[VOGLER] Hello everyone and welcome thank you all very much for coming to join us this evening.
I'm Candace Vogler, I'm a professor in the Department of Philosophy here at the University
of Chicago and I am one of two principal investigators on the Virtue Happiness and the Meaning of
Life grant funded through the John Templeton Foundation.
I'm going to just thank our donors and our sponsors for this event and then hand everything
over to my "co-P-I" Jennifer Frey from the University of South Carolina the philosophy
department there.
We need to thank the John Templeton Foundation for making all of this possible for us.
We also want to thank people who were involved in specifically sponsoring this conference
the Lumen Christi Institute; the Martin Marty Center, the University of Chicago Divinity
School; Division of the Humanities; Department of Philosophy; Committee on Social Thought
and Center for Practical Wisdom Research.
We're so grateful to them for helping to make this possible.
[FREY] Ok, good evening.
It's my pleasure to introduce professor Benard McGinn.
Benard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelly Professor Emeritus here at the University
of Chicago Divinity School and he is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism
and the Western Christian tradition.
He has written extensively on Jewish mysticism the history of apocalyptic thought and medieval
Christianity.
He has a list of awards and honors that's way too long for me to go through as well
as a very impressive list of publications.
I will mention however a book of his that I recently read called the "Summa Theologiae"
a biography.
A really wonderful and incredible book in part because the material is obviously extremely
worked over and yet somehow professor McGinn again made St. Thomas seem very alive and new.
I highly recommend this book to you so please join me in welcoming professor McGinn.
[McGINN] Thanks very much for that warm introduction.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this important event.
I'm deeply honored to be asked to introduce Cardinal Blasé Cupich at this capstone conference
of the two-year project on Virtue Happiness and the Meaning of Life.
Cardinal Cupich is not the first Archbishop of Chicago to speak at the University of Chicago
of course, his immediate predecessor Cardinal Francis George spoke here a number of times
and if my memory serves me right it was in May of 1989 that I had the honor of introducing
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin who was the main speaker of a one-day conference sponsored
by the Divinity Schools Institute for the advanced study of religion and devoted to
the letter of the American bishops on war and peace it was quite a memorable event and
Cardinal Bernardin gave a marvelous lecture.
Just a brief word about the project on Virtue Happiness and the Meaning of Life.
Made possible as we've heard by a generous two-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation,
a grant recently extended for another six months.
This project is designed to bring together scholars, teachers and students from around
the world and from diverse academic areas.
Especially psychology philosophy and theology in order to pursue investigation into the
relation between self transcendence and the cultivation and exercise of virtue as a source
for true happiness and a fulfilled and meaningful life.
Under the leadership of Candice Vogler, and also Jennifer Frey, the project is a stellar
example of the kind of interdisciplinary inquiry and scholarship that has characterized the
University of Chicago from its very beginnings.
In a time fraught with tensions and divisions all too often characterized by angry voices
of exclusion the collaborative perspective of the Virtue Happiness and Meaning of Life
project offers hope for some important new insights into some of the deepest questions
concerning human life and flourishing.
What is true virtue, how does it relate to happiness, where is meaning to be found.
As the project and its researchers pursue these complex questions it is eminently fitting
that the organization is invited Chicago's ninth archbishop to address this capstone
conference.
And it's also a personal pleasure for me because Cardinal Cupich and I share an alma mater
or alma mater as we might say that is the North American College and the Gregorian University.
Although I was there a few years some years before he was.
Blase Joseph Cupich was born in Omaha Nebraska in 1949, one of nine children of Blase and
Mary Cupich, he attended St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota where he obtained
his BA in philosophy in 1971.
He then went on to the North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University where
he was between 1971 and 75 earning a Master of Arts in theology in 1975 the same year
in which he was ordained.
Upon returning from Rome he served in several capacities in the Archdiocese of Omaha before
going on to complete his studies at Catholic University of America in Washington where
he gained both the licensure and a doctorate of sacred theology in 1987.
