91视频

Kathleen Sprows Cummings

Professor of American 91视频 and History

American 91视频

Phone
574-631-8749
Email
cummings.23@nd.edu

Professor of American 91视频 and History

  • History of women and American religion
  • U.S. Catholicism

Video

Sprows Cummings’s 91视频

Sprows Cummings in the News

December 03, 2025

“He’s not emotive or telling you what he feels all the time,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor who specializes in Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. But “he’s able to be fully present to people.” With Francis, “there was a self-consciousness,” said Ms. Cummings. “What he was doing was going to get attention. It didn’t mean that it was false,” she added. But “Pope Leo doesn’t seem to care about that.”

September 06, 2025

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, an American studies and history professor at Notre Dame and the author of A Saint of Our Own, told me, “My students are fascinated by him.” She continued, “They were talking about, like, ‘He’s wearing Nike sneakers.’ They just thought this was just the greatest thing.”



Timothy P. O’Malley, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame, said in a 2024 lecture, “Carlo was weird.” And recognizing that, O’Malley suggested, is the key to “unlocking his holiness.”

September 05, 2025

Canonizations often respond to a need in the “larger culture” of the time, either those of the institutional church, or the needs of the faithful, said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame and expert on saints. “With Carlo, certainly there’s the millennial angle,” she said. But, she added, at a time when society and the church are “very worried about the corrosive impact of technology,” from the internet to artificial intelligence, “he’s an example of a person who took the latest technology and then used it as a tool of evangelization. And that’s very appealing.”

September 05, 2025

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame, said Acutis’ enormous popularity was clearly the result of a concerted church campaign, pushed strongly by his grief-stricken mother. But she said that is nothing new, and that in the 2,000-year history of the church, saints have very often been pushed ahead to respond to a particular need at a particular time.

June 24, 2025

For Kathleen Sprows Cummings, an American studies and history professor at University of Notre Dame in Indiana and the author of “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American” (2019), the St. Patrick’s Seminary initiative signals an interesting shift in the American Catholic Church’s approach to sainthood. After despairing about not seeing more American-born saint candidates and decades of volunteers vying for more attention to their causes, Sprows Cummings said faithfuls creating networks and working side by side is a new strategy. 

June 20, 2025

According to Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a University of Notre Dame historian and author of A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American, there are three typical ways a saint becomes a patron.

June 14, 2025

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a University of Notre Dame historian, said Leo probably will be very cautious as he juggles not sounding too American in a global church where the U.S. is considered by many disproportionately wealthy and powerful. Some people are likely to contrast the military parade with the celebration of the pope in Chicago, Cummings said. “I think of course people will see it as a contrast, even if it wasn’t deliberately staged that way,” she said. “These are two very different embodiments of America. … Two very different expressions of America.”

 

May 09, 2025

Kathleen Cummings, author of “A Saint of Our Own” and the head of a center on U.S. Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said the Vatican should wait at least 20 years before allowing Francis’ cause to proceed, giving historians enough time to do their work.

May 08, 2025

"Leo the 13th was a great pope with social teaching, and it signals that our next hope will continue in that vein," University of Notre Dame American studies and history professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings told Holt. "It's a remarkable moment."

May 08, 2025

“He’s right out of Francis’s playbook,” Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame, told the Washington Post, citing his “pastoral heart, managerial experience and vision.”

May 08, 2025

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame who focuses on U.S. Catholics, said the 69-year-old Prevost ticked off all the boxes as the papal conclave voted: “a pastoral heart, managerial experience and global vision.”

People

May 08, 2025

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, adds that she is “still in a state of shock," describing his election as an “unprecedented” move that wouldn't have been possible even "just a hundred years ago.” “The conventional wisdom was that here would not be an American pope,” Cummings explains, but adds that Pope Leo XIV “had the best chance of any American ever.”

Katie Couric Media

May 08, 2025

“He’s right out of Francis’s playbook,” history professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, at the University of Notre Dame, told The Washington Post.

May 08, 2025

“He’s right out of Francis’s playbook,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame who focuses on U.S. Catholics. “He ticks off all the boxes of a future pope: a pastoral heart, managerial experience and vision.”

May 05, 2025

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a historian of U.S. Catholicism at Notre Dame, said Trump’s post reflects the support and trust that Trump enjoys among millions of Catholics. “It makes sense in Trumpworld. He has been empowered by Catholics,” she said. “This might be new levels of audacity and disrespect, but many American Catholics have ceded a great deal of power and moral authority to the current president. Whether that makes sense to others, it’s true.”

