A
meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and University President Father
John Jenkins, CSC, highlighted the week-long February 2006 Board
of Trustees meetings in Rome.
The pope descended the stairs of the Vatican auditorium stage
after his February 1 papal address to greet Jenkins, who was seated
dead center in the front row of the audience.
"You're from Notre Dame," Benedict XVI said to Jenkins, clasping
Jenkins' right hand between his two hands. Jenkins said yes, and
the pope responded, "A great Catholic university."
"I asked him, 'Keep us in your prayers,'" Jenkins said, recounting
the conversation for this reporter, who was covering events in
Rome for Notre Dame's the student newspaper, The Observer.
Jenkins, Father Hugh Cleary, CSC, Holy Cross superior general,
and Father Carl Ebey, CSC, a trustee of the University, all bent
over to kiss the pope's ring.
"What you saw there . . . was prayerful, respectful," Ebey said.
"He focuses on you. He looks at you and talks to you. . . . He
knew who Father Jenkins was and greeted him."
The meeting lasted only about 30 seconds, but its significance
projected the moment into the larger history of important events
for the University.
Jenkins described the entire trip as a "pilgrimage." "You can't
walk around Rome without being struck by the layers of history,"
he said. "To be Catholic, as someone said, is to be Catholic in
space -- that means you're connected with people throughout the
world -- but also in time, a tradition that runs through centuries.
I think at a personal and spiritual level, to become more deeply
aware of that, is beneficial to us."
During the trip -- which ran from January 29 to February 3 --
Jenkins and University officers and trustees met with numerous
Vatican leaders, including Archbishop William Levada, prefect
of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Renato
Raffaele Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and the Peace; and Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation
for Divine Worship.
Jenkins said he hoped the trip would deepen the faith of the
officers and trustees and plant Notre Dame in the context of worldwide
Catholicism. "I see our trip here as connecting each of us with
the mission of the universal Church . . . [and] we have become
conscious of that, we understand our role in the universal Church."
That role was the focus of the academic conference and convocation
February 1. Jenkins, Rino Fisichella, auxiliary bishop of Rome,
and Daniel Jenky, CSC, Notre Dame trustee and bishop of Peoria,
Illinois, spoke on the "Contribution of Catholic Universities
to the Church and Culture."
Just one week earlier, Jenkins delivered three addresses at
Notre Dame on the interplay between academic freedom and Catholic
character. At the conference, he discussed a related subject --
"Notre Dame: A Catholic University within American Academe."
Catholic universities have a special role as intermediaries
between Church and culture to confront the "great and profound
questions of our time," Jenkins said. "If a Catholic university
is not engaging on the highest level the most pressing questions
of our age, we are not fulfilling our mission."
For this mission, Jenkins said, Catholic universities should
take a Thomas Aquinas-style approach to the discussion, first
seriously considering the contrary voices then attempting to resolve
the issue "in the best way one can in the light of Christian faith
and revelation."
It's important "to try to address and respond to questions and
contrary views in a manner that will speak to and help persuade
others," he said.
Fisichella spoke on the importance of training students in Catholic
universities to be "scientifically competent and fully professional."
"Our universities are called to bring about . . . an intelligent
search for the truth and its existence," he said.
Jenky delved into the history of Holy Cross schools and Congregation
founder Basil Anthony Moreau and said Catholic schools were in
a unique position to contribute to the world. "The world today
doesn't need more private schools. There are plenty of them out
there," he said. "But both the world and the Church need more
Catholic schools that remember their reason for existing."
At the end of the conference, Provost Thomas Burish awarded
honorary degrees to Fisichella and U.S. Ambassador to the Holy
See Frances Rooney III.
* * *
(April 2006)
