The Address

Secretary Rice receives her honorary degree today from Boston College President, Father William Leahy. Photo by Josie Duckett

(Josie Duckett)

Commencement Address at Boston College
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Boston, Massachusetts
May 22, 2006

audio video
the address, commentary-free

(11:25 a.m. EDT)
Thank you very much. Thank you to Chairman Pat Stokes, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, to Jack Connors, the vice chairman and, of course, a special thanks to Father Leahy and to Father Monan who have given the leadership of this great university that has made it a very, very special place.

The requisite flattery at the beginning of a speech, obvious to those who know the reality of the progressive decline of Boston College.

It's wonderful to be back here in Boston and to join you for this splendid ceremony today. As an academic, I'm honored to be here at Boston College, a place of learning that is respected today not just in America, but throughout all the world. As a student of a Catholic high school, the Sisters of Loretta taught me, I am pleased to be at an institution of higher education with such strong and celebrated Catholic and Jesuit traditions.

Strong celebrated Catholic traditions? If they are present or acknowledged, they are ignored by most--yes, there are some good Jesuit priests here and there who teach in accordance with the Faith and celebrate the liturgy reverently, but they have a limited following. As for the Jesuit tradition of education, that has fallen by the wayside, in the name of updating the Ratio Studiorum. What Catholic leaves Boston College with their faith and spiritual life strengthened? Who instead loses their faith? Who is ruined because of the school's failure to form and guide and advise regarding relationships? Is this what it means to be Catholic, to ignore original sin and its effects, and pretend that one's vocation as a teacher is carefully circumscribed? Or that those who have responsibilities for the young can merely check out when it is 4:30 P.M., because their workday is over?

But as a sports fan, I'm feeling a little uneasy standing right here on the 50-yard line of Eagles football. You see, I got my Master's Degree at Notre Dame. (Boos.) I acquired a passion for the fighting Irish. Now for decades, I have to admit, though, I've been on the other side of what has become known as "the holy war" between our Catholic colleges. And for decades I've watched in frustration as Boston College has consistently ruined some of Notre Dame's best seasons. (Applause.) Now I want to assure you I'm not here to wish the Eagles goodwill, but I do want to congratulate you on an impressive debut in the ACC last year and to say I know you'll do it again. (Applause.) Members of the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, distinguished alumni and guests and especially graduates and students, family and friends, Class of 2006, thank you for welcoming me here. I will always remember my undergraduate commencement at the University of Denver. I remember how proud my parents were. I remember the thrill of achieving an important goal. What I don't remember is one word that my commencement speaker said. And chances are that you won't either and I promise not to take it personally.

Instead, all of you in the Class of 2006 will leave Boston College with other, more lasting memories. I bet most of you will remember Marathon Monday and a certain show called BC. I'm guessing most of you will remember late nights at Mary Ann's and parties at the Motts. (Applause.) Well, maybe you won't remember all of them. (Laughter.) And of course, I imagine that all of you will have no problem remembering that October night of your sophomore year when, after 86 years, the Boston Red Sox finally broke the Curse of the Bambino. (Applause.)

But of all your experiences at Boston College, none is more meaningful, of course, than the education you've received here. You see, education is transformational. It literally changes lives. That is why people work so hard to become educated and that is why education has always been the key to the American Dream, the force that erases arbitrary divisions of race and class and culture and unlocks every person's God-given potential. As John F. Kennedy once said, "All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal
opportunity to develop our talents."

More flattery, and the promotion of the illusion that meritocracy holds true for most of the United States. The cynic says that those in power advance those who are best suited to serving them and their program, not those who are in tune with what serves the common good. As for education being the key to the American Dream, perhaps it is true, if we understand the American Dream being the attainment of a certain measure of socio-economic success and the materal goods that accompany it. Did people aim at higher goods? Family, God, and so on? Yes, but climbing up the ladder was also an important goal, perhaps even more important. Now, we only need to look at the way people live their lives to see that the higher goods are negligible.

The American vision of education inspired the founding of Boston College. For thousands of citizens facing discrimination and disadvantage, Boston College has been a sanctuary and a source of empowerment, a place where hardworking, capable people who just needed opportunity and someone who believed in them.

This college's mission resonates with me on a very personal level, for I've learned in my own life that education is the single greatest force for equality in the world. I first learned about the transformational power of education from stories about my paternal grandfather, a real family hero. You see, Granddaddy was a poor sharecropper's son from Ewtah -- that's E-w-t-a-h -- Alabama. And one day, Granddaddy decided he was going to get book learning so he asked, in the parlance of the day, where a colored man could go to school. And he was told that there was this little Presbyterian college just about 50 miles down the road.

