An Amusing—and Instructive—Story About a Commencement Speaker: The Contradiction of Catholic Teaching to a Secular World

Now that the college graduation season is waning, and some time has passed since our earlier disputations about commencement speakers at Catholic colleges and universities, I thought it would be a fitting closing to tell a story that I hope will prove both amusing (as it was to me at the time) and instructive (as I’ve come more to appreciate in the years since).

The story is about my own law school graduation ceremony, in 1984, from the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. Seattle, of course, has a long history as a progressive city, frequently the site of liberal activism, anti-war protests, etc. The University of Washington often has been a gathering place for these political movements. During the early 1980’s, the nuclear freeze campaign was the cause celebre of the peace movement, and one of its heroes was Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of the Seattle Archdiocese, who had gained national attention for withholding a portion of his income taxes as a public protest against nuclear weapons. The mostly liberal, and very secular, student leaders at the UW law school were quite eager to attract such a prominent anti-war activist and practitioner of civil disobedience to give the commencement address at the law school graduation.

And so, on June 9, 1984, Archbishop Hunthausen appeared before the University of Washington law school graduating class as the designated commencement speaker. As those who had sought his appearance had anticipated and welcomed, he did indeed make a passing reference to the dangers of nuclear weapons and the uncertainty of international tensions. But he devoted much of his brief comments to emphasizing the important role of lawyers to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, with particular attention to the unborn who are silent victims of abortion. Well, as you might imagine, the student leaders who had petitioned for the invitation to Archbishop Hunthausen were not at all pleased by this turning of the table. Indeed, the very folks who had invited him angrily stood and walked out when Archbishop Hunthausen affirmed the right to life of the unborn and called upon lawyers to protect the vulnerable.

This twenty-two-year-old event sends an important message for all us at the Mirror of Justice and our friends. The Catholic Church and Church teaching cannot be labeled by secular political terms nor can it be appropriated by the left or the right as their rhetorical weapons to be wielded as they choose. The Catholic Church and Catholic teaching ought to be a contradiction to all of us who tend to perceive the world through political or ideological lenses, although we will be differently provoked depending upon where we stand. Our mission within Catholic Legal Studies must be to heighten that contradiction of secular perspectives and draw from it the tools to bridge our differences as faithful Catholics toward the common goal of a just society.

Greg Sisk