(The following talk was given as the Commencement Address to Cardinal Kung Academy in Stamford, Connecticut on June 15, 2021.)

         …Mrs. Logsdail had asked me to speak about the merits of a classical education. In a certain way, I only learned about a classical education via negativa. I attended public school my entire life, and I grew to recognize over time the serious limitations of a public school education. 

         I discovered the merits of a classical education after I was ordained. I am proud to be the first pastor in the diocese to open a classical school curriculum at his parish, when in 2005, with the approval of Bishop Caggiano, I invited Anchor Academy to open its doors at Saint Mary Church in Norwalk. Some of you here today were also involved in that same project. 

         Furthermore, I am currently the chaplain at Thomas Aquinas College in Northfield, Massachusetts, one of the most successful “Great Books” programs in the country. Founded in 1971, Thomas Aquinas College is celebrating 50 years of growth and success this year. Among the many remarkable alumni the college has produced, including many devoted Moms and Dads, teachers, doctors, journalists and a whole variety of other fields, perhaps we are most proud of the fact that 78 of our graduates have been ordained to the priesthood since the College’s founding. Nearly every graduating class has men enter the seminary. Just this summer alone, four of our alumni have been ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. 

         Many of you know that the original campus of Thomas Aquinas College is in California, and how we just opened a second campus in Northfield, Massachusetts in 2019, within the Springfield Diocese. The founding of the new campus created excitement in that area, particularly because several small private colleges in New England have been closing in recent years. How was it that a new small private college could enter this apparently diminishing New England market? 

         It was enough to spark a visit from The Boston Globe. Last year, they sent a reporter to see for herself what was happening and to write an article about the new College. The reporter spent the day sitting in on classes, meeting faculty, and walking around on the picturesque New England campus. She was not familiar with a classical education and overall, it seemed to be a good experience. 

         At the end of the day, she met with the Dean of the College, Dr. Thomas Kaiser, to discuss her experience. In the midst of the discussion, the Globe reporter commented to the Dean, “I enjoyed the day but your curriculum is dominated by ‘white, European, dead men’. How are your students going to be properly educated in this atmosphere?”  

         Dr. Kaiser, whose doctorate is in Biology, explained that the curriculum is heavy in mathematics and the sciences, and what we are primarily concerned with is educating the students to recognize what is true. We do not measure books by the author, but by the truth of what he or she wrote, for example, whether it was good math, or good science.” Certainly, this seems to resonate with our students because it is not uncommon for our graduates to enter into medical school or graduate studies in the sciences.  

         One of the other teachers of the College had a bit of a different answer: “Well the primary Person we study here at the College is Jesus Christ. And He wasn’t white. He wasn’t European. And He isn’t dead!”  

         The reporter’s question reveals a commonplace attitude⁽¹⁾Cf. Joseph Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 85. in the world today that there is something inherently flawed in studying Western Civilization. In fact, the violence we witnessed last year against statues of Christopher Columbus and Saint Junípera Serra reveals this attitude in its most extreme forms. The tearing down of these statues is more than a rebellion against the weaknesses of these men, whether real or perceived. It is a rebellion against Christian missionary efforts in general. The consensus is that Europe was wrong to impose its culture and its religion on the Americas, and that Europe is guilty of religious imperialism. The irony to this is just as the one professor pointed out: Catholicism did not in fact originate in Europe. It originated in the East.

Reasons for a Classical education

         The Boston Globe reporter’s question requires us to ask the primary question: “Does Western Civilization and the Christian faith that animated it have a value that is worth preserving and defending?” This gets to the heart of why a classical education is so essential for the world today. Briefly, I would like to give some reasons why I think a classical education is so important and why it was an excellent choice that you parents made to have your children educated at this high school, making the graduating class of 2021 of Cardinal Kung so highly favored.  

         Two of the most important authors in the entire history of Western Civilization are Homer and Virgil. Among the many ideas that the Odyssey and the Aeneid teach us, one of the most crucial is that the meaning to our existence, the story of what is really happening to us, transcends what we perceive with our senses. On the one hand, there are the actual stories of what happens to Odysseus and Anneas on their journeys, but on the other, there is the story of why the gods are causing these events to happen. 