The next 12 years Father Cupich served in a number of positions in the Archdiocese of
Omaha and elsewhere in the American Catholic Church.
In 1998 Pope John Paul II appointed him as the seventh Bishop of Rapid City South Dakota
where he served until 2010 when Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Spokane Washington.
During his years at Rapid City and Spokane Bishop Cupich served in several important
offices in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops especially its Committee
on the protection of children and young people.
What is more during this period Cupich emerged as one of the most open consistent and balanced
voices in American Catholicism.
When September 20, 2014, Pope Francis named Bishop Cupich to the Archdiocese of Chicago
where he was installed on November 18th.
Chicago citizens are well aware of how much he has done for the Archdiocese and the city
in the three years he has been here.
Many may be less aware of the increasing the important role he has played in the church
at large such as his work at the 2015 Synod on the family and his appointment to the Roman
curious congregation of Bishops which advises the Pope on appointments
and other Episcopal matters.
As befits a central place in American and world Catholicism Pope Francis elevated Archbishop
Cupich to the College of Cardinals on November 19 2016.
The project on Virtue Happiness and the Meaning of Life is devoted to asking hard questions
about big issues given that commitment it is no accident that the organizers have invited
Cardinal Cupich to address us and I ask you to give a warm welcome to our very own Cardinal
Blasé Cupich speaking on a consistent ethic of solidarity transcending self transforming
the world. Cardinal Cupich.
[Applause]
[CUPICH] Thank you Professor McGinn for that warm welcome
and very lauditory introduction.
It's always nice to remember where I've been, life becomes a blur.
I also want to thank the University of Chicago and the organizers of this Conference for
your invitation to be with you.
It really is an honor to join you and I'm really pleased to participate, even though
I understand this is the closing session of the Capstone Conference entitled Virtue, Happiness
and the Meaning of Life.
This is an important conversation for which - over a 28 month period of the grant - you
have gathered scholars and professionals from various disciplines to focus on self-transcendence
as integral to understanding the interrelationships of Virtue, Happiness and the Meaning of Life.
Tonight I have been asked to add to that conversation, which I will do by considering how the notion
of solidarity found in Catholic Social Teaching, when pursued as a consistent ethic for both
individuals and society, might help to flesh out the meaning of self-transcendence, which
you rightly state is needed for human flourishing and building up the common good.
As I studied the information you sent me on your virtue project, it occurs to me that
it shares much in common with the our understanding of solidarity in the Catholic tradition, such
that we can benefit from each other in teasing out some points of convergence.
And so, I want to begin by pointing out some connections between the category of virtue
and solidarity.
I will then move on to what I consider some fault lines in the present age that give urgency
to pursuing virtue marked by solidarity.
I will conclude by suggesting some ways, or maybe priorities, all of us might want to
consider as we move forward in solidarity to build up the common good in a way that
fosters virtue, happiness and the meaning of life.
I have to admit I have no hesitation introducing the topic of solidarity into this conversation,
this conversation of virtue, particularly since your starting point is that virtue is
not an individual pursuit, practiced and observed only for oneself as a personal improvement
project.
Rather, virtue has to do with one's relationships to others and the world.
So the ultimate measure of one's virtue is not only how one personally improves, but
how he or she, but how the common good is fostered and furthered by virtuous individuals
as a whole.
The pursuit of virtue by an individual is about stretching the identity of the person
beyond the circumference of one's body and life as defined by the individual.
We often talk about expanding our mind, using more brain cells, but there is another way
to increase our capacity as humans and that is by constantly exploring ways to intersect
with the lives of others in a way that enhances their lives and the world's good.
In other words, virtue's end is solidarity.
Virtue when rightly pursued aims at uniting humanity through a reawakening of our interdependence
as a human family.
Pope John Paul II in his groundbreaking encyclical, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, called humanity
to "see the 'other'-whether a person, people or nation…as our 'neighbor,'
a 'helper' …a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which
all are equally invited by God."
