Dr. Charles E. Rice's commencement address at Christendom College

"God is not dead. He isn't even tired." | Christendom College Commencement Address | Dr. Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School | May 17, 2010

Editor's Note: The following Commencement Address was given at Christendom College, Front Royal, Virginia, on Saturday, May 15th. It is reproduced here by kind permission of Dr. Rice.

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When President O'Donnell asked me to give this address, I expressed one concern: "Will there be a protest? And will you prosecute the protestors? Or at least 88 of them?" He made no commitment. I accepted anyway.

So what can I tell you? This is a time of crises. The economy is a mess, the culture is a mess, the government is out of control. And, in the last three years, Notre Dame lost 21 football games. But this is a great time for us to be here, especially you graduates of this superbly Catholic college. This is so because the remedy for the general meltdown today is found only in Christ and in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Let's talk bluntly about our situation and what you can do about it.

We are living through a transformation of our federal government. A one-party regime, the leader of which was elected with 54 percent of the Catholic vote, is substituting for the free economy and limited government a centralized command system of potentially unlimited jurisdiction and power. Its takeover of health care, against the manifest will of the people, not only funds elective abortions and endangers the elderly and conscience rights. It was enacted in disregard of legislative process and by a level of bribery, coercion and deception that was as open as it was unprecedented.

To find a comparable example of the rapid concentration of executive power by a legally installed regime, we have to go back to 1933. Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor on January 30. Over the next few weeks he consolidated his power. The decisive event was the Reichstag's approval of the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933, by which it ceded full and irrevocable powers to Hitler. That was the point of no return. The Enabling Act received the needed two-thirds vote only because it was supported by the Catholic party, the Centre Party.[1] Our "Health Care Reform," enacted with the decisive support of Catholic members of both houses of Congress, may be the Enabling Act of our time in the control it cedes to government over the lives of the people. It includes the federal takeover of student aid. What do student loans have to do with health care? The common denominator is control. No student will be able to get a federally guaranteed educational loan without the consent of a federal bureaucrat. This opens the way to make political loyalty a test for educational advancement, as it was in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This confirms the wisdom of Christendom's decision to forego all federal aid.

Unlike Germany in 1933, we have legal means of redress. I am proud to say I am a Tea Party guy. In November, the reaction may dislodge the Congressional arm of the ruling class. But that reaction will be only temporary unless we go to the source of the evil. The root problem is not political or economic. It is religious. And that is where you come in. "The social crisis," said Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, "happens when we elect people to rule over us who are immoral. .... [P]eople who don't have a moral bearing to elect other moral people, elect immoral politicians to serve over them.... So immoral lifestyles produce immoral leaders."[2] In other words, we elect immoral, rather than moral, people because we have lost the ability, or the desire, to tell the difference. The answer, said Fr. Euteneuer, is "to turn back to God. ... What we need is a conversion of heart."

We rightly urge fidelity to the Constitution. But no paper charter can survive the disappearance of the morality that produced it. In 2001, thirteen days after 9/11, Pope John Paul II, in Kazakhstan, cautioned the leaders of that Islamic republic against a "slavish conformity" to Western culture which is in a "deepening human, spiritual and moral impoverishment" caused by "the fatal attempt to secure the good of humanity by eliminating God, the Supreme Good."

Read the entire address...

Comments

[Stephen Sparrow]

Excellent address

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Thanks for pointing out yet another example of Charley’s Rice’s penchant for self-aggrandizement. His methodology remains unchanged: Give everyone an oversimplified version of what’s wrong and who to blame for it. Then, try to convince everyone that the answer lies in faith or, more specifically, in his interpretation of it. Unfortunately (for him) his ego still won’t permit him to accept that lecturing anyone other than the already converted doesn’t make him prophetic. It only makes him appear condescending. That’s why the editorial staff at the Notre Dame Observer last Winter refused to print his umpteenth diatribe against gays. Clearly, no one could reasonably have been in doubt as to the Church’s stand on homosexuality or his support of that policy. However, what really happened there is that someone finally figured out that Charley’s principal motivation was to boost his own ego by policing the faith of others. This was a crass misuse of religion and one that the N. D. Observer rightly refused to perpetuate. Face it, Rice may be your icon, but there’s nothing new in this Commencement Address. Rice has said everything he’s ever going to say and, like the N.D. Observer, you should find another icon. How about Mark Souder? Now there’s a good Catholic boy in desperate need of prayer.

[Brian]

I'm off to point out some flaws in the address.

[Carl E. Olson]

"Gustavus": If you have something to offer other than personal attacks, ad hominem "arguments," and sputtering vitriol, you should consider employing it.

[David G]

Gustavus said "...there’s nothing new in this Commencement Address. Rice has said everything he’s ever going to say and, like the N.D. Observer, you should find another icon."

Doesn't the Church teach that, in Christ, God has said all he's going to say. However, I don't think that finding another God is really any option.

I wouldn't expect to hear much new in any pronouncement of Church teaching, at least from those who hold to it. The novelty is actually hearing someone uphold Christ's teaching. It seems a strange form of self-aggrandizing to call his listeners to repentance and conversion? At least he's in good company.

[Eric Thomason]

I had the privilege of taking Prof. Rice's class while at Notre Dame law. He is humorous, gentle, patient, and genuinely interested in debate. He is confident about things which are true, but never "self-aggrandizing." The fellow above is lacking in charity.