         With these classic tales, Homer and Virgil laid the foundation of Western civilization, telling us that there is an invisible narrative acting on the visible world that is not immediately apparent; and we can only get a glimpse of this invisible world through the joys, sufferings, and tragedies of our daily lives; in fact, wisdom is only obtained by seeking to understand the invisible world. Hence, we study the classics and Western civilization.  

         We can also reflect on the fact that God wanted the Catholic faith to take root first in Europe. Saints Peter and Paul, impelled by the Holy Spirit, went to Rome, to lay the foundations of Christianity. When St. Paul had that vision of the man from Macedonia (Acts 16:9-10), inviting to him to “come to Macedonia and help us”, it was the beginning of the evangelization of Europe. Macedonia is part of Europe, not Asia. 

         The importance of the immediate baptism of Lydia, this “seller in purple goods” (16:14), cannot be overestimated. It is a crucial turning point in history as she becomes the forerunner to the millions of souls, who throughout the centuries of European history, will be saved and transformed by the healing waters of baptism. Again, God wanted the faith to be rooted not in Jerusalem, not in the East, but in the West. These two great apostles went to the heart of the Roman Empire, and there, with the shedding of their blood, did the faith grow and blossom. Hence, we study the classics and Western civilization. 

         We can also reflect on how the synthesis of Greek philosophy with Christian revelation created a unity of faith and reason, which continues to be essential to our identity as Catholics today. There was a conviction held by the ancients – Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, or Plotinus, just to mention a few – that the truth is rational. 

         Here we see the genius of Christianity. Christianity is the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), which effectively drew out the flavor of the best in Greek culture. It preserved that which was good, elevated it, and then disposed of those parts that needed to be left behind. The Christian thinker could study these ancient Greeks, recognize the wisdom contained in their superior capacity to reason, and integrate their philosophy with divine revelation, creating a body of wisdom that help us to order our lives, and ultimately point to the mystery of God. 

         As English classicist Dom David Knowles writes, “From the age of Augustine to the death of Aquinas there had been a conviction, shared by all the schools… that there existed a single reasoned and intelligible explanation of the universe on the natural level, and a single analysis of man and his powers, that could be discovered, elaborated, and taught, and that it was valid for all men.”⁽²⁾David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought (New York: Vintage Books, 1962), 335.

         Not only will the study of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas always appeal to a new generation, but it will provide them with this unifying wisdom that the ancients grasped. Today, in a world filled with specialists and where knowledge is increasingly fragmented, a unified rational vision of the universe is invaluable. Hence, we study the classics and Western Civilization. 

Classical Education and Technology

         There are many more reasons that could be given, but I would like to give a final one why I think the classics are essential for the youth of our age: the technological revolution that we are currently living through. Let me begin with a story.  

         In 2001, I spent a summer studying in Mexico, and the language school where I was studying also had Mexican students studying English. Since I was a native English speaker, one of the teachers approached me and asked if I would come in and speak conversational English with her class. 

         I went to the class and after some introductions, one of the students raised her hand and asked, “What is your culture like where you live?” I was not exactly sure what she meant, so I asked her to be more specific. She replied, “Tell us about your culture. Your food. Your local dance. Your local dress. What is the culture like where you live?” 

         I was stumped. I did not have an answer and I had trouble explaining why I did not have an answer. I moved on to other questions, but the young lady’s inquiry has stayed with me, even until today. After thinking about it over time, the only particular answer I could come up with is that my culture is defined by technology. Who we are and what we do as a community revolves around our technology. In fact, a “technological paradigm” has become so dominant that it would be difficult for any of us function today without it as we enjoy its many benefits, yet we also find ourselves constantly fighting even daily from being dominated by it.⁽³⁾Cf. Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 108. Pope Benedict asks whether we can even say that technology is a culture, in the same sense of the great cultures that have grown in the history of the world. Cf. Ratzinger, 58.