So Granddaddy Rice saved up his cotton to pay for his first year's tuition and he went off to Stillman College. But after his first year, he didn't have any more money and they told him he was going to have to leave school. And Granddaddy said to a college administrator, "Well, how are those boys going to school?" And the administrator said, "Well, you see, they have what's called a scholarship. And if you wanted to be a Presbyterian minister, then you could have a scholarship, too." And Granddaddy Rice said, "You know, that's just what I had in mind," and my family has been college educated and Presbyterian ever since. (Laughter and applause.)

Because of all that my grandfather and others of my ancestors endured, including poverty and segregation, they understood that education was a privilege, but also that privilege confers obligations. And so today, I would like to suggest to you what I think are five important responsibilities of educated people.

The first responsibility is one that you have to yourself, the responsibility to find and follow your passion. I don't mean just any old thing that interests you, not just something that you could or might do, but that one unique calling that you can't do without. As an educated person, you have the opportunity to spend your life doing what you love and you should never forget that many do not enjoy such a rare privilege. As you work to find your passion, you should know that sometimes, your passion just finds you.

Yes, everyone has a vocation--but reducing it to finding and following one's passion, without grounding it in a secure foundation in God, is a potential disaster--there is no guarantee that my passion is not disordered and counter to reason, unless there is some standard against which I can evaluate it. At worse, this is a platitude that enforces the status quo, and what we need is not the continuation of the status quo, since that will end in disaster, but intelligent and focused reform. But who has told the students that they should expect opposition from the world if they seek to further its recapitulation in Christ? Or that they are not warring against "flesh and blood" but against "powers and principalities"?

That's what happened to me. I was supposed to be a concert pianist. I could read music before I could read. And I started college as a music major. But around the end of my sophomore year, I started encountering prodigies, 12-year-olds who could play from sight what it had taken me all year to learn, and I thought, "I'm going to end up playing piano bar or teaching 13-year-olds to murder Beethoven or maybe playing at Nordstrom, but I'm not going to play Carnegie Hall." And I went to my parents and I decided that I had better find something else to do.

I was lost and confused, but one day, a wonderful thing happened. I wandered into a course on international politics taught by a Czech refugee who specialized in Soviet studies, a man who had a daughter by the name of Madeleine Albright. With that one class, I was hooked. I discovered that my passion was Russia and all things Russian. Needless to say, this was not exactly what young black girls from Birmingham were supposed to do in the early 1970s, but it just shows you that your passion may be hard to spot, so keep an open mind and keep searching.

Perhaps one has read the articles discussing the disadvantages of too many choices. Then there is the rising phenomenon of adultlescence, which plagues many. Telling college graduates that they should continue their search for "who they are" merely confirms the fact that colleges and parents have failed to show them the way. These sort of decisions should have been made in their teens, if they had received the proper upbringing and guidance; waiting until one has finished college to wonder what they should be doing with the rest of their lives--it should be no wonder that marriage is delayed until much later in life, if not avoided.

Our present political-economic system gives the illusion that there is flexibility and freedom and mobility--but in reality, there isn't; the majority of people soon find that out they have to work a job they don't like, if they want to pay their bills and get rid of debt. Are the rest are blinded by financial success? If they have made mammon their god, then yes. This system doesn't promote sanctity, but seeks to squash it, since those who are in power are servants of mammon. Talk about freedom is necessary to placate the masses, and give them the illusion of being in control over their lives and the hope that they too, if they work hard enough, can be live like the elites.

The second responsibility of an educated person is the commitment to reason. Boston College has prepared you with a true education. You haven't been taught what to think, but rather, how to think, how to ask questions, how to reject assumptions, how to seek knowledge; in short, how to exercise reason. This experience will sustain you for the rest of your lives, but no one should assume that a life of reason is easy; to the contrary. It takes a great deal of courage and honesty. For the only way that you will grow intellectually is by examining your opinions, attacking your prejudices constantly and completely with the force of your reason.

An abstract commitment to 'reason'--one does not commit to reason for it's own sake, one commits to reason if at all, for the sake of TRUTH, aletheia, veritas. It would be better to say that one commits oneself to truth, and at a Catholic university, to Him who is "the way, the TRUTH, and the life." "Love the Lord your God... with all your mind."

How about a fresh critical look at the tenets of liberalism? But liberalism is an acceptable prejudice. After all, any one with the access of reason can understand that liberalism is the right way? The fantasy of the Enlightenment...

This can be unsettling and it can be tempting instead to opt for the false comfort of a life without questions. Unfortunately, that's easier to do than ever. It's possible today to live in an eco-chamber that serves only to reinforce your own high opinion of yourself and what you think. That is a temptation that educated people have a responsibility to reject. There is nothing wrong with holding an opinion and holding it passionately. But at those times when you're absolutely sure that you are right, go find somebody who disagrees. Don't allow yourself the easy course of the constant "amen" to everything that you say. (Applause.)