It is worth noting that John Paul made a special point in pressing those in position of authority
and power to consider their particular responsibility in being virtuous on a global scale, not just
for their own sakes or the benefit of the nations they serve.
"World leaders," he urged, need "to recognize that interdependence in itself demands
the abandonment of the politics of blocs, the sacrifice of all forms of economic, military
or political imperialism, and the transformation of mutual distrust into collaboration.
This is precisely the act proper to solidarity among individuals and nations."
Pursuing virtue in the key of solidarity does not come easily and will cost each of us something.
It first of all will require in the words of the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching
"men and women of our day (to) cultivate a greater awareness that they are debtors
of the society of which they have become a part.
They are debtors because of those conditions that make human existence livable, and because
of the indivisible and indispensable legacy constituted by culture, scientific and technical
knowledge, material and immaterial goods and by all that the human condition has produced.
A similar debt must be recognized in the various forms of social interaction," the Compendium
continues, "so that humanity's journey will not be interrupted but remain open to present
and future generations, all of them called together to share the same gift in solidarity."
Or, to put it in baseball language, especially appropriate in these days in Chicago, if you
are successful, don't think you hit a home run when all along you were born on third
base.
Or, again, this awareness of what we owe to others will require the kind of humility found
in, I'm sorry, in Newton's famous saying: "If I have seen further, it is by standing
on the shoulders of giants."
Let me now say something about the urgency of a consistent ethic of solidarity in view
of some fault lines present in society today.
As I do so, my hope is that the link between the virtue project that relies on self-transcendence
and a consistent ethic of solidarity will become clear.
The first is radical polarization.
We face today a radical polarization in society.
Our world has changed a great deal in our life time due to many factors that divide
humanity.
Our era is plagued by global terrorism.
Irresponsibly.
That irresponsibly tolerates the exploitation of limited resources and is threatened by
climate change, which by its own inertia will imperil future food security as a result of
decreased crop yields and result in the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels.
As a result of these unchecked forces of economic exploitation and globalization, many people
feel left out, excluded, while others are literally left out and excluded as they are
left homeless, or forced to migrate, by wars and privation.
This has left us fearful of one another in a world marked by great divisions over race,
ethnicity, religion and place of origin.
Without oversimplifying, the challenge for us today is not only that there is a division
over issues, but humanity is divided.
No longer is it that issues are siloed, people are.
Their social networks, the media they consult, all operate in silos, bereft of challenge
or debate, isolated by differences of opinion or politics, race or social class in a way
that obscures our shared humanity, as for instance with the issue of immigration where
we are losing the ties that historically have united us as a nation of immigrants.
And it is not too strong to say that this sense of disconnectedness is being legitimized
not only by voices in the streets but by those in the halls of governance here and around
the world, giving rise to xenophobia, nationalism, populism, racial intolerance.
All of this makes entire populations more vulnerable to disturbing influences, and centripetal
forces which only further divide, while pretending to offer as solutions distorted views of the
role of the economy and politics and how we relate to one another, or how we relate to
other nations and deal with global conflicts.
A second fault line, libertarianism.
There is a growing libertarian approach in the present day which is impacting, and I
believe is distorting, the way we think about and respond to our politics, the economy and
the ecology.
In this context, I want to refer you to an excellent paper given by Bishop Robert McElroy
in San Diego in January, 2016 at the Symposium "Erroneous Autonomy: The Dignity of Work,"
sponsored by the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University
of America, Washington D.C.
In his talk Three Kinds of Erroneous Autonomy, Bishop McElroy offers analysis of how libertarianism
constitutes a compellingly different pathway for humanity at this moment in history which
stands at odds with human solidarity.
These conflicting pathways are based on two utterly divergent conceptions of the nature
of the human person, resulting in two distinct trajectories when it comes to the meaning
of economic life, and the goal of politics and the ecology in this age of globalization.
The example of the economy will suffice to make my point about the problematic claims
of libertarianism.
In fairness, it is important to recognize that many libertarians share with Catholic
Social Teaching a respect for human dignity.
Human dignity anchors their insistence on human freedom.
