GUEST POST: Saint Mary’s College (SMC) is a Catholic women’s liberal arts college in Notre Dame, Indiana. Founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1844, SMC has held a Catholic heritage since its founding with a chapel in every dorm building and the Sisters of the Holy Cross international novitiate and motherhouse on campus. Each residence hall has a ministry assistant to help students with their spiritual journey, and multiple Masses are said on campus every week. 

With SMC’s proud Catholic history and heritage, one would assume that they would be strongly pro-life. Saint Mary’s administration does allow a pro-life student group on campus, Belles for Life, but a new side of campus administration has recently been shown. As a part of the SMC Post Dobbs Program Series sponsored by SMC, a talk is being given on Thursday, March 2, called “No One’s Going to Tell Me What Kind of Christian I Am: Religion and Reproductive Justice in South Bend, Indiana.” 

 And this isn’t even the worst of it.  

(Click HERE to read another SFLA blog entitled “Catholic Schools Are Forgetting Their Pro-Life Values; The Pro-Life Gen Needs to Remind Them.) 

The talk is set to be given by April Lidinsky, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Indiana University South Bend and Eli Williams, Sociology Doctoral Candidate and Gender Studies Training Apprentice, University of Notre Dame. Lidinsky and Williams have previously written an article entitled “Learn from Early Organizers How to Protect Access to Abortion” in Ms. Magazine in June 2022. In this article, they state that they “are longtime volunteers for abortion clinics in South Bend, Indiana.” They also describe online abortion-finding networks as “essential” to finding “care.” 

Clearly, Lidinsky and Williams are no friend of preborn children.  

This pro-abortion event given by two vehemently pro-abortion speakers has no place at SMC. As a Catholic institution, SMC has a duty to be an example of Catholic values, standing firmly in the Catholic faith, but the sponsorship of this talk is inherently anti-Catholic. The abortion issue is not one on which the Catholic church is vague. 

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops says, “The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: ‘Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law’ (No. 2271).” 

As a Catholic institution that claims in their statement of philosophy and purpose to “challenge students to promote human dignity throughout their lives” and “respect all persons because of their God-given dignity,” Saint Mary’s needs to do a better job representing Catholic values and morals. 

As a proud member of the Pro-Life Generation, I will be attending this talk in order to ask the speakers how they can possibly posit that abortion is morally fine when the Catholic Church is crystal clear that it is not. Stay tuned to the SFLA blog to hear more on this story.  

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