...the University's present and future greatness must build upon continuous renewal and ever-expanding application of Catholic Social Teachings, the teachings of Vatican Council II, and the great Social Encyclicals.

A strong sense of déjà vu emerges from my reflections upon the Papal Exhortation, Ecclesia in America, which instructs: "Faced with grave social problems which, with different characteristics, are present throughout America, Catholics know that they can find in the Church's social doctrine an answer which serves as a starting point in the search for practical solutions…It is therefore important 'that in America the agents of evangelization (Bishops, priests, teachers, pastoral workers, etc.) make their own this treasure which is the Church's social teaching and, inspired by it, become capable of interpreting the present situation and determine the actions to take'…In addition, it will help to promote and support the study of this doctrine in every area of the life of the particular churches in America, especially in the universities, so that it may be more deeply known and applied to American society.

The Holy Father's instruction closely parallels my empirical observations and my experentially-based conclusions, formed throughout my 52 years as a Holy Cross Priest and my 61 years of continuous association with the University of Notre Dame. Foremost among these is my conviction that the University's present and future greatness must build upon continuous renewal and ever-expanding application of Catholic Social Teachings, the teachings of Vatican Council II, and the great Social Encyclicals. I am certain beyond doubt that Notre Dame can best serve its students, the Church, and the Church's earthly mission by vigorously seeking what Cardinal Raúl Silva termed "new lights of what the Church and the world is asking of us at this time."

The crucial need to foster social justice in all sectors of human life is a major thrust of my most recent book, The Future of Our Past: The Rev. Robert S. Pelton's Life and Vision of Notre Dame in the New Millennium. (Diamond Communications, 2001). The book is dedicated to the memory of Archbishop Marcos McGrath, C.S.C., one of the foremost proponents of social justice values in the Americas. The title is a reflection of my belief that a blueprint for the cutting-edge Christianity needed in our complex and rapidly-changing 21st century world can be found in the eternal truths that Jesus Christ revealed to his followers at the dawn of Christianity.

As we know from Scripture, those first Christians recognized the quest for social and economic justice in daily life to be immutable obligations for Christians as well as essential elements of their devotion to God. Nearly two thousand years later, the monumental Social Encyclicals of Popes Leo XIII, Pius XI, John XXIII, and Paul VI powerfully reaffirmed as Christian duty the quest for theologically-based social, political, and economic justice within temporal society. Nevertheless, many American Catholics seemed to lose this social vision during the early decades of the 20th century. Many lay persons were then compartmentalizing their faith, turning to more solitary forms of discipleship, and isolating Christianity from daily life. Most of the clergy of the time were products of a scholastic and deductive seminary formation that was preoccupied with order, hierarchy, and a piety so narrowly devotional as to become almost abstract. Such was the essential nature of my own formation at the Moreau Seminary and St. Joseph Novitiate of the mid-1940s. Unfortunately, all too many Christians--both religious and lay--regarded social, political, and economic injustices as "worldly" matters that lay outside the proper sphere of Christian thought and action.

Although this was the predominant view of the late 1930s and early 1940s, I was privileged to arrive at Notre Dame at a time when Father (later Archbishop) John O'Hara, CSC, Father Louis J. Putz, CSC, and a group of other priests and lay leaders at Notre Dame were vigorously questioning the adequacy of such a faith. By founding the Young Christian Students, the Christian Family Movement, Catholic Worker chapters, community outreach programs, and countless other Catholic Action groups, these visionary leaders both challenged and empowered faithful laypersons to infuse Christian values and Christian compassion throughout all areas of daily life. Their efforts were fostered by Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, who consistently initiated, strengthened, and defended Notre Dame's social mission throughout his 35-year presidency of the University, and by Father Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., who continues to build upon and extend this vision.

