Andy Bradford

10/22/21

Contemporary Catholicism

Dr. Martino

Theodore Hesburgh

As early as I can remember, going to church on Sunday’s ways always something that my

mother and I would do. I was originally baptized into the presbyterian faith, but around the age

of thirteen I would be introduced to the Catholic church. My mother started a new job in the

local Diocese of Greensburg and had decided to make the transition to become a practicing

catholic. At that age, I was influenced to just follow in my mom’s footstep and make the

transition to Catholicism alongside her. In the time that my mom has worked within the diocese,

I have been fortunate to meet and have great conversations with several priests and even a few

bishops. A lot of conversation with those individuals has to do with the fact that I attend a

catholic university and the importance that they play in the catholic church and tradition as a

whole. When I started learning more about the church through classes and youth groups, I can

recall the discussions about going to a catholic school and one of the big ones that was talked

about was the University of Notre Dame. Although we did not discuss anything about Father

Theodore Hesburgh, I did learn about the influences that universities like Notre Dame and the

history that it had influenced catholic traditions. Both the book and film that we have covered in

this class has revealed the drastic influence that Father Hesburgh had on the catholic church and

its traditions.

The first point that chapter five discusses is the Second Vatican Council’s idea of

aggiornamento. Aggiornamento is Italian for “updating” which is something that the catholic
church felt that they needed to do if they were to spread their ideas with all people. Hesburgh

tried to carry these ideas over to the University of Notre Dame throughout his time as the

president of the university. The chapter explains how Hesburgh’s goal was to “update the

tradition-bound university”. Specifically, the use of “modern science, state of the art facilities

and cutting-edge research” (Hahnenberg, 82). Father Hesburgh was big on this change as he

portrays that America is in a time of rapid and fundamental change in which universities must

participate in. In this era of change, Hesburgh identified two of his most “consequential changes

in the admission of women as full-time students and the transfer of university governance to a

predominantly lay board of trustees”. Hesburgh played a leading role in the transferring of

control to a board of trustees as the inspiration came from The Second Vatican Council in that

“laypeople should be given responsibilities in Catholic affairs commensurate with their

dedication, their competence, and their intelligence (Hahnenberg, 84)”. These changes drastically

changed the way that Notre Dame was operating in comparison to when it was founded. The

chapter later goes into how the ideas of Father Hesburgh are present in the “Land O’Lakes

Statement”. His ideas of theology and how it should be presented in Catholic universities “not

only as a legitimate discipline, but as essential to the integrity of the university itself

(Hahnenberg, 93)”. The idea that the university should be entrusted to a board of trustees that

was entrusted with the catholic ideas of the Second Vatican Council was the idea that was most

significant to me. I think the progressive ideas of Theodore Hesburgh are still an integral part of

what makes the University of Notre Dame not only a prominent catholic university, but one of

the most well-known universities in the world today.

Father Hesburgh devoted his efforts into the uniting of all people through the work of

catholic teaching. His fifteen years of service on the U.S Civil Rights Commission was one of
the most notable ways that Hesburgh sought out the uniting of all people. Although it was

believed to be against the alumni of Notre Dame, Hesburgh saw racial justice as not only a civil

right, but a moral imperative demanded by catholic commitments. The commission that

Hesburgh was a part of mainly consisted of “former governors and academic leaders who

reflected Eisenhower’s moderate approach to civil rights”. More specifically three democrats,

two republicans, and one political independent in Father Hesburgh and split into two groups of

three southerners and three northerners (Hahnenberg, 61). Overall, the commission found that

people of color are being widely discriminated against throughout the south and ultimately

denied the right to vote. The change of venue to the Land O’Lakes retreat in Wisconsin was

crucial to the success of the commission in my opinion. The commission found common ground

and was able to come to an agreement on the final report. With eleven of the recommendations

passing unanimously and the other passing five to one, the commission had even greater success

than expected (Hahnenberg, 66). Hesburgh’s dedication to promoting the catholic teachings

motivated him to become a member of the commission even though he knew the repercussions

that it could have with members of the university and in particular, the white alumni. Father

Hesburgh being a member of this commission promotes the theme of realistically and actively

addressing civil rights.

Now that Father Hesburgh has made a significant mark on the U.S, he wanted to devote

his attention to making the entire world a better place. The origin of his work came while he

served as a chair on the Overseas Development Council, which was a private, nonprofit

foundation established to draw attention to the needs of underdeveloped countries. Hesburgh

believed that it was “the right thing to do. It’s being human; it’s being Christian…It’s being

compassionate towards each other” (Hahnenberg, 111). Hesburgh’s idea that the world can
always be improved through the good will of Catholic teachings is why I believe he had the

success he did as a leader of a top university. In addition to his work on the ODC, Hesburgh was

asked to join the board of the Rockefeller Foundation, which was a small but influential group of

government and industry leaders who believed a global hunger crisis was looming. While

Hesburgh said he agreed with the majority of the foundation’s views, there were significant

topics about population control that severely clashed with Catholic views that Father Hesburgh

strongly believed in. Abortion and birth control were the two policies that seemed to cause

tension with Hesburgh and the foundation. Pope Paul VI released a controversial Encyclical

Letter titled, Humanae Vitae in 1968, a very crucial and unsettling point in history. Hesburgh

was shocked to learn of the letter but did not publicly dissent from the Pope’s teaching

(Hahnenberg, 117). As people’s views on various topics throughout the world are constantly

changing, it is important that the Catholic church continue to spread its ideas and teachings to all

people who wish to hear them.

The Catholic tradition can be viewed and taught in a variety of ways. For instance, this

project gave an objective way of how individuals can learn about Catholic traditions and

teachings through the events and experiences of a significant individual in the Catholic faith. I

thought it was interesting to gain the perspective of various ideas through the eyes of someone as

influential as Theodore Hesburgh, who has devoted his life to Catholicism. As far as my personal

beliefs, the project definitely opened my eyes to how significant figures in the Catholic faith

viewed the common ideas they come across in everyday life. I look forward to having

conversations about what I learned about and from Father Hesburgh with members of the faith.

Especially gaining input from someone as knowledgeable as Bishop Kulick about things he has

learned through his life in the Catholic church is something that I am looking forward to.
Overall, this project is one of the most influential on my personal life that I’ve had to do in my

college career.