Grads urged to fight injustice, awaken hope, perform simple acts of love and put God at center

(OSV News) -- Timothy Shriver, chair of the Special Olympics International board of directors, urged Fairfield University's undergraduate class of 2025 to "see" from the "inside out," honoring dignity -- their own and that of others.

"If you give your heart a chance to see ... you can meet people without an agenda. ... We can meet just as we are. Just beautiful. All of us. No exceptions," said Shriver in his commencement address to undergraduates gathered May 18 on Bellarmine Lawn at the Jesuit-run university in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Fairfield honored nearly 2,000 graduates earning associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees and doctorates from all five of its academic schools during its 75th commencement ceremonies. The three-day event included inaugural commencement exercises for the first graduating class of the university's two-year associate's degree program.

Shriver had a challenge for the graduates.

"If you see injustice, oppose it. If you see someone who's left out and humiliated ... bring them in. If you see despair, awaken hope," he said. "The way you make a difference determines the difference you make. Make your way the way of dignity."

The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, conferred 733 bachelor of arts degrees at its 179th commencement exercises May 23.

"Graduates, my wish for you -- today, and every day -- is that you will hold tight to your skills and to your dreams,” said commencement speaker Linda LeMura, who is president of Le Moyne College. She is the first female layperson to be named president of a U.S. Jesuit institution.

A Jesuit education -- and specifically a Holy Cross education -- aims to unite two identities: the dreamer and the doer, following the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, she said. "Treasure them both. Your dreams will inspire your work, and your work will inspire your dreams. Never let go of the whimsical, poetical, visionary dreamer that lives in each and every one of you."

In Washington, Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, an alumnus of The Catholic University of America and founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, returned to his alma mater May 17 to deliver the 2025 commencement address on the University Mall.

"I sat exactly where you're sitting, 44 years ago," Bishop Barron said. "It was a day just like this, bright, sunny. ... It felt joyful. It felt exciting. It felt full of promise. And I hope you all feel that way today."

In a speech weaving together philosophy, personal memory and theological reflection, Bishop Barron urged graduates to resist the "secularist ideology" that he said has led many young people to anxiety and despair.

"Graduates, why are numbers measuring anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation spiking among your peers?" he asked. "There are many reasons we could give, but I would suggest the first among them is loss of contact with God and with the things of God."

He encouraged Catholic University's class of 2025 to embrace their "holy longing" and to pursue truth, beauty and goodness not as abstract ideals, but as windows into the divine. He reminded graduates that their lives are meant to be a gift.

Drawing from his online ministry, Bishop Barron said he often hears from individuals in despair. His counsel, he said, is simple: Love.

"Perform, every day, the simplest act of love: Will the good of another," he said. "That's my recommendation to all of you, for every moment of your lives, for the rest of your life. At all times, in triumph, in failure, in depression, love."

"To make God absolutely central to your life is to conform your life to love," he said. "What you've received as a gift, give as a gift."

Award-winning actress Regina Hall returned to her alma mater, Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York, as this year's commencement speaker and delivered this message: Your ultimate achievement is the good you do in the world.

"Success is not merely measured by money or things. ... Those things must be accompanied by the kindness and compassion in your heart," Hall told the crowd of nearly 25,000 gathered May 17 on Edwards Parade, a large parade ground at the center of the Rose Hill campus in New York's Bronx borough.

The actress -- who graduated from Fordham in 1992 with a degree in English -- is known for her roles in the "Scary Movie" franchise, the "Best Man" series, "Insecure," "Black-ish" and more. She reminisced warmly about her time at Fordham and the lifelong friendships she made there.

"Within the walls of Fordham University, we were always being instilled with the Jesuit principles and philosophies. The belief that God is present in every aspect of life -- in nature, in relationships and in work. And the belief in justice, equality and the call for excellence," Hall said.

In the West, Wyoming Catholic College in Lander graduated its largest class in the school's history May 19. Its 15th commencement recognized 50 young men and women of the class of 2025.

Commencement speaker Chris Stefanick, founder of Real Life Catholic, told the graduates that what they just went through in college "is what Jesus called all of us to when he started his ministry. Metanoia. Change your mind. Change your thinking. Change how you see and approach absolutely everything. ... That is amazing and that is beautiful."

"The bad news is you're about to reenter a world that doesn't just disagree with you about certain things, but that sees life in an entirely different way," said Stefanick. "Hold these things in your life so that you can live with the joy of St. Paul in prison and be the light that this world desperately needs. This is a battle you can't afford to lose."

"The church needs what you have. ... The joy of the Lord must be your strength!" he said.
On May 18, evangelist and author Sister Josephine Garrett, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, was the commencement speaker at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas.

"There aren't words to properly describe the honor of serving as the commencement speaker at my alma mater the @universityofdallas for the class of 2025; and also being the recipient of an honorary doctorate," she said afterward in an Instagram post.

"The type of undergraduate student I was, was at best a poor example; but when we bring ourselves to God, poverties and all, those hollowed out places become like chalices; hallowed -- places to be filled up with God's own life and his glory. And it is the greatest joy of my life to share with others the ways that God has been faithful to me, even in my failures, struggles and poverties," said Sister Jospehine, a Texas native.

"Class of 2025," she added, "I'm excited for you, proud of you, honored to have been with you. Let Revelations 21:1-5 be the future that you long for above all other goods and all other ends."

Another record-breaking class crossed the stage in Finnegan Fieldhouse at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, May 10. For the fifth consecutive year, the university graduated the largest class in its history, with 907 students in the class of 2025. Last year's total was 899 graduates.

"Let yourself be overwhelmed by Jesus in his love for you, so you can surrender everything to him," Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chair of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., said in his homily at the baccalaureate Mass May 9. He emphasized the centrality of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist in sustaining a faithful Christian life.

Commencement speaker Mary Rice Hasson, the Kate O'Beirne senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, called on young Catholics to courageously confront a cultural crisis and live out their identity as sons and daughters of God.

Framing her message around what she called an "anthropological revolution," Hasson described a profound cultural confusion about the human person -- what it means to be male and female, and what it means to be human. She warned graduates that the ideology driving this confusion is no longer fringe but dominant across institutions and social platforms.

Among the first commencements of this graduation season was the May 3 ceremony at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where keynote speaker Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, told the class of 2025 he wants them to not just have a successful life, but to have a consecrated one.

Shanks, who recovered from a life-threatening illness, encouraged graduates to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and to seek God in using both aspects for the greater good.

"Graduates, the world will ask you to lead with strength," he said. "But don't be afraid to lead with surrender. Be vulnerable. Be open. Make time for silence. Let your life be rooted in prayer. Let your faith speak not only through what you accomplish, but through what you endure, what you entrust to God, and what you allow him to transform. Your weakness may be the very place where someone else finds hope."

Shanks talked about his vulnerability during a battle with COVID-19, which led to him being in a medically induced coma for 45 days. His wife, Melissa, reached out to the community for prayer and a novena to St. Jude was started. On the ninth day of the novena, Shanks began to recover.

"It was in that complete surrender, in that helplessness, that God moved most powerfully," he said. "When the noise falls away, when the masks come off, we are left with what matters most -- our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God."