A Commencement Address Worth Reading

Readers may be interested in perusing the text of Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s remarks to the graduating class at the Catholic University of America, delivered this past weekend. In what was likely one of the more important addresses of this commencement season (and anyone who’s attended a university-level graduation knows these locutions can sometimes be stunningly vacuous and irrelevant to the education a student has just completed), Dolan’s speech was also something of an historical remembrance. Celebrating the 125th anniversary of of CUA’s reception of papal approval from Leo XIII, his remarks range over a variety of subjects, but broadly engage issues of academic, religious, and personal liberty, and the need to anchor “freedom” in enduring truths.

As might be expected at “the bishops’ university,” ”The Law of the Gift” directly addresses the purpose and mission of Catholic universities, blending a defense of the liberal arts with the sustenance of the Gospel message and the need to treat Church teaching on educational matters seriously (including a not-so-subtle nod to the document Ex Corde Ecclesiae ):

The Holy Father showed a somber realism, though, when he expanded that need to include “ . . . ecclesial communion and solidarity in the Church’s educational apostolate, becoming all the more evident when we consider the confusion created by instances of apparent dissidence between some representatives of Catholic institutions and the Church’s pastoral leadership . . . ”

Is not a big part of our gladness and pride this happy morning of graduation a grateful recognition that this university does indeed exude such “ecclesial communion and solidarity?” That this university is bothCatholic and American, flowing from the most noble ideals of truth and respect for human dignity that are at the heart of our Church and our country? That a university’s genuine greatness comes not from pursuing what is most chic, recent, or faddish, but what is most timeless, true, good, and beautiful in creation and creatures? That the true goal of a university is to prepare a student not only for a career but for fullness of life here and in eternity?

Some might wonder if Pope Benedict’s description of a university is way too impractical; if a university can be really Catholic and American; if the genuine freedom a university demands can flourish on a campus whose very definition includes a loyalty to Holy Mother Church . . . well, to them I say, as you and I did, “Let them come to Brookland!” This university you can now, with me, call alma mater, at the heart of our nation, is also ex corde ecclesiae, at the heart of the Church. For that I am most proud.

While some of the praise for CUA is simply due to it being Dolan’s alma mater , there’s also an unmistakable subtext of counter-argument against other recent Catholic commencement controversies. Specifically, the night-and-day contrast of Dolan’s place of honor here with Kathleen Sebelius’ presence at a certain other nearby university makes it all the more remarkable.