Christendom College, a Catholic higher education institution in Virginia, honored Archbishop Charles Brown, the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, during its Commencement ceremony last week.
Archbishop Brown also celebrated the Baccalaureate Mass the day before and received an honorary doctorate before addressing graduates at the Commencement Ceremony.
During his address, Archbishop Brown remarked on the “plurality of vocations” at the Catholic college, saying that it was one of its “truly beautiful and remarkable strengths.”
“Christendom graduates have followed the Lord and lived lives of holiness as priests, religious, sisters, monks, and brothers, and as holy married people. The extraordinary richness of this variety of vocations from Christendom is an eloquent proof of the deeply Catholic and truly Catholic character of this college. And of that, all of you—especially the class of 2013—can be justifiably very proud,” Archbishop Brown said.
The papal nuncio to Ireland warned students that they are entering “a world which more than ever is drifting aimlessly on a sea of relativism, while at the same time being convulsed with spasms of anger directed at traditional moral values.” However, Archbishop Brown reminded the graduates that proclaiming that truth does exist and is the solution to many of the problems in this world.
“Indeed it even seems redundant for us to even mention this to you to today,” the archbishop said. “Because the greatness and lasting value of your education at Christendom has been premised precisely on this fact—that there is such a thing as truth. And that truth and the search for truth is worth everything.”
Concluding his address, the American prelate called on graduates to always seek the truth and give witness to it in their lives.
“Your years at Christendom have given you an unparalleled preparation for living your faith in our contemporary world,” he said. “By loving the truth and living the truth, you will have an effect on everyone you come in contact with—an effect that is accomplished simply by living and not necessarily always by preaching.”
