Founders Day “Leo Lecture” Honors the University’s History and Future

The first Leo Lecture highlighted The Catholic University of America’s lasting role in the American experiment. The April 8 event, held during Founders Day week, honored the legacy of Pope Leo XIII, who chartered the University 139 years ago, and also offered space to reflect on 250 years since the United States was formed.   

The Heritage Hall panel, moderated by Seth Smith, vice dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, brought together University faculty from across disciplines to explore both the history and future of the institution, as a leading light for the nation. 

The University offers unique educational opportunities as the only institution in the country with three ecclesiastical faculties – philosophy, canon law, and theology – meaning that each school teaches in the name of the Catholic Church. Joseph Capizzi, dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies, and V. Bradley Lewis, dean of the School of Philosophy, shared how the complementarity of faith and reason advances academic excellence and student success. 

“(The University) is an institution that is committed to the whole truth,” said Lewis. “The big picture is a liberal education that is integrated with the highest science of theology and philosophy to give perspective” that shapes the hearts and minds with ancient wisdom to meet today’s challenges in all pursuits of inquiry and in all industries. 

“Today's question gets to the heart of our mission: what does it mean to be fully Catholic and fully American?"

Economist Catherine Pakaluk, executive director of The James Cardinal Gibbons Institute for Human Ecology, explained that the name of the University’s first chancellor name was added to the initiative she leads, in honor of his dedication to a holistic education for human flourishing. She said exposure to the Catholic intellectual tradition helps shape students in a comprehensive way and sets them up to contribute more fully as individuals in society. 

“Social sciences have their role, but they can become exhausted without a full concept of the human person,” said Pakaluk. “Some of the most interesting work you’re seeing in the social sciences around the country is not coming out of traditional, mainstream, secular academies, but rather at universities like this one.”  

In his opening remarks, University Vice President and Chief of Staff Larry Morris thanked the panelists and noted that such discussion highlights the "rigorous, faithful, and open inquiry that this institution was founded to pursue.”

“Catholic University was built to think, and the best way we know how to celebrate that is to do it,” said Morris, “Today's question gets to the heart of our mission: what does it mean to be fully Catholic and fully American? I can think of no better way to honor our founding or to prepare for the next 139 years” than such action-oriented conversations on the history and future of ​​the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States.