They rightly argue that this dignity is not given by society but by the Creator and therefore
freedom, self-determination and all other human rights are inalienable, echoing the
principles in the documents of democracy.
However, advocates of a libertarian philosophy stop short in considering what this means.
They fail to uphold that since this dignity belongs to all human beings in common, it
implies the solidarity of all peoples.
By uncoupling human dignity from the solidarity it implies, libertarians move in a direction
that has enormous consequences for the meaning of economic life.
Let me put it more sharply:
In our understanding of solidarity, the human person seeks and claims an integral development,
morally, spiritually and emotionally, which is joined intrinsically to the communities
that sustain him or her.
For libertarians, the human person is the autonomous individual, man the producer and
man the consumer.
For advocates of solidarity, in this age of growing globalization, inclusion and economic
security for all are measures of economic health, requiring global structures that help
mold the forces of market capitalism to advance solidarity and dignity for all; while in contrast
the libertarian has a one-dimensional measure of economic growth proposed for decision making,
advocating that market forces left to themselves are the best arbiters of economic progress.
It is for this reason that when it comes to politics, while solidarity seeks the common
good, the libertarian advances a politics that seeks to maximize the freedom of markets
and individual choice.
A third force we need to look at.
A final consideration as we think about the challenges of creating a greater sense of
solidarity is the ongoing development in communications technology in the world we live in today and
its impact on the youth of the world.
This technology is moving us and particularly young people to greater isolation while giving
the impression of linking us.
We can shield ourselves from the demands of others by the click of a key or by not responding
on a device which we use to limit our interaction with the world.
For many young people their smart phone is the only portal for interaction, but also
information which they will believe.
But, it is also the case that less personal and more electronic means of communication
have gained a foothold in the minds of young people globally when it comes to news they
will believe over-against human encounters.
An instance of this, of course, is the radicalization of young people who are being fed ideologies
of hate, a manipulation that leads to the acts of terrorism we are witnessing today.
Additionally, as communications technology continues to flatten the world as Thomas Friedman
describes, there is an even more menacing threat looming when it comes to the youth
of the world.
While it is true that many in our era have been lifted out of poverty, the numbers of
people, especially children not just poor but trapped in poverty and exclusion, who
are migrants, living in exile from their homes because of wars and famine, are staggering.
Global communications surely conveys a certain sense that we are united in this world but
many children living in abject poverty have good reason to believe that the world cares
little about them.
We may be together on this planet but they are receiving the message that they are not
one of us.
Living with no hope yet tantalized by what they see in the world of opulence, they will
be challenged to deal with rising expectations in a non-violent way.
But, as a pastor working with families and parents as they raise their children, I am
concerned about how this phenomenon of communicating through modern technology is also impacting
the way youth and adults within a family situation relate, communicate and trust each other.
Some years ago, a diplomat was telling me of a conversation he had with his daughter,
trying to explain to her why he could not attend her dance recital, having been charged
with serious negotiations impacting world peace that would force him to travel abroad.
She was unconvinced, unsympathetic and hurt; what he said was not credible.
But then, some days later she saw a news interview her father gave on a website explaining the
importance of the meeting that took him away from home.
She called her father to tell him she now understood because she saw it on a website
channel.
The moral of the story, if you want to talk to your children and have them believe you,
send them a link to your YouTube upload.
Seriously though, I am convinced that we should consider the impact of the ever developing
communications technology on our world especially our youth, which I am describing here, as
a wakeup call.
A good place to start, it seems to me, is to pay more attention to mining the results
of your virtue project and the tradition of solidarity for resources that might challenge
this narrow approach to communications and offer one that is more integrated and authentically
human.
In fact, I am convinced that faced with this urgent moment with seemingly intractable challenges
we face today, that your advocacy of promoting virtue through self-transcendence and the
consistent ethic of solidarity I speak about today, not only share much in common, but
have the potential of informing each other to better contribute to human flourishing
and the common good.
