Archbishop Broglio’s Matriculation Remarks at Convocation 2024

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“Truth Exists, and We Are Challenged to Pursue Truth”

by the Most Rev. Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D.
Archbishop for the Military Services, U.S.A.
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Mass of the Holy Spirit
Convocation 2024
Thomas Aquinas College, California

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 1:7b).

Those words from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans seemed appropriate because he wrote the letter almost as an introduction to a community not evangelized by him and not known personally. To a certain extent, I also know about you only by reputation. I read recently that “only seven colleges and universities in the U.S. have earned an A+ for curricular strength, and two of them are Thomas Aquinas College”.

Fifty-four years ago when I began as a sophomore at Boston College, we did have a core curriculum, but I think that there were only six disciplines. Of course, I have no idea what is required now!

“I urge you to take advantage of the opportunities that you are offered.”

I urge you to take advantage of the opportunities that you are offered. Beginnings in the military are quite unique. If you enlist in the Marine Corps, they take away all your clothes and cell phones, and they shave the men’s heads. They want to form a corps, a new entity with a new spirit. The Naval Academy at Annapolis holds plebe summer, and the plebes are given silly-looking white uniforms, and the men’s heads are shaved to the point that they begin to look alike. The concept is the building of a new body which will be imbued with Navy traditions.

TAC has its own traditions — less radical, to be sure, but sending a strong message about the importance of a Catholic liberal arts education. I read with interest about your arrival last weekend. It is important to remember that you are building, as I said during my homily, on your baptismal dignity and the bulwark of your faith. To quote a very successful businessman: “Our Catholic schools need to be bastions of faith in the midst of our secular culture, and they need the support and leadership of each Catholic in the pew.”[1] Schools face strong headwinds, as we observed during the last academic year.

Recognize your potential and also the importance of your contribution to learning, to society, and to our world. I like to remind those I confirm that there are no spare parts in the Body of Christ. Everyone is important and everyone has something to contribute. That is how we build up the Church and, through that building, change society as a whole. Sometimes we are required to be firm and decided in our approach to the culture around us. Ours is not a time for the lukewarm.

St. John Henry Newman helps us to discover the strength we need to defend our faith in the face of opposition. He wrote about St. Benedict and monasticism in the West:

Saint Benedict … found the world, physical and social, in ruins, and his mission was to restore it in the way, not of science, but of nature … not professing to do it by any set time or by any rare specific or by any series of strokes, but so quietly, patiently, gradually … Silent men were observed about the country, or discovered in the forest, digging, clearing, and building; and other silent men, not seen, were sitting in the cold cloister, tiring their eyes, and keeping their attention on the stretch, while they painfully deciphered and copied and re-copied the manuscripts which they had saved. There was no one that “contended, or cried out,” or drew attention to what was going on; but by degrees the woody swamp became a hermitage, a religious house, a farm, an abbey, a village, a seminary, a school of learning, and a city.[2]

The sainted English author and cardinal also points out that frequently invaders came and destroyed the results of these painstaking years in an hour’s time, but that was not the end. The monks began anew and rebuilt what had been destroyed and advanced civilization. They did not take vengeance or remember evil, but renewed the place. The monks and nuns “were bright lights in an age of political chaos, cultural decay, unbridled violence, and the collapse of an empire.”[3]

They found their strength in their closeness to Almighty God, the Eucharist, and the daily rhythm of their lives. Allow me to reiterate my invitation to be diligent in your studies, to pursue excellence, and not to be afraid of the pressure to relativize everything. Truth exists, and we are challenged to pursue truth. The truth you learn will set you free.

Remember the warning of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the dean of the college of cardinals on the eve of the conclave that would elect him Bishop of Rome: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.”^[4]

He continued: “We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An ‘adult’ faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.”

“Allow me to reiterate my invitation to be diligent in your studies, to pursue excellence, and not to be afraid of the pressure to relativize everything.”

Admiral William McRaven had some good advice taken from his SEAL training in six-men crew boats off the coast of San Diego, which he gave to a graduating class at the University of Texas:

Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort, or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on the beach.

For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help — and to get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and [strong guidance].

If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.^[5]

In an academic setting, there are many to help you. Take advantage of all of the opportunities to grow, learn, and persevere.

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