Commencement Addresses

About Commencement Addresses

Each year Christendom College hosts a special guest speaker at Commencement to address the graduating class.

Publisher

Christendom College

Category

education · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Jun 2022

Latest episode

7 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

19 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Jul 2026

   Anne Carroll: 2026 Commencement Address

   Christendom College celebrated its 47th commencement on May 16, awarding 112 Bachelor of Arts degrees to the Class of 2026. Anne Carroll, founder of Seton School, Seton Home Study, and wife of late Christendom College founder Dr. Warren Carroll, delivered this year’s Commencement Address and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in recognition of her outstanding contributions to Catholic faith, culture, and public life. Carroll, who has shaped generations of students over her 50-year career in education, reflected on pivotal moments of crisis in Church history during her address, including the reign of King Henry VIII and the landmark Land o’ Lakes Statement of 1967 that directly led to Christendom’s founding. Through these stories, Carroll emphasized that while darkness has repeatedly emerged throughout history, hope has risen in response to it time and time again — proof that one man or one woman can make a difference for the better. “During all the historical times when the church was beleaguered, ordinary people were keeping the faith, remaining faithful to the Church when the wealthy and the powerful, the influencers, were going in the opposite direction,” said Carroll. “That faithfulness is a different kind of heroism, but in some ways even more important because it is possible for everyone. That is where you come in.” Carroll, who is the author of the widely read Christ the King, Lord of History, closed her address by turning from the past to the future, offering hope for the future of Christendom and the rest of the Church. “Though predictions are risky, I will now make one. 110 years after that dark year of 1967, what will we see? Christendom will be preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary, and God willing, most of you will be here to celebrate it, and some of your descendants will be sitting where you are now,” concluded Carroll. “The college will have faced new and even frightening challenges, but God will certainly provide the graces to surmount them, and those of us who have finished the race will be looking on from Heaven, or maybe Purgatory. and singing with all of you who will be celebrating on Earth.”

2. 

   27 May 2025

   Francis X. Maier: 2025 Commencement Address

   Francis X. Maier, Ethics and Public Policy Center senior fellow, delivers Christendom College's 2025 commencement address, urging graduates to embrace personal discipleship and restore all things in Christ.

3. 

   13 May 2024

   Professor Tracey Rowland: 2024 Commencement Address

   Professor Tracey Rowland received an Honorary Doctorate and delivered Christendom College's commencement address on May 11, 2024. Rowland hails from Australia, where she earned her primary degrees in law and government from the University of Queensland before completing a Bachelor of Letters in philosophy and a Master of Arts in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She later won a Commonwealth Scholarship to Cambridge University, where she wrote her doctoral dissertation. In 2001, she was appointed as Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, a position she held until 2017. While holding this position, Rowland completed a Licentiate in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology, both from the Lateran. Rowland is also the author of many books, including Culture and the Thomist Tradition (London: Routledge, 2003), Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Benedict XVI (Oxford University Press, 2008), Benedict XVI: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Bloomsbury, 2010), Catholic Theology (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), The Culture of the Incarnation: Essays in Catholic Theology (Steubenville: Emmaus Academic, 2017), Portraits of Spiritual Nobility (New York: Angelico, 2019), and more. She was appointed to the 9th International Theological Commission in 2014 and has been honored with numerous awards, including the Archbishop Michael J. Miller Award for the Promotion of Faith and Culture, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and the Ratzinger Prize for theology. In 2023, she was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences.

4. 

   13 May 2023

   Dr. John Haas: 2023 Commencement Address

   Dr. John Haas delivered the 2023 Commencement Address and was awarded the college’s St. Thomas More Medal for Defense of the Faith and Holy Mother Church. Haas received his doctorate in moral theology from the Catholic University of America and his licentiate in moral theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He also studied at the University of Chicago Divinity School and the University of Munich in Germany. Before assuming the presidency of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, Haas was the John Cardinal Krol Professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and an adjunct professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. He retired as president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in 2019, remaining on as President Emeritus and as a Senior Fellow. He has been a consultant to both the Committee for Pro-Life Activities and the Subcommittee on Health Care Issues under the Committee on Doctrine for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and later a member of the Academy’s Directive Council. In 2011, the Holy Father appointed him as a consulter to the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. Haas and his late wife, Martha, have nine children and a number of grandchildren.

