The Problematic Legacy of Fr. Hesburgh

The Problematic Legacy of Fr. Hesburgh | Anne Hendershott | CWR



A beloved leader in Catholic higher education, he also accelerated the move toward secularization of Catholic institutions.

Standing in front of a famous
1964 photo of Father Theodore Hesburgh locking arms with the Rev. Martin Luther
King, Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, honored Father Hesburgh at a
party on Capitol Hill celebrating the retired president of the University of
Notre Dame’s 96th birthday in late May. 
During her celebratory remarks, Pelosi praised Father Hesburgh’s
courageous record on civil rights and pointed to the photo, on loan from the
National Portrait Gallery, taken at a rally just days after a vote on the Civil
Rights Act.  Pelosi was joined at the party
by dozens of congressional well-wishers—as well as Vice President Joe Biden—all
paying tribute to the priest that Biden described as “the most powerful
unelected official this nation has ever seen.”  

Biden is correct.  Father Hesburgh has indeed exerted a powerful
influence on our country, on our Church, and especially on our Catholic
colleges and universities.  He has
received 150 honorary degrees, the most ever awarded to one person, and has
held 16 presidential appointments involving most of the major social issues in
his time—including civil rights, nuclear disarmament, population, the
environment, Third World development, and amnesty and immigration reform. In
July 2000, President Clinton awarded Father Hesburgh the Congressional Gold Medal—making him the first person
from higher education to be so honored.

Father Hesburgh has always viewed
himself as a “citizen of the world” and his secular activities reflect
that.  Father Hesburgh was the first priest ever elected
to the Board of Directors at Harvard University and served two years as
president of the Harvard Board.  He also
served as a director of the Chase Manhattan Bank. A longtime champion of
nuclear disarmament, Father Hesburgh has served on the board
of the United States Institute of Peace and helped organize a meeting of
scientists and representative leaders of six faith traditions who called for
the elimination of nuclear weapons.

On many occasions, Father Hesburgh found himself the first
Catholic priest to serve in a given leadership position on boards of secular
organizations.  Much of his success can
be viewed as stemming from his ability to distance himself from the authority
of the Church.  Such was the case during
the years he served as a trustee, and later, Chairman of the Board of the
Rockefeller Foundation, a frequent funder of causes counter to Church
teachings—including population control. 

Some of Father Hesburgh’s activities are
curiously missing from the Notre Dame website’s formal
biography of their beloved president emeritus.

Continue reading on the CWR site.