On the 50th Anniversary of the University of San Diego
From the very beginning of his ministry as the first bishop of San Diego, Bishop Charles Francis Buddy envisioned the founding of a Catholic university. In letters to Mother Rosalie Hill, he encouraged the Society of the Sacred Heart to join him in his dream.
This parallels what happened in the earliest days of the American Republic when Archbishop John Carroll, the first bishop of Baltimore, encouraged the teaching vocation of St. Elizabeth Seton who then founded this nation's first Catholic college. Consequently, for more than 200 years, American Catholic colleges and universities have been instrumental in educating successive generations: promoting respect for the human person, developing the moral character of their students and witnessing to the Christian message as proclaimed by the Catholic Church. For the past 50 years, the University of San Diego has been part of this tradition.
Now in the beginning of the third Christian millennium, USD stands poised to play an increasingly significant role in Catholic higher education. To do so, and so to realize the dream of its founders, USD must remain faithful to its roots, to its mission: to educate in the truth, for genuine freedom and evangelical love.
In one of his addresses to U. S. bishops, Pope John Paul II had this to say: “The greatest challenge to Catholic education in the United States today, and the greatest contribution that authentic Catholic education can make to American culture, is to restore to that culture the conviction that human beings can grasp the truth of things, and that in grasping that truth they can know their duties, to God, to themselves and to their neighbors.”
We must also remember with gratitude not only those who dreamt the dream of USD but all who have made the sacrifices to make the dream a reality. In the Diocese of San Diego, monthly contributions were expected from all the parishes and for the sake of USD, other parts of the total mission of the Church had to wait. At the same time, Religious of the Sacred Heart were willing to make sacrifices for a long-term commitment to what would become USD even as their fiscal and personnel resources were stretched thin because of their other worthy educational endeavors.
The tradition of Catholic involvement in colleges and universities, which goes back almost a thousand years to places like Alcalá and Padua, is now more firmly established in our country than anywhere else in the world. Today, as in the past, to belong to a university community is to stand at the crossroads of cultures which shape the future cultures which need the influence of education " of wisdom, understanding, right judgment and courage " if there is to be a future filled with hope. In this context, however, there are contemporary challenges particularly for our Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. We live at a time when knowledge is often thought to be fragmentary and never absolute, and so we look to our Catholic colleges and universities " we look to USD " to uphold the objectivity and coherence of knowledge. We look to our Catholic colleges and universities " we look to USD " to be in the forefront of a new dialogue between the empirical sciences and the truths of faith, between business and ethics, between technology and morality.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the University of San Diego, we salute the founders, faculty, staff, alumni and benefactors who have brought USD to where it is today. This is also a time of commitment to the future " a commitment to provide the new insights, energy and resources necessary to accomplish at USD the mission of Catholic higher education. For this we add our prayer toward a future filled with hope for ourselves and our children and our children's children.
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