CULTIVATING HOPE IN TROUBLED TIMES: CATHOLIC COLLEGES

[This from M. Cathleen Kaveny, Professor of Law and Theology at Notre Dame.]

Cultivating Hope in Troubled Times: Catholic Colleges

By: M. Cathleen Kaveny (Catholic News Service article)

"In these very troubled times in our church and in our world, each and every human being lives by hope. Each and every human being ... is waiting for hope," M. Cathleen Kaveny, professor of law and of theology at the University of Notre Dame, said in a speech in Baltimore Oct. 21. She spoke at the inauguration of Loyola College in Maryland's new president, Jesuit Father Brian Linnane. In discussing what hope is and what it entails, Kaveny told why she believes a Catholic college's most urgent task today is to nurture this virtue. "Hope is not to be equated with a sunny, cockeyed optimism. Hope does not pertain to easy or certain things," she said. Thus, hope requires hard work. And hope "is not solitary. The fulfillment of my hope frequently requires activity or assistance from others." Solidarity and imagination are needed to cultivate hope, she commented. Kaveny noted that two vices, according to Thomas Aquinas, are opposed to hope: presumption and despair; she related each to current concerns in higher education. For example, she said, in the context of discussions of intelligent design and evolution "presumption results in attempting to harmonize the truths of faith and the truths of reason too quickly so that all tension is dissolved here and now." She said, "The virtue of hope gives us the strength to be patient and to pursue knowledge confidently with integrity and humility. We don't need to know everything right now." Kaveny's text follows.

[To read Cathy's text, click here.]