Archbishop for the Military Services, USA and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Timothy Broglio was the principal celebrant and homilist. The concelebrants included:
The Mass seeks the guidance and blessings of the Holy Spirit for the university community, including students, faculty, and staff, as they embark on their educational journey. During the homily, Archbishop Broglio spoke of how the University highlights the complementarity of knowledge and faith in a mission unique in our nation.
“Our faith is authentic when it embraces our whole life, when it becomes the criterion for our decisions, when it makes us women and men committed to doing what is right and willing to take risks out of love,” said Archbishop Broglio.
The Catholic University of America, as the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States, is the only institution in the country with ecclesiastical faculties granting canonical degrees in three disciplines: canon law, philosophy, and theology. During the Conferral of Canonical Authorization, David Patrick Long of the School of Canon Law was granted the authority to teach on behalf of the Catholic Church.
University President Peter Kilpatrick gave remarks after Mass where he shared how the liturgy is an expression of the community’s commitment to living out the spirit of the Gospel. He encouraged all those in attendance to pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
“I urge you all at the beginning of this academic year to think about these fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit that we all want and all need to become the persons who God wants us to be,” said President Kilpatrick.
Take a deeper dive into the meaning of the Mass of the Holy Spirit at The Catholic University of America:
In 1941, our alumnus Venerable Fulton J. Sheen published A Declaration of Dependence. With prophetic clarity, Sheen’s Declaration helps us see that the founders’ claims about the “self-evident” fact that we have all been created by God rests upon a tradition that preceded them by 18 centuries. This role is one our Church has continuously played in the American drama.
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