House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the nation’s most powerful Catholics, but this year the only commencement address she gave was at one of the eight campuses of Miami Dade College.
Senator John F. Kerry is headlining three commencements this year – the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, UMass Lowell, and Wheelock College – but it’s been nine years since he’s done one at a Catholic institution, Boston College Law School.
As for the scion of the nation’s most famous Catholic family, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, his major commencement address this year is at Wesleyan University, founded by Methodists.
After repeatedly getting criticized by conservative Catholics, and after years of pressure from the Vatican and some American bishops, Catholic colleges and universities are now shying away from politicians – especially those who, like Kennedy, Kerry, and Pelosi, support abortion rights – as commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients.
Instead, the schools are scrutinizing the public records of potential honorees for evidence of open dissent from key church teachings, especially on abortion, and they are choosing noncontroversial church insiders or nonpolitical figures for their most prominent honors. “I think there’s a concerted effort to use the moment of naming people who reinforce the Catholic identity of our institutions, and I’m pleased by that,” Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston said in an interview.
I think a better headline would have been “Catholic Colleges Avoid Honoring Obstinate Supporters of Grave Sin”, but whatever.
Good.
Good for them. This is still a free society (I think), and people and institutions are still free to exercise their First Amendment rights (I think), unless you are an orthodox clergy member in TEC.
This trend is very welcome. Every step in the direction of affirming and strengthening the distinctively Christian and Catholic identity of Catholic college and universities is to be praised. For too long the tide was running the other direction.
But this is a baby step. Although it’s an important symbolic step, the bigger and much more important challenges have to do with hiring committed Catholic faculty and fostering forms of community/campus life in keeping with authentic Catholic norms.
Thus, for instance, my alma mater, a very Protestant institution, the evaneglical bastion, Wheaton College, recently had a dearly loved and much esteemed English professor resign because he and was wife are going through a divorce. And even though Dr. Kent Gramm has tenure and has taught at Wheaton for about 20 years, the college sadly let him go because he had clearly violated one of the moral principles that faculty there are required to uphold.
Alas, most RC colleges seem to blink at such offenses nowadays.
But again, I welcome this development. I hope it’s the beginning of further moves to strengthen the distinctively Catholic nature of Catholic schools.
As Kendall would say, this is part of the necessary process of “differentiation.” In this case, differentiation from the surrounding culture, or Catholics who fail to practice the Catholic way of life.
David Handy+
As a former faculty member at a Catholic liberal arts college, I applaud this development. I really wearied of the endless parade of politicians, Republican and Democrat, our college would decide to honor. The only one who stood out was the late VP Hubert Humphrey who threw away his prepared speech and spoke for an hour to the students and the families about how precious a good liberal arts education was- he delivered the address six months before he died. It came with from his heart, and his passion was something to behold. And not a word about the contemporary political situation, or his favorite programs, or whatever it is politicians tend to blather on about. He was the pharmacist’s son who had the chance to go to college during the depression and he told us how that changed his life. It was by far and away the most powerful commencement address I have ever heard. He spoke directly to the values and commitment we had at that college.
The college also chose to honor certain Catholics whose business practices evidenced more of the behavior robber barons and the larcenous CEO. I think especially of the Chairman of WR Grace whose companies polluted the cities in which they were located and were the subject of lawsuits because they were identified as irresponsible corporate citizens. Mr. Grace was given an honorary degree because he had a lot of money and shared with the college president the “distinction” of being a member of the Knights of Malta.
Rarely did the college honor as its commencement speaker someone whose life and work reflected the teaching and example of the Head of the Church. In a cynical and corrupt time, young people need to meet the real heroes of our day – countercultural people who show what a lived Christian faith can do and does. Few if any contemporary politicians and business persons meet the test.