“Woman, behold your son.”

I’d like to respond to some of the points in our continuing discussion about Jesuit legal education.  First, for the record, just a few of the facts about what has been happening at Fordham since 2001. 

For faculty, our Faculty Colloquia on Religion and the Law school is now in its fifth year.  It meets six to eight times per year, and draws the voluntary participation of 25% of the full time faculty.  While the faculty themselves set the agenda, it has for the past five years “privileged” the Catholic intellectual tradition, engaging topics such as Ex Corde, the Jesuit approach to education, the role of conscience, faith and politics, the history of Catholicism at the law school, etc.  Currently two of its participants (besides myself, and not the usual suspects) are exploring how to integrate CST into their scholarship.  The way some of the faculty have described these gatherings-again, not the usual suspects-are a “joy” and a “grace.” 

For the students, since 2004 we have offered a seminar on Catholic Social Thought and the Law, which surveys just about the entire corpus of CST.  We will continue to offer this course, and are currently exploring areas for more specialized focus.  Next year we will offer a new course on CST and Conflict Resolution.

For faculty, students and lawyers in the community, we offer an annual conference on religious values and legal practice, in which CST engages other faith traditions; and a Catholic Lawyer’s Program as a forum to explore how Catholic faith, teachings and traditions might inform the practice of law.  This year’s series, For All the Saints, explores how the lives of extraordinary Catholics- Thomas More, Bernard of Clairvaux, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, and Thérèse of Lisieux might shed light on the ordinary practice of law.

I agree that this is just a start.  But I think it would be fair to say that this could be described as “flesh on the bones,” and certainly more than a platitude or a tired formula.  And it is being carried out with the full, enthusiastic, unwavering support of the dean, the broader administration, and a significant group of the faculty.

Tenured faculty cannot be “pruned.”  For me it has been a grace to work with who we have.  I have discovered beautiful people with profound commitments to justice, and who in the context of an open and respectful community of conversation, also appreciate how their own visions of justice are at many points in deep harmony with the Catholic intellectual tradition. 

Reading some of the posts reminded me of some of my students' reactions to CST at this point in the semester-we have been harping on these problems for a hundred years and the Church has still not resolved them!  I gently point out that there are these other small details at work – like the culture, like original sin…. CST moves through time, responding to the ever-changing challenges of the culture and of history.  We can keep refining our analysis of exactly who is to blame for the state of Jesuit legal education, and who is worse off.  I agree that we need to face our limitations and shortcomings squarely, and in the light of the height and depth and breadth of the faith and love to which we are called.  But at a certain point I feel that efforts to pinpoint blame and measure how deep is the abyss of failure are just not constructive.  The Gregorian is in Rome, Baylor is in Waco, and Notre Dame is in South Bend.  Clearly these cities will create a certain baseline of religious cultural context and belief.  Fordham is in New York City - and so is working against the backdrop of a quite different cultural context.  We are working hard to move beyond platitudes.  We need your prayers and support and encouragement more than your criticism.

And even if we were to conclude that everything is in a hopeless and abysmal state?  What would Jesus do?  What would Mary do?  One of the moments of Mary’s life which is most helpful for me is when she was at the foot of the cross and Jesus said, “Woman behold your son.”  John was not Jesus.  John was a fragile, trembling, incredibly limited human being.  It was not a good deal to trade Jesus for John.  But Mary did embrace humanity in John, and that was her own work of redemption, this is how she generated the Church.  At this point, for whatever reason, Jesuit legal education may be fragile, trembling, and incredibly limited - more John than Jesus.  We are called to embrace John, with all of the love we can muster, and in this act of love to generate the community which is the Church.  And I believe - and have experienced - that this is the most fertile ground for communicating the essence of the Catholic intellectual tradition.

Thanks for listening.  Amy