Remarks of President Garvey
Mass of the Holy Spirit
Upper Church, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Sept. 8, 2016

Thank you, Cardinal Wuerl, for celebrating the Eucharist with us today and for recalling us to our missionary vocations as followers of Jesus Christ. Thank you Archbishop Christophe Pierre, for joining us. Be assured of our prayers as you embark on your service to our country. I’d like to thank our faculty and staff as well for their attendance. To our new students, welcome to campus. To our returning students, welcome back.

We begin each academic year with the Mass of the Holy Spirit to entrust our work to God’s care. It is also an opportunity to reflect more deeply on what we are doing at The Catholic University of America. We have a moment to look at the big picture before we become busy with the details of homework, term papers, and tests (whether grading them or taking them).

The Venerable Fulton Sheen was someone who gave a lot of thought to the nature and mission of The Catholic University. I don’t mean Catholic universities, generally. I mean this University.

Bishop Sheen was a nationally known figure in the fifties and sixties as a radio and television host. His series Life is Worth Living reached an estimated 30 million viewers each week. He beat out Lucille Ball to win the Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality in 1953.¹

Bishop Sheen was also a professor at Catholic University for 24 years. He taught theology and philosophy in McMahon 112. Writing about the role of the University in higher education, Sheen said that The Catholic University of America “is to education what the Catholic Church is to religion, namely, the leaven in the mass. The Church is not one of the sects; it is the unique life of Christ; the Catholic University is not one of the American Universities; it is their soul.”²

I like the analogy. I am not much of a cook or baker. One Thanksgiving I used powder sugar instead of flour to thicken the gravy. But I have a layman’s knowledge of how yeast makes dough rise. It metabolizes sugars in the dough and releases carbon dioxide, creating pockets of air throughout the dough.

The light of faith does something similar in our studies. It doesn’t replace our study of biology, literature, or history. It complements it and elevates what is already there.

At The Catholic University of America we aim to shine the light of faith on all forms of human inquiry. Our task, as Bishop Sheen put it, is to:³

Integrat[e] the supernatural with the natural, [to] infus[e] human knowledge with the divine, [to] complemen[t] our knowledge of things with our knowledge of God, [to] mak[e] all things Theocentric.

As the semester gets under way, our vision will narrow as we focus on the task at hand, whether it’s memorizing French verb endings or solving differential equations. But we are not here simply to memorize facts. We are here to cultivate catholic [with a small ‘c’] minds. That is, minds that integrate facts into an intelligent and meaningful vision of the whole of reality. To do that, we cultivate Catholic [with a capital ‘C’] minds. Because we believe that our faith, as it comes to us through the Church, clarifies our vision of reality.

The Mass of the Holy Spirit is a fitting time to remind ourselves of this. Because the Holy Spirit reveals God to us. Jesus calls him “the Spirit of Truth,”⁴ and St. Paul tells us that no one can say “Jesus is Lord” (that is, no one can profess the faith) except by the Holy Spirit.⁵ So as we begin this academic year let us pray that the Holy Spirit will instruct our hearts, so we may be truly wise.

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[1] http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/1953/most-outstanding-television-personality 
[2] “Episcopal Visiting Committee Exhibits,” Sheen to Gerald O’Hara, Washington (1935) from The Reorganization of the Catholic University of America during the Rectorship of James H. Ryan (1928–1935), The Catholic University of America, Ph.D., 1971) 255-257.
[3] Id.
[4] John 15:26
[5] 1 Corinthians 12:3