By Susan Gallagher and Cathy Tilzey

Catholic social teaching begins with respect for human dignity and calls on people to give of their substance, not just their surplus, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said Monday, Sept. 14, at Carroll College, which conferred an honorary degree recognizing his lifetime commitment to social justice.

“I’m very proud to be part of your life,” Cardinal McCarrick said after receiving the honorary doctor of humane letters degree before an audience at the Campus Center. Cardinal McCarrick, who retired as the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2006, was in the conclave that in 2005 elected Pope Benedict XVI to succeed Pope John Paul II. He spoke about the social teaching of the Church and about Pope Benedict’s “Charity in Truth” encyclical released in July.

“Those of us who have resources have to share them,” Cardinal McCarrick said in emphasizing a central element of the encyclical. “We can’t just keep them to ourselves.” The world’s ongoing financial turmoil is not a reason to avoid that commitment, he said, adding that financial stress has existed for years.

“We need you, America, to reach out even if it hurts us at home,” he said.

More than 1 billion of the world’s people must try to survive on less than $1 a day and another 1 billion try to get by on less than $2 a day, Cardinal McCarrick said. “You can’t do that,” he said. “You can’t live that way.” He spoke about the widespread lack of clean water, about which Pope Benedict wrote in the encyclical.

Cardinal McCarrick, born in New York City in 1930, has headed and served on an array of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops committees dealing with global issues. He travels for Catholic Relief Services and is on its board, and he serves on Vatican councils devoted to Christian unity, justice, Latin American issues and care of migrant people.

In 2000, he received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, presented by the president of the United States, and was named an Officer of the Order of the Cedars of Lebanon, by the president of Lebanon. On Aug. 29, Cardinal McCarrick spoke at the Washington burial of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

Cardinal McCarrick holds a doctorate in sociology from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and has held positions there, including those of chaplain and dean of students. In 1965, he became the president of Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce. He was named the Archbishop of Newark in 1986 and served in that position until his installation as Archbishop of Washington some five years later.

In taking questions from the audience on Monday night, Cardinal McCarrick was asked how to deal with the “compassion fatigue” that emerges when people feel strained by burgeoning needs for assistance around the world, and then perhaps share less of what they have. It is necessary to connect deeply with the human conscience and convey the message to “wake up – we still have to do more,” he replied.

Cardinal McCarrick also said that “when you get old you don’t worry as much about the bad things you have done … but about the things you failed to do.”

He asked his Carroll audience to “pray for the virtue of charity.”

“I do believe in prayer and I do believe in the Lord’s goodness and I do believe that he helps us to do what he wants us to do,” he said.

In introducing Cardinal McCarrick at Carroll, both Bishop George Leo Thomas and Carroll President Thomas Trebon spoke of the honor his visit brought. Cardinal McCarrick was in Montana for the first time and said the state was one of only two he had not visited. “I’ve saved the best for next to last,” he said. North Dakota is the one state where he has not set foot.

On Sunday, Sept. 13, Cardinal McCarrick was at the Cathedral of St. Helena and delivered the homily at the annual Carroll College Mass of the Holy Spirit.

“One hundred years of service is extraordinary,” he said in beginning his homily. He spoke about three things - “this moment, scriptures and about you,” he said, looking around the church. It was filled with students, faculty, staff, parishioners, clergy and Bishop Thomas.

In talking about scripture, he quoted from the readings for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary time: “Who do you say I am?” The answer is different for each person. He is our lord, God, friend and salvation. The second reading by James says that people can’t live just for themselves; they have to look out for everyone by being faithful and responsible.

“It's beautiful to live that way, but also very difficult,” Cardinal McCarrick added. “We have to be firmly planted in God’s good earth to find our way. Ultimately, it is up to us. We’re together, part of a family … and we will help others to find Christ.”

The next day, before conferral of the honorary degree, he met with Carroll students, faculty and staff. His evening lecture, preceded by a couple of Irish jokes, inaugurated a lecture series celebrating Carroll’s centennial.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Vol. 25, No. 9, September 18, 2009.