Father Jonathan wrote this column in response to a story and editorial about Saint Anselm’s inclusiveness initiative, which were published in the New Hampshire Union Leader Nov. 10 and Nov. 13, respectively, and prompted many comments on the newspaper’s Web site. Father Jonathan’s column was published Nov. 14 and is available on the Union Leader Web site.
Because We Are Catholic
Every college or university has a founding story. Saint Anselm College does as well. Please come back in history with me to the latter part of the 19th century, more precisely to the year 1884. No, Saint Anselm was not founded that year, but the Diocese of Manchester was and its first bishop, Denis M. Bradley, was named to head the Catholic community throughout the state. Almost as soon as he became Bishop, Bradley stated that he wanted a Catholic college in his diocese, a bold move in a region of the country where only two other Catholic colleges existed, both in Massachusetts. Bishop Bradley had the task of leading the state’s Catholics, who were primarily of Franco-American and Irish heritage, though certainly other ethnic groups were represented in the Catholic population of the state.
One of Bishop Bradley’s keen insights was that if his flock were to flourish, they needed to be educated; and he realized that if one or other of the major ethnic groups controlled the new college, the other group would not appear. So he turned to a group of German Benedictines, themselves new immigrants to the United States, to found what has become Saint Anselm College. And he successfully managed to have the ethnic groups of his time set aside ill feelings and unite in support of an institution that would benefit all. His concern, and that of the Benedictine founders, was that students would receive an education as excellent as at any other college, and that they would do so in an environment that helped them to grow intellectually, personally, and spiritually so that they would be good citizens of our democracy.
And for the past 120 years Saint Anselm College has retold the founding story, has reflected on how faithful it is to the founders’ vision, and has taken up its work in every successive generation, attentive to the needs of the Church and society in a particular time.
Through a century of wars and financial crises, through waves of immigration and returning veterans, Saint Anselm College continued to grow and develop, responding sometimes to local need as in the case of the founding of the department of nursing in the early 1950s, sometimes to national need as in the case of the decision to admit women to its liberal arts programs in the 1970s.
Why has it done this? Why has it succeeded? Precisely because we are Catholic.
Today, we are asking ourselves if we still are as welcoming as we can and must be to students of different ethnic, racial, economic, geographic, or religious backgrounds. It is an effort that has been the subject of recent reporting and criticism in this newspaper.
Our Catholic roots, our long and continued commitment to being Catholic: this is what calls us to excellence and to openness. We are called to look around us, as the Benedictines have done throughout the world for a millennium and a half, and ask ourselves if we are faithful to the fundamental call we have received, if we are doing our work effectively in the place and society in which we find ourselves.
People may have wondered more than a century ago, why is Saint Anselm a place for both the French and the Irish? Are they qualified and capable? Or people may have wondered a half century ago why is Saint Anselm a place for women as well as men? Are they qualified and capable? Today some may wonder why is Saint Anselm a place for all God’s children, regardless of any distinguishing characteristic if they are qualified and capable? The answer is the same: because we are Catholic.
Today Saint Anselm is stronger than our founders could ever have imagined. It is so because it has been constantly faithful to its commitment to being Catholic and to being excellent. It will continue to do so in the 21st century as it prepares its students to live in a world so very different from that of our founders. To fail to recognize that world, to fail to educate for dialogue with all people, to fail to reach out to those who need the kind of education that Saint Anselm offers would be the ultimate infidelity to our Catholic identity.
At a recent meeting between Catholic and Muslim leaders hosted by Pope Benedict XVI these words appeared in the final statement: “Young people are the future of religious communities and of societies as a whole. Increasingly they will be living in multicultural and multireligious societies. It is essential that they be well formed in their own religious traditions and well informed about other cultures and religions.” If there is any place where that should take place it is in a Catholic college, it is at Saint Anselm College.
Why? Because we are Catholic.
Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B.
President, Saint Anselm College