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Posted Saturday, May 24, 2003
Senator Santorum Tells Christendom Grads to Rebel,
Cardinal Dulles Recieves Honorary Degree
"We need to summon the moral strength to create a civilization of peace, and justice, and of course, of love," said United States Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) to Christendom College's graduating class of 2003, the largest in the college's 25 year history. "This is where you come in. I believe of all the great gifts God has given to the young, the greatest of these are energy, idealism, and rebelliousness. I want to challenge each and every one of you to be a radical, to be a rebel, to rebel against the popular culture. Your task will not be an easy one. You must overcome the temptation of silence."
On May 17, during the graduation ceremony, Christendom College President Dr. Timothy O'Donnell awarded the college's Pro Deo et Patria Medal for Distinguished Service to God and Country, to Senator Santorum. after which he delivered the Commencement Address (excerpts from this address below). The audience interrupted the senator's speech three times with standing ovations.
In his address, Senator Santorum alluded to his recent remarks supporting the Texas law prohibiting homosexual "marriage", which occasioned attacks and accusation s of "hate speech". (About 100 students walked out before his address on Sunday, May 18, at St. Joseph's Commencement in Philadelphia.)
Cardinal Avery Dulles received an honorary doctorate from Christendom College. In his acceptance speech, Cardinal Dulles gave a brief summary of his own spiritual odyssey. , A convert to Catholicism at age 22, he later became a Jesuit, and for many years taught theology at Fordham University.
"With Vatican II I entered upon my period of relative maturity", he said. "That Council has been the point of reference for most of my subsequent work. Unlike some others, I had no difficulty accepting the teaching of the Council, which seemed to me to be legitimate and even necessary. But I believe there was one flawan Achilles heel, so to speakin the Council documents. Out of a desire to please all parties, the Fathers were reluctant to reject or condemn anything or anyone. Thus the documents were left vague and open-ended, so that liberal reformers were later able to put a progressive spin on them, following what they saw as the spirit of the Council. Whenever the Holy See has tried to restrain these exaggerated interpretations, it has been attacked as reactionary. But we must thank God that he popes have not allowed the substance of Catholicism to be eroded by irresponsible innovations".
Christendom College web site story: http://. www.christendom.edu/news/releases.shtml#grad
Senator Rick Santorum
Commencemet Address at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, on May 17, 2003.
Complete text: http://www.christendom.edu/news/ricksantorum.shtml
I celebrate this commencement because I have the confidence that the intellectual and moral virtues which you've developed here at Christendom have truly prepared you to take up this great cause. I've now just used a word fraught with controversy in America today: virtue.
The fact that this word can scarcely be spoken in public without inviting sarcastic incrimination from many circles is an excellent measure of the challenge you and we all face in our country today.
I was reminded of this in a very personal way several weeks ago. Both activists within and outside of the press distorted an interview that I gave on a recent Supreme Court case. Yet in my remarks on this particular case, I tried to articulate the nature of marriage, the good of marriage. In a few short sentences, I tried to summarize the considerations of philosophies working in tradition stretching back to at least Aristotle, the tradition of natural law. The natural law tradition is not a religious tradition, in the sense that it is based on Divine Revelation. Rather, it's a tradition of philosophical reflection, on the nature of human beings, the kind of creatures we are. The natural law represents guideposts which direct us to the pursuits of happiness, for happiness is the end which natural law has in mind for all of us.
Yet now, the very act of referring to this tradition, of upholding it, or dare say, making any defense of the moral consensus of every civilization in human history, is often characterized as "hate speech."
What is truly regrettable is that the situation is the worst in the very place where this discussion was centered for hundreds of years: the university. Where are the cries from those one-time centers of the pursuit of truth? The tolerance, the diversity when it comes to ideas? Or when it comes to taking the side of the traditional family? This is an especially serious battle for Catholics. Our social teaching holds that the family is the fundamental unit of our society, not the individual, not the group, not the collective. No, the foundational unit which Catholic social teaching is based is the family.
For many generations, Catholics were viewed with suspicion in America. For Catholics in America, my family included, the breakthrough came with the election of the presidency of John F. Kennedy. But at what price did we earn this break? President Kennedy promised that his faith would have no affect, would have NO affect, on his decisions as President. In effect, what he was saying was that his decisions would be unguided by his conscience. Only now, two generations later, all Americans of faith see how grave, grave a price was paid. For now our popular culture discourages religion and moral convictions from even being discussed in the public square.
Our founders feared the establishment of a religion. What we are left with today is an establishment of moral nihilism. Not surprisingly, our government, being of the people, is following suit. While much of our culture is removing moral guideposts, so too is the government. With this I have no dispute. We are a representative democracy and eventually the collective conscience of the popular culture is going to be reflective in our laws. My concern is the usurpation of the United States Supreme Court, by the United States Supreme Court, of the people's rights, through their elected representatives, to decide these crucial moral issues and the resulting dulling of our collective consciousness and that this vital debate of who we are and what we're about is being moved from the living rooms of America to the court room.
A lack of focus and clarity about the larger aims of life and about the larger aims of our country's institutions is never dulling. This is especially true in the world since September 11, 2001. We need to summon the moral strength to create a civilization of peace, and justice, and, of course, love. Now this is where you come in. I believe of all the great gifts God has given to the young, the greatest of these are energy, idealism, and rebelliousness (that's your parents laughing). As we have seen, these gifts, like all gifts, can be used for good or for evil. And as we've seen over the past thirty years, they can be used, shall we say, sparingly by our young people. I want to challenge each and every one of you to be a radical, to be a rebel, to rebel against the popular culture. Your task will not be an easy one. You must overcome the temptation of silence.