5. 

   2 Jun 2022

   Robert Cardinal Sarah: 2022 Commencement Address

   Internationally renowned author and theologian Robert Cardinal Sarah was honored during Christendom College's 2022 Commencement Ceremonies, with the college awarding him an honorary doctorate of humane letters before he delivered this year’s commencement address.

6. 

   2 Jun 2022

   Lou Holtz: 2021 Commencement Address

   Christendom College celebrated its forty-second commencement on May 15, awarding 121 undergraduate degrees to the Class of 2021. Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz was also honored during the ceremony, with the college awarding him the Pro Deo et Patria Award for Distinguished Service to God and Country before he delivered this year’s commencement address.

7. 

   2 Jun 2022

   Patrick Madrid: 2020 Commencement Address

   Christendom College celebrated its forty-first commencement on August 9, awarding 89 undergraduate degrees to the Class of 2020. Author and radio personality Patrick Madrid was also honored during the ceremony, with the college awarding him the Pro Deo et Patria Award for Distinguished Service to God and Country before he delivered this year’s commencement address.

8. 

   2 Jun 2022

   Fr. Robert Spitzer: 2019 Commencement Address

   Christendom College honored its 40th graduating class during Commencement Weekend, May 10-12. Author Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., delivered the commencement address and was awarded the college’s St. Peter Canisius Award.

9. 

   2 Jun 2022

   Associate Justice Clarence Thomas: 2018 Commencement Address

   Associate Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the commencement address at the 2018 Commencement Ceremonies at Christendom College

10. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Cardinal Gerhard Müller: 2017 Commencement Address

    Garhard Cardinal Muller is Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei.” He received an honorary doctorate from the college and gave the 2017 commencement address.

11. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Dr. James Hitchcock: 2016 Commencement Address

    James Hitchcock, professor emeritus of history at St. Louis University and author of over half a dozen books delivered the Commencement Address at the 2016 Commencement.

12. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Alice von Hildebrand: 2015 Commencement Address

    Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, Catholic philosopher and theologian delivered the commencement address at the 2015 Commencement Ceremonies on May 16, where she was awarded the St. Catherine of Siena for Distinguished Service to Christ and His Church.

13. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Dr. Peter Kreeft: 2014 Commencement Address

    Dr. Peter John Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College and author of over a hundred books, delivered the Commencement Address at the 2014 Commencement.

14. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Archbishop Charles Brown: 2013 Commencement Address

    Archbishop Charles Brown joined the 96 members of the Class of 2013 for commencement exercises over the weekend of May 10-12, 2013. Archbishop Brown offered the Baccalaureate Mass on Friday, May 10, and delivered the commencement address and was awarded an honorary doctorate from college President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell at the commencement exercises on Saturday, May 11.

15. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S,V: 2012 Commencement Address

    Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, S.V., Founder of the Sisters of Life gave the Commencement Address at the 2012 Commencement Ceremonies where she was awarded the college’s Pro Deo et Patria Medal for Distinguished Service to God and Country.

16. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Dr. Robert George: 2011 Commencement Address

    Dr. Robert P. George, author and professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University was awarded the college’s Pro Deo et Patria Medal for Distinguished Service to God and Country and delivered the commencement address at the 2011 Commencement.

17. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Dr. Charles Rice: 2010 Commencement Address

    Dr. Charles E. Rice gave this address to 94 graduates at Christendom College’s commencement exercises on Saturday, May 15. Rice, a former law professor, Catholic apologist, and author of several books, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters during the ceremony.

18. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Senator Rick Santorum: 2003 Commencement Address

    After being presented with the college’s Medal for Distinguished Service, Senator Santorum delivered the commencement address to the 2003 graduates of Christendom College.

19. 

    2 Jun 2022

    Senator Jeremiah Denton: 1998 Commencement Address

    In 1998, Senator Denton, a former US Navy Rear Admiral delivered Christendom’s Commencement Address and received the College’s Pro Deo et Patria Medal for Distinguished Service to God and Country. He spoke about his experiences as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam to illustrate the need to restore morality and religion to their proper place in our nation.

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