2007 Valedictorian address at Notre Dame

Pretty good address. The valedictorian, Michael Rossman, had a double major in theology and economics and is said to be headed for the Jesuits.

I hope he straightens them out.

Michael Rossmann 2007 Valedictory address – University of Notre Dame : News & Information

Like many of my fellow Notre Dame graduates, I had the tremendous opportunity to study abroad.  Near the completion of my program in Uganda, I was asked to give a talk to all the families who hosted students, so I sought suggestions from my Ugandan host family for what to say.  Immediately, my host sister, Miriam, insisted that I must start my speech by saying, “I greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”  I explained to Miriam that I wasn’t comfortable with this, as many students in my non-Notre Dame program didn’t practice any sort of religion.  This led my host family to erupt in laughter and my host mother to ask, “But Michael, if they don’t have a religion, then what do they believe?”

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Fellow graduates, as we leave this university, many of us have the enormous privilege of being able to live relatively comfortable lives when compared to the majority of the world’s population.  At the same time, whether or not we live materially comfortable lives, we are ultimately called to live complicated lives.  Respecting the principles of Catholic social teaching means that the lives of millions killed around the world by treatable diseases matter, just as the economic, social, and spiritual poverty that exists in our own neighborhoods deserves our attention.  Such realities necessitate concern, sympathy, and action.  Though the answers to these problems are not always obvious, turning the page of the newspaper and failing to ask “why” would betray what this place, with its Catholic foundation, stands for.  We now share the opportunity and duty to live out what Notre Dame, grounded in both faith and reason, has planted in us.  Even though our future coworkers may not wear The Shirt on every fall Saturday, nor be willing to climb atop the office building to pray the rosary, let us not leave behind all that has shaped and complicated our lives during our time at Notre Dame.  Thank you.