In February 2024, Pope Francis met with the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees at the Vatican for the final time.
During the meeting, he praised Notre Dame for dedicating itself to “advancing the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel through the formation of each person in all his or her dimensions” and shared what he saw as the “secret of education”—asking the University to continue to educate students in three languages: “the head, the heart, and the hands.”
“Always remember,” Pope Francis said, “this is the crux of the matter.”
A Catholic university must expand not only the mind, but also the heart, he said, helping its students to cultivate “an openness to all that is true, good, and beautiful.” And a Catholic education then commits us to building a better world with our own hands, he said, by teaching “mutual coexistence, fraternal solidarity, and peace.”
“We cannot stay within the walls or boundaries of our institutions, but must strive to go out to the peripheries and meet and serve Christ in our neighbor,” Pope Francis said. “In this regard, I encourage the University’s continuing efforts to foster in its students zeal for meeting the needs of underprivileged communities.”
It is one of many lessons from the late pontiff that the University has taken to heart.
As the Notre Dame community joined with the Church and the world in mourning the passing of Pope Francis this week, University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., reflected on his legacy, saying, “Through his heroic and prophetic ministry, he has inspired and challenged us to respect the God-given dignity of all people and the integrity of creation.
“The Holy Father’s life and witness call us to awaken from indifference to the suffering of others, to embrace our responsibilities to one another, and to be agents of faith, hope, and love for a world in need,” said Father Dowd, who presided over a memorial Mass for Pope Francis at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Thursday evening.
As a preeminent global Catholic research university, Notre Dame continues to heed that call by embracing Pope Francis’s teachings in its strategic framework, key initiatives, and daily life.
Two defining elements of Francis’s papacy, in particular, have shaped Notre Dame, said John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost and a historian focused on the modern Catholic Church. The first is Pope Francis’s commitment to the environment, as evidenced in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato si’, and Laudate Deum, his ensuing apostolic exhortation on climate change in 2023.
“While our efforts around sustainability and the environment precede Pope Francis, both their form and their content are inspired by Laudato si’,” McGreevy said. “Like Francis, we hope to provide a holistic picture of how we can move toward a more sustainable energy future, given the needs of the poor.”
The second, he said, is Pope Francis’s focus on global Catholicism and the global Church, which has helped to guide Notre Dame’s own globalization efforts.
“He was the first pope from the Global South, and that has been hugely meaningful,” McGreevy said. “Most Catholics now live in the Global South, a dramatic shift from 100 or even 50 years ago.
“In that context, to be a global Catholic university, we must attend to the nature of our own community—one reason why the Pathways to Notre Dame program includes need-blind admission for international students.”
Notre Dame’s global presence expanded significantly during Pope Francis’s tenure. In 2014, the University’s Board of Trustees commemorated the opening of its Rome Global Gateway with an academic convocation and, on the same trip, were welcomed by Pope Francis for the first time.
During that meeting, then-President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., told Pope Francis that he hoped the opening of a new Notre Dame center in Rome would allow the University to expand its service to the Holy See.
In turn, Pope Francis said, “From its founding, the University of Notre Dame has made an outstanding contribution to the Church in your country through its commitment to the religious education of the young and to serious scholarship inspired by confidence in the harmony of faith and reason and in the pursuit of truth and virtue.”
Now, looking back at the Holy Father’s 12-year papacy, Father Jenkins said, “Pope Francis challenged us to reach out to the marginalized, care for the poor, respond to the threat of environmental degradation and climate change, engage others in respectful conversation across our differences, foster interreligious dialogue, and above all, to be more joyful in our Christian witness.
“His words—and, even more, his actions—reminded us that the heart of the Gospel message is about God’s unbounded love and mercy for all. He helped us better live that message in our lives.”
The University’s prioritizing of integral human development also aligned with Pope Francis’s goals, said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history and American studies.
“For evidence of the impact Pope Francis has had on the global Church, we have to look no further than our own University,” she said.
In 2016, Pope Francis created the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development to promote the God-given dignity of all people and to underscore the Vatican’s dedication to human rights, justice and peace, migration, care for the Earth, and response to humanitarian emergencies.
Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, which opened its doors to students in 2017, likewise incorporated integral human development into its mission statement and promotes multidisciplinary research on the subject, Cummings noted.
“The late pope’s priorities have shaped Notre Dame’s strategic initiatives in profound ways,” she said. “Through its commitments to alleviating poverty and fostering health and well-being, Notre Dame has joined Pope Francis as a champion of human flourishing, especially within vulnerable populations.”
2024
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Notre Dame leadership meets with Pope Francis
2019
Notre Dame philosopher appointed to Vatican academy on St. Thomas Aquinas
2017
Notre Dame in Rome
2016
Paolo Carozza, director of Kellogg Institute, appointed to Vatican academy by Pope Francis
2015
Rev. Jenkins: Pope Francis calls Americans to 'live up to the highest ideals of our nation'
2014
Notre Dame leaders meet with Pope Francis
2013
Notre Dame alumnus Archbishop Felix named cardinal by Pope Francis