April 22, 2025

According to experts, more spot-on than not, and at the very least meticulously researched. “They got a lot of the details right,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a historian of Catholicism at Notre Dame who closely followed the election of Pope Francis in 2013.

Video

April 21, 2025

Pope Francis was a reformer who rattled the Catholic Church’s conservatives and sometimes strayed from traditional views. Dignity USA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke and professor of American 91视频 and History at Notre Dame University Kathleen Sprows Cummings join Chris Jansing to share more on the impact the Pope’s “transformative” actions and words had on the Church.

Video

April 21, 2025

The mourning period is underway for the death of Pope Francis who passed away today at 88 years old. Jesuit Conference President Father Timothy Kesicki, S.J., Professor of American 91视频 and History at Notre Dame University Kathleen Sprows Cummings and American Media President and Editor-in-chief Father Sam Sawyer join Christina Ruffini to discuss Pope Francis' lasting legacy.

Video

April 21, 2025

“Coming from the other side of the world, he brought a different way of seeing the world, and throughout his papacy that was a constant,” said Kathleen Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

People

April 21, 2025

If traced back to its Latin roots, the term “conclave” translates roughly to “under lock and key,” according to Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a nationally recognized Pope Francis expert and professor of American 91视频 and History at the University of Notre Dame.

April 21, 2025

The tone of Francis’s letter about Vance’s comment was a direct message to U.S. bishops that he was paying attention to the American church and that they should speak out, said John McGreevy, a University of Notre Dame professor and expert on Catholicism. 

April 21, 2025

But Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history at the University of Notre Dame, said Pope Francis simply tried to bring attention to issues that sometimes failed to attract the same kind of passion among some Catholics.

People

April 21, 2025

Theoretically the list of eligible clergy is very long, according to Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a nationally recognized expert on Pope Francis as well as a professor of American 91视频 and History at the University of Notre Dame.

Video

February 28, 2025

And, in that respect, he has also promoted women and supported women but has not said that women should be ordained priests.  “No women priests and, as of yet, no women deacons — although he did appoint several commissions to study that issue,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history. 

The Tablet

October 30, 2024

Every jubilee, according to Notre Dame Professor of American 91视频 and History Kathleen Sprows Cummings, is “ever ancient, ever new,” meaning certain aspects of the celebration are a part of the tradition and other aspects are unique to the times.

August 28, 2024

“What she said was indicative of a much larger conversation that was going on for more than a decade,” Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame, said in an interview.

Something Offbeat Podcast

Audio

July 31, 2024

To learn more about the canonization process, the novelty of such a young saint, and saints from the United States, Something Offbeat welcomed Dr. Kathleen Cummings, a professor of American studies and history and Notre Dame and the author of the book – A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American.

July 09, 2024

“Canonization is fundamentally about holiness — but it’s also about relevance,” says Kathleen Sprows Cummings, history professor at the University of Notre Dame and author of the book A Saint of Our Own. 

Lost Highways Podcast

Audio

June 27, 2024

Kathleen Cummings is a professor of history and American studies at the University of Notre Dame. She focuses on both religion and women in American history.  "In 1792, it's interesting. You start to see Columbus mentioned, and in fact, the personification of America as 'Columbia' like 'Britannia' was the personification of Great Britain."

CBC Radio

Audio

May 28, 2024

Interview with Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and the author of “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American.”

Video

May 26, 2024

Religious scholars say a Saint Carlo could be a game changer for the Church struggling to recruit the next generation. “Could it be possible that Saint Carlo would be the new patron saint of the internet? Absolutely,”  said NBC contributor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, author of the book “A Saint of Our Own.” 

May 23, 2024

Carlo’s path to becoming the first millennial saint is a milestone, said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and the author of the book “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American.” Carlo used the internet and his computer skills to spread his faith, offering the Catholic Church an opportunity to show a more positive side to social media, she said. Making

Video

May 17, 2024

“It was a time when, when Notre Dame was growing in its reputation — in part because of football, but also because of its academic reputation,” explained Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history at Notre Dame. 

Vanity Fair

April 29, 2024

“Their individuality was subsumed in the congregation,” says Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who oversees the History of Women Religious, an academic organization devoted to the study of Catholic sisters. Even so-called “particular attachments” between nuns were discouraged. 

October 04, 2023

If this synod fails again to open the way to women deacons, “many, many American Catholic women will be disappointed, because that’s such low-hanging fruit,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, who isn’t taking part in this month’s assembly. 

The Baltimore Banner

June 12, 2023

Catholic nuns in the 1940s had total control of their classrooms, said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame who studies sexual abuse by religious women. That means it’s unlikely that other teachers would have known about the allegations against Hasson.