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Eric, I too took Professor Rice's class at ND Law. However, unlike you, what I remember about him, even then, was his total unwillingness to consider opposing points of view. That approach has gotten him marginalized at Notre Dame and kicked off the Ave Maria Law School Board. Worse, his latest so-called Commencement Address is nothing but a wholly politically inspired diatribe against the majority of Catholic voters who, in Professor Rice's estimation, purportedly contributed to a Nazi-like transfer of political power in this country. The absurdity of this analogy should put anyone familiar with the history of the Third Reich on notice that they're dealing with someone who employs the teachngs of the Church as a cudgel. Furthermore, his so-called Commencement Address isn't a Call to Christ. It's a diatribe against individual conscience. Although Rice thinks he's cornered the market on truth, it doesn't follow that anyone who disagrees with him is an errant Catholic. Moreover, in keeping with his penchant for authoritarian rhetoric, Rice's adress does not contain an iota of Christian compassion. It's merely another repetition of his frequent predillection for spouting dogma. Although I understand that some of you view my criticism of Professor Rice as misplaced, I maintain that this Address departs from traditional Catholic virtues in a manner that is uniquely characteristic of his need to uncritically embrace othodoxy regardless of the consequences. That's hardly a legacy to be proud of.

[Terence M. Stanton]

A.M.D.G.

The Catholic Church needs a few million more men like Dr. Rice here in America. He teaches the truth with clarity and charity. The teaching of Jesus Christ is never popular to the world but always attractive to the seeker of truth.

[ER]

I also took Rice's class at ND Law, and consider it one of the highlights of my education there. At the beginning of the first class, he told us that the course would be devoted to teaching us the basic principles of natural law, etc., and not to debating whether the Church's teachings are correct or fundamentally flawed. I respected the fact that he informed students of this and indicated that if a student wanted to simply debate what the Church teaches instead of learning why natural law, etc., leads to certain teachings, he should take a different class. He's a class act and a truly generous man. And the sand in the gas tank analogy never gets old.

Also, although Mark Souder is, of course, in need of prayer, he's not Catholic. He's a member of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.

[LJ]

...his need to uncritically embrace othodoxy(sic) regardless of the consequences... - Gustavus Adolphus

This is a problem?

You have paid the man a great compliment. This is the attitude of martyrs. Thank you for this, GA.

I have not been acquainted with Dr. Rice up until now, not being a scholar or theologian myself, but reading such a statement from a critic, I am inclined to trust his writing.

[Gustavus Adolphus]

ER. Thanks for the clarification about Mark Souder. For what it's worth, I was referring to the first-year torts class that Prof. Rice taught for a number of years. I don't remember hearing anything about a natural law class. Perhaps it wasn't being offered when I was a student

[Niall O'Donnell]

You can download his address in the iTunes Store at Christendom on iTunes U, www.christendom.edu/itunesu.

[Titus]

I find it highly unusual that someone who takes the name of one of the most notorious anti-Catholic monarchs in history as a handle would presume to give lectures about what Catholics ought to do.

I guess this would explain why Dr. Rice wasn't at NDLS's own graduation that weekend. I wondered.

Is Dr. Rice saying anything new here? No, not really---so he's something of a one-trick pony these days. But that doesn't mean it's a bad trick; it's actually quite a good trick. And it's not really his trick; it's the Church's trick, just presented in Rice's own style.

For what it's worth, Rice no longer teaches 1L classes since assuming emeritus status. He teaches an elective on natural-law jurisprudence.

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Show me where there's anything in what I've said that tells Catholics what to do? That's Charley's bag, not mine. While his "my way or the highway" approach may still play at Christendom, it has little if any traction at Notre Dame. As an ND alum, it's my intention to help keep it that way. While Prof. Rice still has his supporters at ND, it's become increasingly evident that his intemperate rants against University policies have effectively forced him to go off campus. That explains the snotty remarks about ND in his Commencement Address. Evidently, there aren't enough real Catholic left on at ND to suit him. And that's also why I've assumed the personna of Gustavus Adolphus - if you're not a good enough Catholic, you might as well be one ferocious Protestant. In general, I try not to judge the message by who delivers it. However, in this case, its all about the messenger. So, sorry Charley.

[Brian J. Schuettler]

"That explains the snotty remarks about ND in his Commencement Address"
His remarks are snotty but yours aren't?

"And that's also why I've assumed the personna of Gustavus Adolphus - if you're not a good enough Catholic, you might as well be one ferocious Protestant."
That doesn't sound quite right. It' akin to reigning in hell rather than serving in heaven.

[Manuel G. Daugherty Razetto]

"And that's also why I've assumed the personna(sic) of Gustavus Adolfus-if you're not a good enough Catholic, you might as well be one ferocious Protestant"

Having visited Sweden many times I've learned to love and admire the country and its people.

I would qualify G.A.'s comment about Gustav II Adolf by saying the great military man was quite an outstanding monarch and an extraordinary man.

The king was strictly brought up in the Lutheran faith. He definitely was among the most fulfiled sovereigns of his time. He knew 8 languages, of which he spoke and wrote fluently five. Was familiar with the classics and ancient history, proficient in music and, as he is well known for, he excelled in the science and practice of war.

Gustav II Adolf was, by family ties, somehow connected to the Caholic faith; his cousin Sigismund, king of Sweden and Poland was Catholic. In 1629 he terminated the war with Poland through a truce that, among other things, allowed freedom of religion to the subjects of both countries. His own daughter became queen after his death in the battle of Lutze. She was so determined to become Catholic that, after 22 years of her reign she abdicated and moved to Rome where she was so close to the papacy that today queen Christina's sarcophagus lies in St. Peters basilica.

Gustav II Adolf was pre-eminently religious. His moral influence and deep seated piety and character , inspired his soldiers.