Notre Dame’s New Ethics Center Causes Controversy, Indicates Potential Catholic-Identity Clashes Ahead

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Critics contend that the new Jenkins Center bypasses the already-established de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture — and may be a sign of how the Catholic university will implement its ambitious strategic plan.

At a normal Catholic university, the announcement of a new center devoted to virtue ethics would likely be an uncontroversial cause for celebration.

But the University of Notre Dame, where competing visions of Catholic identity play out at one of the nation’s most prestigious institutes of higher learning, isn’t an ordinary Catholic university.

And the newly announced Father John Jenkins, C.S.C, Center for Virtue Ethics, named for the university’s outgoing president, is anything but uncontroversial.

In fact, its establishment may be a key indicator of how administrators intend to implement Notre Dame’s ambitious plan to become “the leading global Catholic research university” by 2033 — and what vision of Catholic identity will be guiding that pursuit.

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