On May 17, 2025, University President Peter Kilpatrick shared the following remarks at Commencement.
Dear Catholic University of America Graduates,
I am delighted to be with all of you today, along with your parents, family, and friends, to congratulate you on your accomplishments and on your exciting future lives. You are as well prepared as anyone to go out into the world and proclaim the good news.
Given the events of this last week, please allow me to begin my remarks with a few thoughts from our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.
We should take note that Pope Leo began his pontificate with these beautiful words: “Peace be with all of you.” Our Holy Father understands well that the best way for you to live life to the very fullest, to be joyful and grateful, and to give of your very best selves to others in love and charity, is to be at peace. Peace within yourselves, peace with one another, and peace with the world.
And the peace which surpasses all understanding, as Pope Leo noted, is the peace that only the Risen Christ Himself can give you. On Friday following his election, Pope Leo noted in his homily at Mass with the Cardinals the morning following his election that once filled with this peace, you can then bring light to all the dark places of the world.
For you nurses, he knows you can bring light and healing to your suffering patients. For you business majors, he knows you can bring light and compassion to the world of finance, investing, management and accounting. For you politics majors, he knows you can bring light and harmony and graciousness to the world of government and policy making. For you lawyers and canonists, he knows you can bring light, justice, and order to the worlds of law and canon law. For all of you in science, engineering, the arts, social service, architecture, theology, philosophy, all of you, you can and should bring that light of Christ to everyone wherever you go.
And how will you all do this? First, by allowing the light of Christ into your own lives. St John Paul II of happy memory said many times that “a human person cannot know who they are apart from Jesus Christ.” You cannot know your purpose in life, your identity, or the souls that you have been called to reach and touch apart from knowing the Risen Lord who will reveal you to yourself, and, if you allow Him, He will give you that peace that will enable your success and happiness in life.
All the leadership experts of the last 50+ years (Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, Daniel Goleman, Pat Lencioni), all of them, will tell you that knowing yourself really well is the absolute essential building block in becoming a leader. These pundits will tell you that knowing yourself means knowing your strengths, your weaknesses, your virtues, your vices, your personality type, your preferences, and so on. And while all of that is valuable and important, the most important thing to know about yourself goes much deeper than any of that.
You are who you are because the God who created and sustains everything loves you personally and with a very tender love. Each and every one of you! Personally! And our God desires nothing less than that you should live your life with great joy and enthusiasm–to the very fullest–and to be His closest friend. This is the most important thing you could possibly know about yourself. That God has no agenda other than His tender love for you. So if you leave Catholic University with no other conviction, this knowledge will have made everything you have experienced here worth it.
So my dear graduates, my fervent wish for you is true and lasting peace and happiness. Make Jesus the very best friend in your life. Speak to Him each day with words of gratitude, praise, contrition, and supplication. He will give you His peace in every circumstance.
With the confidence that comes from knowing that you are greatly beloved of God, take the light that has been enkindled in you here at The Catholic University of America and go out into all the dark places of the world. Let the Lord shine through you to everyone you meet.
Here is some concrete advice about how to have Christ’s peace in your hearts. I have been very personally blessed in my time here at The Catholic University of America to know a remarkable scholar as a friend, Dr David Walsh. In fact, David served on the presidential search committee that identified and brought me here, and reading David’s works on political philosophy and human dignity was a factor in my deciding to accept the job. At his recent retirement celebration, David shared a beautiful meditation by St John Henry Newman, and I want to share an excerpt from it as an encouragement to each of you.
St John Henry Newman writes:
God knows me and calls me by my name. God has created me to do Him some definite service. Somehow I am necessary for His Purposes. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I will trust Him. If I am in sickness, then my sickness shall serve Him. If I am in perplexity, then my perplexity shall serve Him. If I am in sorrow, then my sorrow shall serve Him. Lord, Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see or to know – I ask simply to be used by God.
This is what our new Holy Father Pope Leo is asking of each of us. Namely, To trust God completely and to let His light shine through us into the dark places of the world. To be used by God. To be of some definite service. I promise you, with absolute certainty, that if you do this, you will receive that amazing peace of Christ which will make your lives full.
May God bless all of you and congratulations!
Peter Kilpatrick
President
The Catholic University of America
