Commonweal Dinner 2024

October 28, 2024

I am just Catholic enough to believe very little of the praise in that introduction Tim, but I will try the rest of my life to live up to it. 

I am enormously grateful to Commonweal, and all of you here who make it possible. Commonweal embodies the best of the Catholic intellectual tradition, asking critical questions, pushing on assumptions, and seeking truth – for a century. Commonweal decried the evils of Hitler long before most could see the shocking truth. Commonweal bravely called out the dangerous antics of Senator Joe McCarthy, a Catholic beloved by many, knowing that McCarthy would turn on them as a result. 

And Commonweal continues to lovingly push our Church. To read the signs of the times. To keep striving towards the truth of the Gospel. 

Commonweal helped pave the way for someone like me to lead Fordham. To help us all understand that we need lay people to carry the mission of our institutions – because it has never been true that religious men and women can carry mission alone. Commonweal has helped teach lay people to take up this responsibility, this privilege, with our hearts, minds, and spirits. 

Everything I have managed to achieve – the good parts anyways – has been because of the Church. Not just the incense and the hierarchy, though I love the majesty of both, but the people of the Church. The ways I have been taught in a community of faith. 

First and foremost, by my parents. 

My mom is a biblical scholar who carefully showed me how much attention and respect Jesus gave to women. She made me feel included in my faith. My mom would be here holding court tonight, except that at 83, she just got her knee replaced and is working on final proofs on her latest book. But she says hello to her many friends in this room. 

My father is here in spirit. Tim, he would be very grateful for your introduction but would worry that it wasn’t effusive enough. My dad taught me the Jesuit way of proceeding from birth, with flashcards. He modeled the Beatitudes, buying massive packs of umbrellas at Costco so he could give them out to people caught in the rain. He fumed about Catholics willing to ignore the literal messages of the Gospel, joking that they “think Jesus was just kidding.”

His brother – my uncle Joe – has been the blessing of my life. So many of you know him personally through his beautiful writing on Ignatian spirituality. He exudes a combination of intellect, wisdom, and love. And today is his 94th birthday. 

They taught me that faith and reason are forever intertwined. That God wired us to take such pleasure in being good. And that when you are blessed with gifts, you have an obligation to use them as best you can – even when the work is daunting. 

I have learned those lessons even more from my own family, especially my kids. When my daughter Lucy was little, she once climbed in my arms and said, “Mommy, I love you as much as God loves you.” It took my breath away. 

There is such power gathered in this room. I have so many colleagues here tonight who are – or have been – presidents of Catholic, especially Jesuit universities. We have our private prayer circles, lifting each other up in this difficult work, reminding ourselves of the privilege of doing so. We spend our days veering between drowning in affirmation and being pilloried—none of it goes to our heads. I couldn’t do it without you.  

Most of all, my Fordham family. You talked me into uprooting my life and embarking on this crazy adventure, and I have loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute. I thank our brilliant faculty and loving staff. So many of you came to Fordham as 18-year-olds and fell in love with our mission. I’m biased, but we have the most beautiful campus in the world. 

So many of you were in the first generation in your family to go to college. You fell in love with the practical lessons learned in your philosophy and theology classes. You’ve obtained careers of purpose and modeled for us what it means to have careers of integrity and purpose. You now help us build entities like Fordham and Commonweal in these full-circle moments where we celebrate truth and the work God has called us to do. Thank you.