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Volume 51, Issue 114 | wednesday, april 5, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com
Conservative pundit critiques University ‘The Blaze’ columnist Matt Walsh speaks on Catholicism, philosophy of liberal corruption of Church By LUCAS MASIN-MOYER Associate News Editor
A topic of persistent conversation at the University has long been how Notre Dame adheres to its Catholic mission — with guest speakers such as former President Barack Obama and former Texas state senator Wendy Davis often being used as examples of a departure from this mission. Tuesday evening in Nieuwland Hall, Matt Walsh, a columnist for The Blaze, spoke on what he believed to be the University’s departure from its Catholic heritage and what he saw as the political left’s corruption of Catholicism. “Notre Dame has provided us a helpful demonstration of what the consequences are when a Catholic
institution loses its Catholic heritage,” he said. “ … This institution calls itself Catholic but proceeds to betray that identity, and in doing so has scandalized the public.” Walsh cited Obama’s speech and certain University policies as evidence of this departure. “Recent history speaks for itself,” he said. “ … We know that in [2009] Notre Dame hosted the most radically pro-abortion president in history. … A few years ago, management decided to provide marriage benefits to employees in same-sex relationships, citing a legal obligation that does not exist.” The invitation for Davis to speak was key evidence for his case against Notre Dame’s Catholicism, see WALSH PAGE 3
EMMET FARNAN | The Observer
Matt Walsh shared his thoughts on Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and how various liberal views and policies have affected the Catholic Church during a lecture in Nieuwland Hall on Tuesday night.
‘The Hunting Ground’ producer discusses work By COURTNEY BECKER News Editor
After creating films that have helped inform changes to university administrative processes, new government legislation and multiple congressional hearings, documentarian Amy Ziering was chosen to be the keynote speaker for the Student Union Board’s (SUB) Literary Festival on Tuesday night. Ziering — who recently
produced “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary that examines sexual assault on college campuses and the institutional responses to these incidents — said she tries to create films that will affect change in society. “What I really do like to do is I like to ask questions, and I like to hear other people’s stories and I like to put them on screen,” she said. “ … Really, my work is all about, sort of, the importance of [being] rigorous and the
importance of storytelling.” Ziering said her road to becoming a documentarian stemmed from an interest in academia. Her first film was a documentary about French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It took about a year of Ziering pursuing him for Derrida to agree to be the subject of the film, Ziering said, and he remained a reluctant subject throughout the filmmaking see PRODUCER PAGE 4
SMC alumna starts dance company in South Bend By GABY JANSEN News Writer
After graduation, Saint Mary’s alumna Hannah Fischer started her own dance company in South Bend and is now choreographing dances for the upcoming play “Lucky, Liar, Loser,” to be performed at Saint Mary’s Moreau Center for the Arts.
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Fischer said she wanted to major in women’s studies and dance before there were programs at Saint Mary’s, so she combined them in a self-designed major along with a major in humanistic studies. “I did a self-design major at Saint Mary’s in digital media, women’s studies, and art,” she said. This liberal arts education at
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Saint Mary’s prepared Fischer for all of her jobs she held after graduation “It’s demonstrative of the education I got at Saint Mary’s,” she said. “And people ask me what I do at my job ... I have been [a] jack of all trades.” Part of Fischer’s job in Saint Louis was working with see DANCE PAGE 4
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Novelist explores impacts of climate change By CIARA HOPKINSON News Writer
Bringing a new perspective to an ever-present conversation, Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh spoke Tuesday afternoon in the Mendoza College of Business about aspects of climate change much of the world neglects. The first topic Ghosh tackled was wealth and desire — using the value of cloves hundreds of years ago as an example. “What made cloves desirable was the phenomenon that Rene Girard identifies as mimetic desire, which in his definition is rooted not in basic appetites, but in the crossing of gazes with others,” he said. We do not, therefore, desire things because we need them, Ghosh said — we desire things because others desire them. “Ultimately [mimetic desire] would bring into being our own era of globalization — a homogenization of desire on a scale never before seen, extending across the planet and into the
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deepest reaches of the human soul,” Ghosh said. Despite the rise in the global standard of living and the increasing accessibility of these desired goods Ghosh said the world has not attained some sort of utopic state of harmony and prosperity. “The intimate nature of the connection forged by these commodities has not led to greater cooperation or sympathy,” he said. “On the contrary, it has only intensified and deepened the resentment, anger and envy.” These sentiments, Ghosh said, are rooted in the imperialistic treatment of nations, their people and their resources. These tendencies began hundreds of years ago but continues to today. The disregard for the land itself established a precedent not easily shaken. “The right to consume and pollute is established and justified by the fact of it having happened elsewhere, in rich see CLIMATE PAGE 4
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