         Furthermore, our culture is off to the races when it comes to technology, with schools and other institutions almost always promoting the idea that they have the latest in technological advancement. The fact that technological advancement does not equate with moral advancement is distinction not lost on those who support classical education. For example, classical schools around the country proudly market themselves as placing serious limitations on the use of technology in their schools. 

         Pope Benedict XVI (writing at Joseph Ratzinger) points out, “Technological civilization is not in fact religiously and morally neutral, even if it believes it is.”⁽⁴⁾Ratzinger, 76. Technology changes people’s standards and attitudes, the way we solve problems, giving a disproportionate emphasis on efficiency,⁽⁵⁾Cf. Pope Francis, 111-112. with little regard for people’s traditions and customs,⁽⁶⁾Cf. Ratzinger, 76. not to mention human dignity itself.  

         Pope Benedict XVI also points out that, “It is quite undisputed nowadays…that making [technology and] its instruments available to those cultures, as yet untouched by it, is a question of justice.”⁽⁷⁾Ibid. Now while spreading technology is not inherently evil, there is this sense that if we can just get a laptop in the hands of the children in the jungles of the Amazon, or in the villages of India, we will be making the world a better place. There is a presumption at play here that the culture of technology can solve other cultures problems better than they can themselves. So, while our mainstream culture views the spread of Christianity as a kind of religious imperialism, it fails to recognize that sending technology to foreign lands bears its own mark of culture imperialism. 

         Yet we cannot become “religious nature reserves”,⁽⁸⁾Ibid.. wholly isolated from the world. The idea of becoming Catholic Amish is not a realistic option. The nature of our existence and the history of the Catholic faith shows a Church in constant dialogue with the greatest cultures of the world; and in fact, much of the history of our faith shows its capacity to meet with these various cultures and to arise victorious; not to demolish those cultures, but to draw out what was good, and to bring them to their proper end.

         It will need to do the same with technology. Just as Christianity interacted with the Greeks, so the Christians of today need once again to be “salt of the earth”, seeing the good in a culture dominated by technology, purifying it from what should be dismissed, and then raising it to its highest level. 

         A simple example of this can be seen with Cardinal Kung Academy itself. On one hand, the high school has a very limited use of technology on its daily life. On the other, its website is quite flashy, informative, and interactive. We all know that making decisions like this about the proper integration of technology into one’s identity will continue to be a challenge in the coming years.

         The graduates of Cardinal Kung academy have been preparing for this mission these past four years. They can’t avoid it. The drama of whether they will properly regulate technology, or be dominated by technology is now part of their destiny. Those students who have been classically educated, firmly rooted both in faith and reason, will be able to find this proper integration, just as Augustine and Aquinas were able to properly synthesize Greek philosophy with divine revelation.  

         This gets us back to the merits of a classical education. In order to fully grasp the unity of wisdom and to survive the dominant “technological paradigm” of our culture, one needs to move beyond the refined specialties being offered at many colleges today; one needs to move beyond the founding of our great nation in 1776; one needs to go all the way back to the origins of wisdom present in the Old Testament and the Greek philosophers, recognizing that all of this ancient wisdom points to the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus Christ. An education that integrates faith and reason, classics and science, will be prepared for the most serious challenges of our day. Hence, we study the classics and Western civilization. 

Conclusion

         Graduating class of 2021, your parents love you more than anyone else in the world, except for God. They made great sacrifices to give you this education. I am convinced that those of you who successfully receive what a classical education has to offer will be like the mustard seed that Our Blessed Lord mentions in the Gospel (Matthew 13:31f). They start small but they end up becoming the largest trees upon which the birds of the air can build their nests. They will not only know the faith, but they will be able explain it to others, those whose education was more specialized and less well rounded, those who were more subject to the trends and fashions of the main stream culture. 

         Yes, those rooted in Christ, those rooted in reason, those rooted in the Logos, in that which transcends the physical world, they will be the leaders, and dare I say the saints, of tomorrow. 

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