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Gulf Pine Catholic
•
June 3, 2016
Musician, actor, cardinals, lawyer address U.S.
Catholic college graduates
BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Speakers at commence-
ment exercises at U.S. Catholic colleges and universi-
ties this year ranged from musician and composer Harry
Connick Jr. and actor of stage and screen Mahershala
Ali to cardinals and bishops and a former college presi-
dent.
As commencement speaker at Loyola University
New Orleans May 20, Connick both regaled crowds
and drew upon his multifaceted career and his Catholic
upbringing as he shared advice for a meaningful and
successful life beyond graduation.
“If you work and pay attention to the smallest de-
tails of your work, your relationships, your faith, you’ll
find that over time, you will have created a lot of great
things -- things of worth, things of substance and qual-
ity,” he told the graduates.
Connick, a native son of New Orleans, received an
honorary doctorate of music from Loyola.
In his commencement address he cited the phi-
losophies of Pope Francis, the Jesuits and St. Ignatius
Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. With self-deprecat-
ing humor, he also drew upon his career as a musician,
actor and entertainer, referencing family life, his up-
bringing in the Crescent City and past work on the film
“Dolphin Tale”
and TV shows
“Will and Grace”
and
“American Idol.”
His philanthropy work includes his efforts on Musi-
cians’ Village in the city’s Ninth Ward, the hardest hit
by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He founded the village
with fellow New Orleans native and musician Branford
Marsalis in the aftermath of the storm.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, New York,
addressed graduates of Vincentian-run St. John’s Uni-
versity May 22.
He spoke about the immigration issue in the United
States. The bishop also received the President’s Medal,
the university’s highest honor, during the ceremony on
the campus in the borough of Queens.
“I find the topic of immigration to be truly important
to the church and to the world,” said Bishop DiMarzio.
“This topic is very appropriate here at St. John’s be-
cause you have a very high percentage of immigrants
and children of immigrants here and you’re in Queens,
N.Y., one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the
United States.
“The immigrants of our diocese seem to live in har-
mony much like the situation here on this campus,” he
continued. “St. Vincent de Paul, the founder of the Vin-
centian (order), has educated you with a special mis-
sion to serve the poor and the downcast. You are our
educated future leaders and it is our hope that you can
make the same choice (as St. Vincent) as you leave St.
John’s.”
Across the country at St. Mary’s College in Mora-
ga, California, graduates heard from alum Mahershala
Ali, who currently stars in the award-winning Netflix
original series
“House of Cards.”
His other roles have
included playing the head of security in last fall’s
“The
Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2.”
He offered graduates advice about the power of per-
severance, patience and prayer in their lives after col-
lege. He told them they would need all three to truly
pursue their dreams.
“We are simply the culmination of our actions and
the seeds of our actions are our thoughts,” Ali said May
21. “We have a responsibility to our spirit and I feed and
clothe mine through prayer and meditation, cultivating
a relationship with the divine source of guidance, the
majestic dance of call and response.”
“You have the capacity to leave a lasting impact and
indelible impression upon this world as evidenced by
this day, your right of passage,” he told the graduates.
“Claim the sacred spaces of your minds; nurture and
cultivate a vision of fulfillment; and move toward that
destiny with patience, perseverance, and prayer.”
In Atchison, Kansas, New York Cardinal Timothy
M. Dolan called on graduates at Benedictine College
May 14 to “dream and dare” to make a difference in
difficult circumstances.
“Four years ago you made a very significant choice,”
he said. “You took a dream and a dare to entrust your
future to a college that believes, contrary to the reigning
ideology of our country, that faith and reason are hardly
foes but allies, that allegiance to Jesus and his church
actually liberates one for greatness.”
Cardinal Dolan, who received an honorary degree
from the college, said he has seen the possibilities of a
Benedictine College education in a student he met in a
refugee camp in Iraq.
The camp was filled with “refugees your own age
who had lost families and homes and careers and pos-
sessions -- everything but their faith and that thirst for
learning that gives them hope in a terrain blotched by
international bullies, by bombs and blood,” he said.
“And there is Josh Radick, your fellow alumnus, smack
dab in the middle of all that.”
He called all the students to be like Josh, following
“the call to greatness he sensed on this campus.”
In Ohio, Laura M. Meeks, the former president of
Eastern Gateway Community College in Steubenville,
delivered the keynote address at Franciscan University’s
science commencement ceremony May 14. She also re-
ceived an honorary doctorate of educational leadership
for her work in higher education and her contributions
to the local community.
“I’m going to make a case,” she said, “that this class
is the most special class of Franciscan University.”
She noted that the class was graduating during the
Year of Mercy and in the same year Blessed Teresa of
Kolakata will be canonized (Sept. 4). Meeks referenced
Pope Francis’ U.S. trip last September, as the students
were in their last year of college.
Meeks also noted the March 27 death of Mother An-
gelica, foundress of the
Eternal Word Television Net-
work
, whom she called a model of work and prayer.
“You must pray and put your life in God’s hand,”
she said. “Your rock is Jesus. You know what Jesus
would do, so I say do it.”
At the university’s arts commencement exercises,
Paul M. “Mickey” Pohl, a former member of Francis-
can University’s board of trustees, received an honor-
ary doctorate of Christian ethics for his work defending
religious freedom.
SEE CATHOLIC COMMENCEMENTS
ROUNDUP, PAGE 23
Graduates celebrate during The Catholic University
of America’s 127th annual commencement May 14
outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington.
CNS/Dana
Rene Bowler, CUA
John Garvey,
president of
The Catholic
University
of America,
speaks during
the university’s
127th annual
commencement
May 14 outside
the Basilica of
the National
Shrine of the
Immaculate
Conception in
Washington.
CNS/Dana Rene
Bowler, CUA