Eight years of mission in Chile gave me daily demonstrations of the inherent power of unity between spiritual and secular life, and of the profoundly powerful results such unity can generate. By the mid-1960s, the Latin American Church had already become the world leader in implementing Conciliar themes. Cardinals Raúl Silva and Paulo Evaristo Arns, Archbishop Marcos McGrath, Bishop Manuel Larrain, Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, and dozens of other visionaries were transforming their Church and their continent with their vision of Church built upon theological, pastoral, and social foundations.

Serving as Episcopal Vicar for Religious Institutes within the Archdiocese of Santiago, I was privileged to coordinate Cardinal Silva's Gran Misión--a comprehensive pastoral program for the million destitute people who lived in Santiago's shantytowns, alleys, and garbage dumps. Although Chile enjoyed one of the highest per capita incomes in Latin America, gross inequities in the economic system condemned 45% of the city's adults and 60% of its children to malnutrition; 70% of the population did not receive even the most rudimentary health care; 56 out of every 100 children died before their fifth birthday.

I was astonished by what these people were putting up with, by the depths of their belief, and by the ways that their belief was nourished by strong pastoral leadership. That leadership took many innovative forms, but the foremost pastoral priority was given to basic ecclesial communities that met the most pressing medical, nutritional, economic, educational, and social--as well as spiritual--needs of each community.

With steadfast support from the Archdiocese, the grassroots communities offered not only survival but also hope for better lives and the knowledge that they are entitled to God-given human rights and human dignity. These seemingly self-evident truths were revelations to people who had been systematically starved, beaten, and propagandized until they regarded themselves as powerless and worthless.

Notre Dame's links to this "new way of being Church" extend in both directions. Many of South and Central America's foremost theologians, pastoral leaders, and scholars come to Notre Dame to help the University clarify and revitalize its role within the Church through conferences and research projects sponsored by the Helen Kellogg Center for International Studies, LANACC, and other Notre Dame institutes. The visiting clergy and scholars are, of course, given access to the University's vast wealth of information, opinion, and research data in fields such as economics, political science, theology, science, arts, and other disciplines that they believe will be helpful in their home parishes.

The annual Archbishop Oscar Romero Series is another example of the University's commitment and pro-active initiative. Sponsored annually by Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Latin American/North American Church Concerns, this series of lectures and prayer services seeks to preserve and promulgate the vision, courage, and faith of the Salvadoran martyr who was assassinated by a right-wing death squad while presiding at Mass in a hospital chapel. Archbishop Romero refused to allow death threats to silence his powerful advocacy of God's laws or his defense of the human rights of the oppressed and the suffering. We are determined that not even death shall silence his testimony. The 22nd annual Romero Lecture will be held in the auditorium of the Hesburgh Center on March 19, 2002. The 2003 lecture is scheduled for March 25.

The foregoing comprise only representative examples of Notre Dame's commitment to social mission within the 21st century Church and world. Any attempt to fully portray--or even to outline--the entire range of current and proposed initiatives would far outstrip the space available to us. Suffice it to say that for more than a quarter of a century I have seen the very old/very new principles of social-minded pastoral leadership being embraced throughout Notre Dame--by my fellow Religious in the Clergy Institute; by the Center for Social Concerns; by the staff and students of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Studies and those of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies; and within numerous other institutes and departments that are studying the religious-ethical-social ramifications of the global economy, indigenous peoples, militarism, business ethics, labor and wage issues, institutionalized corruption, and other crucial socio-economic issues at home and abroad. It is through just such works, I am convinced, that Notre Dame can remain "the place where the American Church does much of its best thinking" and the venue by which it can be of greatest service to God and to humankind.

In the Afterword to The Future of Our Past, Father Edward L. Cleary, O.P., writes: "The most remarkable change in the Catholic Church in the last century was the rediscovery of its social missions. So, too, the University of Notre Dame…no other university in the United States may be as well positioned as Notre Dame to contribute to the social mission of the Church: justice, peace, and human rights."

Let us pray that his prediction is correct, and let us never stop striving to make it so.