(RNS) — After weeks of backlash from anti-abortion Catholics, the University of Notre Dame associate professor who had been appointed to lead the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies will not be accepting the post, a dean announced in an email Thursday (Feb. 26).
Susan Ostermann, a scholar of regulatory compliance in South Asia, had contributed to opinion pieces promoting abortion rights and arguing that anti-abortion laws are built on lies and white supremacy.
“At present, the focus on my appointment risks overshadowing the vital work the Institute performs, which it should be allowed to pursue without undue distraction,” wrote Ostermann in a statement shared by Mary Gallagher, dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs, in an email announcing the decision.
More than a dozen Catholic bishops, as well as Notre Dame students and alumni and other anti-abortion Catholics, had vocally opposed the appointment since it was announced Jan. 8, arguing that the university’s Catholic identity is under threat due to the appointment and other decisions made by the administration.
On Tuesday, Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, Bishop Kevin Rhoades led a rosary and prayer service on Notre Dame’s campus attended by about 50 people opposed to the appointment. Another protest had been planned by students for Friday. Though Rhoades is the bishop of Notre Dame’s diocese, the university is run by the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Rhoades had made his opposition to Ostermann’s appointment clear in a Feb. 11 statement, writing, “Professor Ostermann’s extensive public advocacy of abortion rights and her disparaging and inflammatory remarks about those who uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death go against a core p …