December 31, 2022

Speaking to Newsweek Professor Kathleen Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, described Benedict as "a man of unwavering faith, deep conviction and towering intellect who indelibly shaped the church."

December 31, 2022

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement that Benedict leaves “a complicated legacy.” 

December 31, 2022

Professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, depicted Benedict as “a man of unwavering faith, deep conviction and towering intellect,” yet added that he left “a complicated legacy.”

December 20, 2022

“Sainthood links the local church to the universal church,” says Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, who wrote “A Saint of Our Own,” about the more than century-old campaign for a patron saint of the United States (leading contenders include St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, though each was born before the country’s founding).

Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Audio

October 05, 2022

In addition to talking to the kids, Kelly sat down with two professors who love their work, Kathy Cummings (winner of the 2021 Sheedy Award for Excellence in Teaching) who teaches history and Sam Newlands, a philosopher who studies hope, optimism and transformative experiences.

July 29, 2022

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, professor of American 91视频 and the director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, called the pope's move "far too little" and "far too late."

Angelus News

July 12, 2022

“How much longer should Catholic women be expected to be grateful at being offered crumbs from the table?” asked Kathleen Cummings, professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, in a July 6 statement.

July 07, 2022

Others think the pope’s appointment of women at the Vatican is too little, too late. “Will these new appointees have any actual power?” wondered Kathleen Cummings, professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, in a statement on Wednesday (July 6.) 

Video

March 16, 2022

Features interview with Kathleen Sprows Cummings, Professor of American 91视频 and History and Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.

The Revealer

March 07, 2022

“There were overflowing novitiates, overflowing seminaries after the War, and people talk about, ‘let’s go back to normal, to the 40s.’ But actually, that wasn’t normal at all,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American religious history at the University of Notre Dame.

November 18, 2021

NPR's A Martinez talks to Kathleen Sprows Cummings of Notre Dame, about U.S. Catholic Bishops approving a position paper urging Catholics to abide by church teachings if they take communion.

October 29, 2021

鈥淭hey鈥檙e the regular guys,鈥� said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, the director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.聽

Audio

September 23, 2021

Kathleen Sprows Cummings is a Professor of American 91视频 at the University of Notre Dame.

September 04, 2021

A forceful appeal for canonization came last year in an聽essay聽by professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the University of Notre Dame鈥檚 Cushwa Center for American Catholicism.

June 18, 2021

Kathleen Cummings, a historian at the University of Notre Dame who runs the school鈥檚 Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, said the U.S. Catholic Church for many decades was defined more by questions of how and whether Catholicism 鈥� then mostly a faith of immigrants 鈥� could fit into America.

June 10, 2021

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, the director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said she is unsure what drafting such a document would accomplish beyond 鈥減ushing people farther away from the church.鈥�

This is her place

Audio

June 02, 2021

Kathleen Sprows Cummings is a professor of American 91视频 and History at Notre Dame University, the Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at Notre Dame, and is an expert on the history of women religious.

May 29, 2021

But people are interested in the show 鈥� it has been regularly breaking the million-viewers mark on Sunday nights 鈥� and Kathleen Sprows Cummings, who is the director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said she soon realized the incredible buzz around the show is "because it nails place so well."

May 03, 2021

The definition of what is holy changes over time, says聽Kathleen Sprows Cummings, history professor at the University of Notre Dame and author of the book聽A Saint of Our Own. 鈥淲e reinvent saints in each age.鈥�

Video

April 03, 2021

Kathleen Sprows Cummings talks to The News with Shepard Smith.

March 03, 2021

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, who was teaching a class at that time on "Catholics in America," told NCR the campus debates were professionally and pedagogically very rewarding, as they led to lively conversation with her students.

Video

February 01, 2021

"Pope Francis has talked about the need to find a better kind of politics, a less polarizing kind of politics. And I think in that sense, he's expressing his hope that Joe Biden could be the one to open that conversation," said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

WSBT

Video

January 24, 2021

While President Biden and John F. Kennedy share the same faith, Notre Dame history professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings says the way they show it is drastically different.

Video

January 24, 2021

Interview with聽Kathleen Sprows Cummings, American studies.聽

January 19, 2021

Historian Kathleen Sprows Cummings told NCR that while there were a few Catholic Cabinet members during the 19th century, they were outliers and "their Catholicism didn't matter to their public life in any discernible way."

December 09, 2020

鈥淚t鈥檚 potentially a game-changer in American politics,鈥� said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, head of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

The Progressive

December 03, 2020

鈥淐anonization changes nothing about the person being honored,鈥� notes University of Notre Dame Professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa聽Center for the Study of American Catholicism.聽