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As one of the world’s preeminent Catholic universities, Notre Dame has a long-standing relationship with the papacy. This tie grew strong while Fr. Ted Hesburgh, C.S.C., was president and has remained so throughout the recent papacies and presidencies in Rome and South Bend.
The last face-to-face meeting between leaders occurred when Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., then president, and the University Board of Trustees had the opportunity to meet with the late Pope Francis in February of 2024. The Notre Dame website noted that Pope Francis commended the university on “advancing the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel through the formation of each person in all his or her dimensions.” This sentiment aligns with Notre Dame’s interdisciplinary nature and focus on forming the “heart, mind and soul” of its students.
Whether he meant to or not, the ever service-oriented Francis offered some advice on how this soul might best be formed by challenging the university to continue educating “the head, the heart and the hands” of its students. This call to action, to form the soul by the education of the hands, was emblematic of Francis.
In a series of remarks after his death, new University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., reminded mourners of Francis’s insistence that “the Church must be a ‘field hospital’ to warm hearts, heal wounds and open doors.”
Fr. Dowd led the Notre Dame community in mourning Pope Francis after his passing on Apr. 21, as events across campus remembered his legacy and offered prayers. Provost John T. McGreevy also spoke during these events.
“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.”
Francis’s connection to the Global South is a trait shared with his successor, Rev. Robert F. Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, whose papacy Notre Dame celebrated on May 8.
As the South Bend Tribune reported, Notre Dame professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings described Leo as “ a bridge builder among continents” during NBC’s live television coverage of the papal announcement.
Noting his Chicago roots and work in Peru, Cummings said: “It reminds us all that it is a universal church. … He embodies that in his mission.”
According to Vatican News, Archbishop Paolo Gualtieri, Apostolic Nuncio to Peru since 2022, said Peru is rejoicing at Pope Leo XIV’s election, noting the new pope “gave his heart to Peru” through decades of service as a missionary, educator and bishop.
This work on the Global South can perhaps serve as a starting point in the relationship between Leo and Dowd, whose own background focuses heavily on the role of Christian and Muslim faith communities in fostering or challenging democratic institutions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. These leaders didn’t just head in similar directions; they started in just about the same place.
These two Catholic leaders were born a decade (and an hour drive) apart near the shores of Lake Michigan – Robert Prevost in Chicago, Illinois, in 1955, and Robert Dowd in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1965.
Given his Chicagoland Catholic roots, it's hard not to imagine a young Bob Prevost cheering on the Parseghian national title teams. Unfortunately for Notre Dame fans everywhere, Pope Leo ended up at Villanova University for undergrad (the admissions office may have some reflecting to do on that one). How do 12 titles stack up against one pope?
While their paths diverged after their time in the Midwest, both now find themselves leading Catholics from all over the world. Today’s church requires both to see themselves as builders of bridges. Fr. Dowd reminded all of this duty to build in his inaugural address this past August.
“A Catholic university, according to my predecessor and brother in Holy Cross, Father Ted Hesburgh, should be a bridge across all chasms that separate modern people from each other. Now, when I reflect on those words, I see a problem and an opportunity. The problem is clear: Those chasms are widening. And the opportunity is here: Notre Dame must be the bridge that Father Ted spoke of, and all of us must be bridge-builders.”
Pope Leo sees this goal as so integral to his role that it is the inspiration for his choice of papal name. Many Catholics had wondered whether a new pope might choose the name John Paul III, preferred by the conservative wing of the church, or Francis II, the liberal preference. Though best known for his writings on economics, labor and capitalism, the earlier Leo, Pope Leo XIII, emerged as an unexpectedly unifying figure within the Catholic Church. By choosing the name “Leo,” Cardinal Prevost signaled a deliberate desire to embody that same spirit of unity.
Notre Dame, too, is a place of many voices asking, and more often demanding, that the university move in accordance with many ideological sides. Leo XIV has offered insight into how he will work to answer these questions for the church as a whole.
Before his election, Leo XIV warned in a foreword to a book on social doctrine that “every ideology, no matter how perfect it may seem, ends up turning against the human person.” He argued that ideologies reduce the richness of human life to a single idea, offering a false sense of clarity by oversimplifying the world. For the ideologue, this illusion of certainty replaces the ongoing pursuit of truth, and the uncertainty through which faith must guide Catholics.
At a time of deep division, each has taken up the same call to build bridges. Between continents and classrooms, tradition and change, they will lead these institutions through pathbreaking times.
And while a Villanova Wildcat may sit on the throne of St. Peter, the Irish still have fall Saturdays in South Bend. That’s good enough for me.