My explanation of a consistent… my explanation of a consistent ethic of solidarity as aiming
at uniting humanity through a reawakening of our interdependence as a human family,
while not exhaustive of what Candace Vogler describes as your project in her piece featured
on your virtue blog, seems to have a great deal in common.
Let me quote just a bit of it here: "self-transcendence," she writes, "shows itself when I live my
life and understand my life as essentially connected to a good beyond my own comfort,
the security and comfort of my friends and immediate family, the goods of personal achievement,
success, self-expression, and the like.
My life is lived through participation in a good that goes beyond personal achievement,
expression, security and comfort, beyond even the need to promote those goods for members
of my intimate circle.
I work on behalf of bettering the community in ways that will help strangers,…
I have a self-transcendent orientation to the living of my daily life.
My own life is a part of some good crucial to good life more generally, as best I can
understand, serve, and embody that larger good."
In this final section of my paper I want to suggest some concrete pathways and priorities
for creating a greater sense of solidarity in practice which would be in line with your
goals of building the common good in a way that fosters virtue, happiness and the meaning
of life.
The first is dialogue.
Dialogue is essential for building solidarity, but it also demands self-transcendence.
Avery Dulles, the son of John Foster Dulles, who served as secretary of State, became a
Jesuit priest and then was named a cardinal in his later years.
He once wrote that it takes great strength, virtue, to give permission to another person
to sit across from you and tell you why they think you are wrong.
Pope Francis put it this way: "We ought to be able to acknowledge the other person's
truth, the value of his or her deepest concerns, and what it is that they are trying to communicate,
however aggressively."
Dialogue only comes with patience and respect for the other.
It takes into account that people, men and women, youth and adults, those from different
cultures and economic backgrounds, communicate differently.
They speak different "languages" and they act in different ways.
They ask and respond to questions differently and vary in their tone, timing, conditioned
by so many factors.
So dialogue requires discipline, the kind that refrains from speaking until it is time,
and making sure that we have heard the other person out.
It takes the kind of self-transcendence that cultivates an interior silence that makes
it possible to listen to the other person without prejudgments or the distractions of
worries, fears or one's agenda.
All of this creates a fresh environment in which real authentic human communication takes
place, not just an exchange of ideas but an exchange of lives, aspirations, values, histories
in a way that creates bridges between others where there were only walls beforehand We
need to take all of this into consideration if we are going to encourage authentic dialogue
that offers an effective alternative to the technological communications paradigm that
promises much but delivers little when it comes to human flourishing and the common
good.
Secondly, a collective self examination of conscious.
In a his 2016 article in America Magazine, James Keenan, SJ, the Canisius Professor of
Moral Theology at Boston College, notes that following the Second World War, European theologians,
shocked by the complicity of believers in the Holocaust, "began a process of understanding
their capacity for evil by examining the history of their own actions."
In effect, they called for a collective examination of conscience, inspiring them to take corporate
responsibility.
"That understanding continues to be visible today when one visits Germany, for instance,
and sees public, social reminders of the nation's own atrocities.
From the Concentration Camp Memorial in Dachau to the Berlin Memorial for the Murdered Jews
of Europe, we can literally enter and see the pangs of the European conscience evident
in its enduring testimonials," as Keenan observes.
He goes on to say that we suffer in this country from an arrested development of conscience,
which is rooted to some extent in "the longstanding American incapacity to recognize its own wrongdoing.
Indeed, historians comment on the practice of American exceptionalism, in which we excuse
many of our actions by presuming that our nation has a manifest destiny that exempts
us from the standards that others must follow."
As an example, he points to slavery in this country, noting that "Despite the nation's
own history of enslaving millions of people and of enjoying the benefit of slavery even
without owning slaves, America has never collectively faced itself in conscience.
As M. Shawn Copeland reminds us, the American conscience is haunted, profoundly damaged
by the complex history of slavery in the United States and by its national willfulness to
accommodate to and profit from racism."
It seems to me that such a collective self-examination is the ultimate form of transcendence called
for in your virtue project and is also an instance of radical solidarity with those
who have been and are excluded from the common good.
