President of University of Notre Dame to step down at end of academic year

The longtime president of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana will step down at the end of the current academic year to return to teaching and ministry at the school.

Father John I. Jenkins, a Holy Cross priest, announced the news Oct. 13, according to a media release posted by the university.

Elected in 2005 as the university’s 17th president, Father Jenkins was most recently reelected by Notre Dame’s trustees to his fourth five-year term effective July 1, 2020.

In the same release, the university also noted that John B. Veihmeyer, the retired chairman of KPMG International, has been elected as chair of Notre Dame’s board of trustees, effective June 2024 and succeeding current chair John J. Brennan.

Father Jenkins said his tenure as president had been “both a privilege and a calling.”

Brennan said that the university “is and has been incredibly blessed by Father Jenkins’ courageous and visionary leadership,” which had been directed toward building “a great Catholic university for the 21st century.”

A search is now underway for the university’s next president, who will be elected by the trustees from among the priests of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which founded the school in 1842. The school’s governance was transferred in 1967 from the congregation to a two-tiered board of lay and religious trustees and fellows.

Under Father Jenkins’ leadership, Notre Dame saw significant growth and expansion, particularly in its research initiatives, global engagement, student diversity and financial resources. The school was admitted this year to the Association of American Universities, which represents the nation’s leading research universities.

In addition, Notre Dame enjoys partnerships with a number of schools throughout the nation and the world. The university operates Global Gateways in Rome, Dublin, Jerusalem, Beijing and London, as well as six Global Centers in Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo and Santiago.

Notre Dame also has worked closely for more than two decades with Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, and entered into an agreement with UCU in 2022 to significantly expand that relationship.

At the same time, Father Jenkins faced criticism at points during his tenure. Following a lawsuit filed by the university, he applauded a 2017 Trump administration expansion of the religious freedom exemption from a 2012 U.S. Health and Human Services mandate requiring most employers to include contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilizations in their employee health plans. However, Father Jenkins opted to allow third-party administrators to provide such coverage, saying the “university’s interest has never been in preventing access to those who make conscientious decisions to use contraceptives,” but was rather “to avoid being compelled by the federal government to be the agent in their provision.”

A 2016 decision by Father Jenkins to award then-Vice President Joe Biden the Laetare Medal — the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics — was rebuked by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, who said in a lengthy statement that it was “wrong for Notre Dame to honor any ‘pro-choice’ public official with the Laetare Medal.”

Similarly, a 2009 commencement address by President Barack Obama (part of the university’s custom of having U.S. presidents speak at the school graduation while in office) sparked backlash.

Father Jenkins has throughout his career promoted civil discourse, and has served as a longtime member of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

In addition, he has been a leading national voice on college athletics. In a March 23 New York Times opinion piece he co-wrote with Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame’s athletics director, Father Jenkins called on universities “to reaffirm that student-athletes are students first and to ensure that their athletic programs serve the schools’ broader educational mission, not the other way around.”

Father Jenkins is a member of the university’s philosophy department, teaching on ancient and medieval philosophy, the relationship between faith and reason, and the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Notre Dame, along with a doctorate of philosophy from Oxford University and a master of divinity and licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in California.

His writings include the book “Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas,” as well as scholarly articles for The Journal of Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy and Theology, and the Journal of Religious Ethics.

Father Jenkins also has written on Catholic higher education, noting in a 2015 journal article that while “Catholic colleges and universities face significant challenges in the present context of American higher education,” such institutions, which are “situated in the Catholic intellectual life … can enjoy substantive orientation in their academic endeavors while fostering serious inquiry and vigorous debate.”

Bishop Rhoades, who is presently in Rome attending the Synod on Synodality, gave a statement to OSV News extending his “prayerful best wishes” to Father Jenkins “after 19 years of dedicated leadership and service.”

“I am grateful that, in promoting the growth of research at the university, Father Jenkins has promoted the moral, spiritual, and religious dimensions of that research, an important part of Notre Dame’s distinctive Catholic identity,” he said. “I am also grateful for Father Jenkins’ commitment to the pastoral ministry at Notre Dame and the spiritual welfare of the students, his dedication to Notre Dame’s service of our local church as well as the wider church throughout the world, and for his advocacy of civility in public discourse, so much needed in our nation and world today.”

Bishop Rhoades said he was “personally happy that Father Jenkins will continue his priestly ministry here in our diocese, teaching and serving at Notre Dame” and assured him of his prayers during the transition. He also extended his prayers to Notre Dame’s board of trustees and the Congregation of the Holy Cross, adding, “I am most grateful for their commitment to maintain and strengthen the Catholic character of the University of Notre Dame.”

Loyola University Maryland announces new and expanded financial aid initiatives for eligible students of fall 2027 

Catholic Review Staff

September 17, 2026

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Loyola University Maryland is expanding its financial aid offerings for incoming students, guaranteeing at least $40,000 annually for eligible Catholic high school graduates and full tuition coverage for qualifying Maryland students with significant financial need.

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Cardinal Czerny inaugural recipient of Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal

Gina Christian

September 17, 2026

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The first Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal — created by the pope’s alma mater, Villanova University — will be awarded to Cardinal Michael Czerny, the former prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

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Nuncio: Beatitudes are ‘self-portrait of Jesus,’ allowing Christians to see what he values

OSV News

September 9, 2026

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The purpose of Catholic education is to help students grow deeper in their identity as children of God made in his image and likeness, Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia told the congregation at a Sept. 3 Mass to mark the opening of the academic year at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

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Radio Interview: The faith behind the Fighting Irish

Catholic Review Staff

September 8, 2026

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George Matysek goes behind the scenes of Notre Dame football with Holy Cross Father Nate Wills, the team’s chaplain and author of “Pray Like a Champion Today: Sacred Stories from the Sidelines of Notre Dame Football.” Ordained in 2006, Father Wills is also an education professor at Notre Dame and a national speaker on artificial intelligence in Catholic education.

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New book fills in gaps of history of Mount St. Mary’s

Katie V. Jones

July 20, 2026

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For a university founded in 1808, Emmitsburg’s Mount St. Mary’s University has surprisingly few books telling its story. That bothered alumnus John Singleton, Class of 1986, enough that he wrote one himself.

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Sister Kathleen Marie Engers, beloved founder of Baltimore’s Pumpkin Theater, dies at 101

George P. Matysek Jr.

July 16, 2026

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School Sister of Notre Dame Kathleen Marie Engers, whose Pumpkin Theater introduced generations of Baltimore-area children to the performing arts, died June 10 at age 101. A longtime Notre Dame of Maryland professor, she viewed the theater as a ministry that inspired a lifelong love of the arts.

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