Human Greatness- One for the Ages
I write this at a troubling time in our nation's history. Since September 11, 2001, the circumstances surrounding our everyday lives have changed dramatically. Security is intense at our airports, seaports and border crossings. We've become all too familiar with a color-coded nationwide warning system. The war in Iraq has both galvanized support of our president and military and renewed calls for world peace. It may appear that we are a nation at odds, when in fact, we are blessed to be able to freely express our differences and remain one nation united under God.

While the United States is one of the youngest nations, our democracy is one of the oldest and most revered. Democracy puts our people and our government far ahead of societies that do not respect the fundamental dignity of all human persons nor welcome the free exchange of ideas. Democracy also places upon us a noble duty: to foster the responsible exchange of ideas that will always defend and advance that dignity. Thus, educating young people to continue this democracy is one of our highest callings.

At 25 years old, our college's Humanities Program has nurtured the free exchange of ideas as one of its founding principles. For that reason, the program remains resilient and especially relevant today.

This program's origins may be traced back to April 4, 1973, when then-Abbot (now Bishop) Joseph Gerry urged the faculty to embrace a new vision. "It is both the dignity and the duty of our profession as teachers to offer to the young people of our society the tools to search for and to make their own such enduring values as justice, freedom, virtue, beauty and truth."

"Democracy demands wisdom of the average (person)," he continued. "Without the exercise of wisdom, free institutions and personal liberty are inevitably imperiled. To know the best that has been thought and said in former times can make us freer and wiser than we otherwise might be, and in this respect, the humanities are not merely our greatest gift to students' minds, but the world's best hope."

The Portraits of Human Greatness who grace this magazine's cover remind us that the uncertainties and challenges we face today are not new to history. Rather, they are the ongoing work of securing human liberty and justice over tyranny and violence. They are the need to speak clear truth in the midst of moral confusion, the capacity to create masterpieces of artistic beauty even in a world of turmoil, and the courage to spend, risk or even offer one's life in pursuit of these endeavors.

Today we support and pray for the men and women of our military—especially our alumni, relatives, and friends of our Saint Anselm College community. We pray for peace to finally prevail, as Iraq rebuilds its government, its infrastructure and the physical health and moral dignity of its people.

At the same time, we persist in the noble work of teaching young people, heeding as we do Abbot Joseph's prophetic words: "The work of peace in the years to come will be more and more the work of wise men (and women) who can negotiate from a position of compassion and understanding. It is in the humanities that some of the roots of ignorance and evil—and thus the causes of war—are destroyed."

May God grant us all that grace.

Rev. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., President