(Sycamore Trust) —In this bulletin, we draw attention to Notre Dame’s troubling observance of “Pride Month” over the past four years—a stark contrast to its Catholic foundation. We invite you to stand with us in reclaiming the month of June in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And, as part of this effort, we encourage you to participate in our Sacred Heart Novena, which will take place from June 19 to 27, 2025.
We also remind you that our annual Breakfast is fast approaching. Whether you join us in person or via livestream, you won’t want to miss this compelling presentation on an unprecedented legal challenge and its far-reaching implications for the preservation of Catholic identity at Notre Dame.
Please register by clicking on the “watch or attend” button below.
Notre Dame’s celebration of pride eclipses its legacy of devotion to the Sacred Heart
For the past four years, the University of Notre Dame has embraced June as “Pride Month,” offering a wide range of events, resources, and affirmations in celebration of “LGBTQ+” identity and experience. Gone is any institutional recognition of June as the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—a devotion at the very heart of the Catholic tradition and foundational to Notre Dame’s own identity and historical ties with the Congregation of Holy Cross.
With June only a week away, we await confirmation whether, for a fifth year, Notre Dame will celebrate “Pride” at the expense of the Sacred Heart.
READ: Confidence in the mercy of Christ’s Sacred Heart comes only with repentance
Following secular culture
Pride Month has become a modern phenomenon, championed by secular culture, and celebrated in cities worldwide. In higher education, the Campus Pride Index now lists over 400 colleges affirming LGBTQ+ inclusivity — including more than half of the Jesuit Catholic universities in the United States and Notre Dame. Notre Dame’s participation not only aligns it with this secular trend but sets it in opposition to the Church’s teachings on chastity, the family, and the anthropology of the human person as created male and female.
In spite of the dramatic misalignment with Catholic teaching and tradition, Notre Dame has expanded its observance of “Pride Month” each year since 2021 through campus-wide programming, community events, and social media content that celebrates and promotes “LGBTQ+” identity and experience.
In addition to participating in South Bend’s annual Pride Festival, for example, the University has promoted events like Allyship 101 to provide training in “LGBTQIA+ advocacy” and Pride OUTside Hike to “show your true colors” by “dressing in support of the LGBTQ+ Community” for a mile long hike. Official Notre Dame Social Media accounts along with those of many Notre Dame Alumni clubs and affinity groups featured rainbow motifs (like the one above) and solidarity statements actively promoting and celebrated a common cause that conflicts with the truth of Catholicism.
And not an official peep about the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The heart of Notre Dame University, forgotten
Blessed Basil Moreau consecrated the Holy Cross order to the Sacred Heart in 1837. Father Edward Sorin enshrined this devotion at the center of campus life with the Church of the Sacred Heart. Poignantly, he placed a statue of the Sacred Heart in front of the Main Building as a symbol of Notre Dame’s trust in divine mercy and fidelity to the Church.
“Venite ad me omnes” is inscribed at the base of the statue recalling Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
This is one of the most tender and consoling invitations of Christ in the entire New Testament. It is His call to the weary, the burdened, the sinners, the wounded—to come to His Sacred Heart, the wellspring of mercy and peace: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
In a letter dated June 20, 1876—Feast of the Sacred Heart—Father Sorin exhorted his fellow priests:
More than ever, let us place our hopes and prayers and needs in the Sacred Heart—the primary Patron of our Congregation… and whilst our glorious and loving Patron is failing us in nothing, let us not fail first in duty, but endeavor to deserve an increase of blessings.
The University’s spiritual history is further adorned by figures like Servant of God Brother Columba O’Neill, C.S.C., a humble cobbler and healer whose devotion to the Sacred Heart was deeply tied to his love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Brother Columba was widely known for encouraging confession “to Jesus through Mary” and for distributing Sacred Heart badges across campus as tokens of faith and protection.
To neglect the rich legacy of Notre Dame’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for a month-long endorsement of “LGBTQ+ Pride” is not a neutral shift—it is a repudiation of the very identity Notre Dame was consecrated to uphold.
Doctrine ignored, identity endangered
While firmly and unfailingly upholding the dignity of those suffering with same-sex attraction (CCC 2358), the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches clearly that homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” (CCC 2357), and the Vatican’s instruction Male and Female He Created Them rejects the ideological foundations of gender theory as contrary to human dignity and the family. “Pride Month,” by contrast, celebrates these very identities and experiences. That Notre Dame joins in the celebration without qualification—while omitting the Sacred Heart—is a decisive turn away from fidelity to Catholic teaching.
This June, Notre Dame faces a choice once again. Will it continue to follow the path of secular affirmation, or will it remember its roots in the Heart of Christ?
Should Notre Dame choose not to participate in “Pride Month” this year it would distinguish itself from its peers. Such a decision would highlight a commitment to alternative values and traditions — the very sort that are courageously countercultural and Catholic in every sense.
To be conformed to the Sacred Heart is to love with a crucified love and to stand firm before a world that scoffs at the Cross – rebuking cowardice, compromise, and modernism.
Let us pray the University chooses reparation over rebellion—and return to the Sacred Heart that once inspired its founding.
May Notre Dame and other Catholic institutions rekindle devotion to the Sacred Heart which is to rekindle the very soul of Catholic identity.
Learn what you can do to reclaim June for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and join us in our Sacred Heart Novena (June 19-27, 2025).
This article was first published by the Sycamore Trust. Republished with permission.
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