An Augustinian Cardinal

An important, but, I think, sometimes neglected aspect of the mission at many Catholic universities is fostering an appreciation for the wider accomplishments of Catholic intellectual life and of the sponsoring religious order. There is special reason for those of us at Augustinian institutions such as Villanova to celebrate because among the new cardinals announced by Pope Benedict XVI last week is Father Prosper Grech, OSA, the noted Maltese biblical scholar, co-founder of the Augustinianum in Rome, and the first Augustinian friar in over a century to be made a cardinal. (And the Jesuits can celebrate the elevation of Father Karl Josef Becker, SJ.)