendship, communion, and a shared life with those who have disabilities.

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Congratulations to the 13 Sorin Fellows who graduated this weekend as members of the Class of 2016! Through their affiliation with the Center for Ethics and Culture, these superb young alumni received mentorship, internships, and opportunities to deepen their understanding of the Catholic moral and intellectual tradition and examine the many ways they can be brought to bear on pressing ethical issues in culture and public policy today.…

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The Center for Ethics and Culture invites scholars and artists to submit proposals for our Fall Conference, entitled "You Are Beauty: Exploring the Catholic Imagination." The 17th Annual Fall Conference will consider “aesthetic contemplation sublimated in faith” (“Letter to Artists,” Pope St. John Paul II), exploring the relationship between the imagination, beauty, truth, and religion in a variety of contexts, particularly the arts, philosophy, theology, political theory, and the sciences. The conference will take place at the University of Notre Dame, November 10 - 12, 2016.…

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Richard Doerflinger, a Public Policy Fellow of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, retired at the end of April after 36 years as the associate director for pro-life activities and policy for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In recognition of his role as a lifelong champion in defense of human life, Doerflinger was honored in 2011 with the first ever Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal, and as a Public Policy Felllow he continues to serve as an expert on bioethical issues.

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Following on her "Women Deserve Better" op-ed published earlier this month in the Observer, Sorin Fellow Laura Wolk (L '16) was recently interviewed by Crux columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez. In the interview, Laura reflected on her own experience as a blind woman and the relationship between individualism, disability, and true freedom:…

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Center for Ethics and Culture Public Policy Fellow Dr. Mary O'Callaghan was a guest on EWTN's Morning Glory radio program on Friday, April 15, discussing abortion protection for babies receiving prenatal diagnoses of various disabilities. Such legislation is consistent with the protections guaranteed in the Americans with Disabilities Act, said O'Callaghan, the difference being that, "we're not just talking about failure to build a wheelchair ramp, we're talking about total exclusion from society, from life itself, based on a single characteristic of a child."…

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The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture is excited to announce the first recipient of the new Polking Family Fellowship. Margo Borders will begin studies in Fall 2016 at Notre Dame Law School and serve as the inaugural Polking Fellow.

"The Polking Family Fellowship is awarded to select incoming law students that have shown a great deal of potential to develop as leaders who understand the connection between the law, public policy, and building a sustainable culture of life," said O. Carter Snead, Director of the Center for Ethics and Culture. "We are excited about what Margo will achieve in the coming years as our inaugural Polking Fellow. We believe that her work with the Center, its visiting fellows, its research, and its special events will serve to build a tremendous foundation for her professional career."…

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The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture bestowed the Evangelium Vitae Medal, the preeminent lifetime achievement award for heroes of the pro-life movement, upon Mother Provincial Sister Loraine Marie Maguire and the Little Sisters of the Poor at a gala banquet on Saturday, April 9. More than 400 guests joined in the celebration, including many elderly residents from the St. Augustine Home in Indianapolis, one of 28 hospitality homes run by the Little Sisters across the United States.

"The Evangelium Vitae Medal recognizes those whose outstanding efforts have served to proclaim the Gospel of Life by steadfastly affirming and defending the sanctity of human life from its earliest stages until death," said Carter Snead, Director of the Center for Ethics and Culture. "That reverence for life is the cornerstone of the work of the Little Sisters of the Poor, who embody true compassion through their ministry to the more than 13,000 elderly people of every race and religion who live in their homes in 30 countries. They have given the world a powerful witness to the unique, inviolable dignity of every human person, demonstrating the radical solidarity and hospitality at the core of the Gospel of Life."

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The Observer published an op-ed penned by CEC Sorin Fellow and Notre Dame Law student Laura Wolk (L'16), in which she responded to the recent on-campus lecture by former Texas state senator and abortion advocate Wendy Davis.

I want to speak to the passionate and eager women who attended last night’s talk, women genuinely seeking to understand how best to do good in the world. I want to tell you something that perhaps no one has yet had the courage to state bluntly and unapologetically: The message presented by Wendy Davis is an odious, pernicious lie, and you deserve better.

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Prompted by the recent public discussion surrounding the 2016 Laetare Medal, the following memorandum offers a possible framework for how Notre Dame might, in the future, promote civility in public life and engage in dialogue with public figures (including the President of the United States) with whom we have strong disagreements, while also bearing witness to all the goods at the core of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission.

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Mary O'Callaghan, a public policy fellow at the Center for Ethics and Culture and prenatal outreach coordinator for Michiana Down Syndrome, released an open letter to Indiana Governor Mike Pence regarding HB1337, which would ban abortion in the case of prenatal diagnosis of disability:

In this era of evidence-based medicine, prenatal diagnosis of disability is not guided by the truth. Instead, it is driven by fear and misinformation, with the result that children with disabilities are denied access, not just to some aspects of society, but to life itself. This is the ultimate form of discrimination; discrimination which was decried by the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, but over 25 years later is thriving in the field of prenatal medicine.

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The Center is pleased to announce that Director Carter Snead has been appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life, the pope’s principal advisory group on the promotion of the consistent ethic of life in the Catholic Church:

“I am honored and humbled to serve the Holy Father and the Church as it continues its efforts to defend and bear witness to the inalienable dignity of every member of the human family, born and unborn,” Snead said.

“We are thrilled Carter Snead, and, by extension, Notre Dame, has been given this opportunity to serve the Church in our efforts to build a culture of life worldwide,” said University president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.

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William Kelley, associate professor of constitutional law at the Notre Dame Law School and a member of the Center's Executive Advisory Committee, remembers Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom he clerked in 1988-89:

The untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia marks the end of a generation-long career on the Supreme Court in which he profoundly influenced the terms of legal debate in the United States. Those of us who were privileged to serve as his law clerks were witnesses to this remarkable achievement, which was the product of his intellect and his unyielding commitment to the rule of law. We were also witnesses to a life greatly lived.

Read the full article here. The Center extends its deepest condolences to Justice Scalia's family and friends.

 

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Center Director Carter Snead (Notre Dame Law School) submitted a brief amici curiae with six other law professors on February 3 in the Supreme Court case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The case will examine whether the Texas law known as HB2, which requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and for abortion centers to be held to the same standards as surgical outpatient centers, places an "undue burden" on women seeking an abortion. From the summary:…

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The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture and Notre Dame Law School are pleased to announce the Polking Family Fellowship, a newly established program to recruit and provide funding for top law school candidates who have a demonstrated passion for the Catholic mission of the Law School and who share Notre Dame’s commitment to the inalienable dignity of every human life from conception to natural death.

The Polking Fellowship aims to cultivate the next generation of leaders who understand that law and public policy are essential elements in building a sustainable culture of life.

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