An examination of what this means for your project could make an important contribution
in bringing healing to a gaping wound that continues to affect not only the body politic
of our nation but the streets of our city.
My final suggestion is less dramatic, but no less important and that is recovering the
importance of friendship.
Friendships develop naturally; they are relationships that grow organically.
They take time, discipline, mutual respect, dialogue and discipline.
They don't just happen.
They take work and they grow in ordered sequence.
We meet someone.
We see something in them that we like and they see something they like about us.
In friendships we reveal something about ourselves that we may not have appreciated.
Friendships involved self-transcendence, allowing us to transcend differences of opinion and
conflicts, bring comfort in trial and they grow in moments of forgiveness and failing.
All human communities, and society at large understand the value of friendships for society.
In fact, centuries ago, Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, noted that friendships are needed
for the growth of civilization.
He remarked that while friendships, like justice, are not found in tyrannies, they are proper
to democracies, "because the citizens, being equal, have much in common."
St. Thomas Aquinas, by the way, picked up on this perhaps by saying bene velle alicui
which means wishing the other well, he built on what Aristotle had said about friendships.
Mentioning that it is about wishing the other person well that we meet.
We seem to have lost the value of friendship in our social relationships.
Our nation seems to have lost a sense of the importance of cultivating friendships as fellow
citizens who, being equal, share much in common.
Instead, our politics and public discourse are often marked by enmity and animosity.
There is an overly competitive character that defines how we relate to one another, relationships
are transactional.
Emphasizing what divides us rather than what we share in common.
And because we as the body politic do not value growing together, just as it is with
any organism, cancers easily develop which can threaten to harm us all.
Positions harden, progress is stalled, and it soon becomes clear that the body politic
has only so much capacity to endure the suffering.
Your turn to the classics as resource, I believe, offers you much on the topic of friendship,
which I would encourage you to explore as you build out your understanding of the importance
of self-transcendence for cultivating a virtuous life.
I hope that my words tonight leave you with a sense not only that the Church values the
virtue project, but is a willing partner in furthering its aspirations.
In fact, it is worth recalling the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World,
Gaudium et Spes from the Second Vatican Council, which provided a new paradigm for the Church's
mission, declared that the Church embraces her role in the modern age of being "at
once a sign and a safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person."
Gaudium et Spes 76.
Pope Francis witnessed to this approach in his 2015 Address to the U.S. Congress.
He began by observing that his visit to our country coincided with anniversaries of several
great Americans who demonstrated through their hard work and sacrifice the virtue of building
a better future for all.
He cited four in particular, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas
Merton, who "shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American
people," but who throughout our history have helped us "to live through many crises,
tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so
with dignity.
These men and women," he continued, "offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality.
In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now
of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves."
The pope's words seem to be a good way to conclude my remarks for they remind us of
two important things I want to leave with you tonight.
First, the importance of the word "self" in self-transcendence.
The pursuit of virtue, as these four Americans show, begins with each of us, taking personal
responsibility for the way we live, our own human development and formation in a way that
forces us to be real and honest about the world we live in and the circumstances of
our personal lives.
In a word, virtue begins with us.
But, the words of Pope Francis also highlight a key ingredient of social cohesion, we often
underplay.
I am talking about the value of giving good example.
Good example, as Pope Francis observes, has an enduring power to embolden, inspire and
encourage others to live through crises and challenges as they tap into the deepest culture
reserves that hold these good examples in trust throughout the ages.
Therein lies the two-fold value your project aims to achieve: rekindling in us a fresh
resolve to take personal responsibility for our lives, joining with others in solidarity
for the building up the common good, and at the same time as we live in a world weighed
down by so many thorny challenges, to ever remain attentive to how much good there is
in the world, in people around us who give us good example and who share these same aspirations.
In asking me to join you tonight you have done both of these for me.
You have strengthened my resolve and as I look out over you tonight you have opened
my eyes to remember that there is so much good around us.
Thank you.
[Applause]
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