Cavanaugh Award Remarks

University of Notre Dame

Thank you for that introduction, John, and thank you to the Alumni Association for this incredible honor. My deep thanks also go to Joe Cassidy for his nomination, and to my family and friends who traveled here today to share in this moment.

When I was a student at Notre Dame, I frequently passed the iconic photograph in the LaFortune Student Center of Fr. Ted Hesburgh and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. standing arm-in-arm, singing “We Shall Overcome.” That image embodied Fr. Ted’s radical commitment to serve others, especially when it was difficult or controversial. Fr. John Cavanaugh gave Fr. Ted this advice, “Decide what is the right and just and best thing to do, and then do it, no matter what it costs, no matter if it makes you very unpopular, no matter how difficult it will be to make it stick."

I could never get a photo without my own reflection in it. Over time, however, I saw my reflection in the image as a personal invitation to put myself in the scene by serving as he did.

What I didn’t realize back then was that Fr. Ted had already shaped my path long before I stepped onto campus. In 1961, he worked with President John F. Kennedy to establish the United States Peace Corps. Decades later, from 2003 to 2005, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bangladesh. I arrived in the aftermath of September 11th, armed with a philosophy degree, deep idealism, and zero knowledge of Bengali or formal teacher training.

I was not a practicing Catholic when my service began, but I was by the time it ended. I was transformed by witnessing daily suffering in Bangladesh and by surviving the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on Ko Phi Phi in Thailand while on vacation. Those experiences filled me with a profound sense of powerlessness. In one dark moment, walking down a dusty street in Bangladesh while holding a rosary my mother had sent me, I prayed for God to walk with me. As I walked, I felt an overwhelming sense of divine consolation and presence.      

This transformation ultimately led me to apply to Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education or ACE program, after I finished my Peace Corps service.  During my first ACE summer, I encountered a vibrant faith community. At 90 years old and losing his sight, Fr. Ted presided at one of our evening masses in a dorm chapel. He actually preached about the early days of the Peace Corps on campus.  He told those early trainees that what they were doing was so important and Christ-like that he was absolutely sure that they were going to heaven.  He then told us ACE teachers that he felt the same way about us and our work, and that he was also sure that we were heaven-bound.  So, thank you, Alumni Association, for the award, but I don’t think it can top Fr. Ted’s double promise of heaven.    So, thank you, Alumni Association, for the award, but I don’t think it can top Fr. Ted’s double promise of heaven.    

During ACE, I also studied under the legendary professor Dr. Thomas “Doc” Doyle. He offered advice to us theology teachers that I have carried ever since: “If a math teacher messes up a lesson, students will likely get the right information later in life. But if you instruct students poorly in theology, it can have eternal consequences for them and for you.” That weight hit me immediately. Teaching is not merely a job; it is a sacred responsibility and an enduring call to serve.

I have now been teaching in Catholic classrooms for 24 years. After ACE, I returned to my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where I met my wife, Kate. We started dating and married in 2012. 

In the 2010s, I felt a further calling to serve as a permanent deacon—a ministry rooted in Christ’s example of washing the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper. Kate and I entered the five-year formation program together, during which we welcomed four children: EJ in 2016, followed by triplets Miriam, Max, and Petra in 2019. I was ordained in 2020 amidst the pandemic, balancing the chaos of intense parenting with new diaconal duties.

During that surreal period, another call to service emerged. Following the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, I joined the Sister Thea Bowman Society for Racial Solidarity at my parish to address local racial history and the painful legacy of Catholic involvement in slavery. Through that research, I discovered two unmarked Black sections of a local Catholic cemetery where 1,590 Black Catholics were buried in what looked like an empty field.

Over the past five years, I have worked to uncover these names and restore their dignity to descendants. Through this research, I identified 15 Black veterans from the Civil War, Buffalo Soldiers, and World War I, securing official government headstones for them. We also documented two Underground Railroad agents now officially recognized on the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom. Today, local high school and university students are helping us create digital maps and transcribe Civil War pension records, and we have launched a campaign to erect a monument bearing all 1,590 names.

Notre Dame taught me that service is not a weekend project, but a call to live as Jesus did. Looking back at the winding path of my life—as a Peace Corps volunteer, teacher, husband, father, deacon, and researcher—I see how Notre Dame’s values have guided every step. I am deeply humbled by this award, profoundly grateful to this university, and above all, thankful to God for walking beside me on this road.

Accompanying Slides: 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AOsaQUbpMMnmaAkj8ls5eOxBlvBrCx1WJ3JLdDaznog/edit?usp=sharing