Fairly good advice, perhaps applicable more to the inhabitants of academia than to the students, just like the follwing--

A commitment to reason leads to your third responsibility as an educated person, which is the rejection of false pride. It is natural, especially among the educated, to want to credit your success to your own intelligence and hard work and good judgment. And it is true, of course, that all of you sitting here today are here because you do, in fact, possess these qualities, but it is also true that merit alone did not see you to this day.

A good point about the need for humility.

There are many people in this country and in this world who are just as intelligent, just as hard working and just as deserving of success as you are. But for whatever reason, maybe a broken home, maybe poverty, maybe just bad luck, these people did not enjoy all of the opportunities that you have had at Boston College. Don't ever forget that. Never assume that your own sense of entitlement has gotten you what you have or that it will get you what you want. Boston College has summoned all of you to the Jesuit ideals of compassion and charity for those less fortunate. Now commencement marks your opportunity, indeed your obligation, to graduate with wisdom and humility. (Applause.)

And should we thank God for what we have received? Where is He in all of this? Is charity merely doing something for the less fortunate? Or does it refer primarily to God? How can one graduate with wisdom if one has not received it? How can one live up to one's obligation to pursue wisdom if one has not been directed away from the obstacles to wisdom, including the passions and vice?

The fourth responsibility of the educated person is to be optimistic. Too often, cynicism can be the fellow traveler of learning and I understand why. History is full of much cruelty and suffering and darkness and it can be hard sometimes to believe that a brighter future is indeed dawning. But for all of our past failings, for all of our current problems, more people now enjoy lives of hope and opportunity than ever before in all of human history. This progress has been the concerted effort not of cynics but of visionaries and optimists, of impatient patriots who dealt with our world as it was, but who never ever accepted that they were powerless to change that world for the better.

This is nonsense. This may be the attitude of the current administration when evaluating the current situation oversease, especially in certain countries, but what should be encouraged is not a naive trusting optimism, but realism--

As for changing that world for the better--is that the meddlesome program of PNAC and the neoconservatives?

Progress is not inevitable, and it is the false promise of liberalism that has contributed to many of the challenges we face today. How do we change the world for the better? By living in Christ and taking up our crosses. We are either for Christ or against Christ; if we are against Him, we are part of the problem, not the solution.

Here in America our own ideals of freedom and equality have been borne through generations by optimists, by people of reason, to be sure, but just as importantly, by people of faith, people who reject the all-too-common assumption that if you can't see something happening and measure it, then it can't possibly be real.

A possible reference to God. But not much more than that... "people believe, but what they believe isn't so important, just as long as they do believe." How is that different from the ending of The Da Vinci Code (the movie)?

There was a time when the goal of democracy in America seemed impossible, but because people had faith in democracy's promise, today, it seems that it must have always been inevitable. There was also a day in my own lifetime when the hope of liberty and justice for all seemed impossible. But because individuals kept faith with the ideal of America, it seems that it was always inevitable that today, there has been a decade since we last had a white male Secretary of State. (Applause.)

We see what sort of faith is more important--faith in Western liberal democracy--"if we believe in democracy, we can move mountains and work wonders." Dr. Rice has confirmed that for the elites, this is the ideal of America, an ideology not rooted in or dependent upon tradition and culture, but having its source in... Reason. This is their version of multiculturalism--and one which radical multiculturalists endorse implicitly--after all, one can't undermine tradition and culture unless one can also claim to be doing it in good faith, and to promote universal morality?

"Your culture and traditions are acceptable, so long as they make no demands upon your intellectual and moral commitement--what difference does it make if you eat with chopsticks? So long as you are a good liberal and support the current order it doesn't matter."

And if Christ calls us to something more? If Christianity is not reconcilable with liberalism? What happens then?
You have been fortunate to study at a college where reason and faith exist together and reinforce one another. But you're headed into a world where optimists are too often told to keep their ideals to themselves. It is your responsibility as educated people to remain optimistic no matter what, but that's not all. You have an obligation to act on those ideals and this, I believe, is the final responsibility to the educated person; really, the most important responsibility of all, to work to advance human progress.

The flattery continues--at Boston College there is no harmonization of reason with faith. Who gets the last word if there is a conflict? The secular expert, whether it be the scientist or the sociologist or the psychologist. The Church Fathers and the Doctors of the Church? Ignoramuses. The saints? Quaint people who lived in accordance with their beliefs (and that's ok, as long as you don't seek to impose those beliefs on me), but they probably had some sort of psychological problem.

To work to advance human progress? What kind of progress? Let us see what Dr. Rice says about this--
What do I mean by human progress? I believe that all human beings share certain fundamental aspirations. They want protections for their lives and their liberties. They want to think freely and to worship as they wish. They want opportunities to educate their children, boys and girls, and they want to be ruled by the consent of the governed, not by the coercion of the state. So I would define human progress this way. Progress is humankind's ability to view more and more of our differences, whether of race or religion or culture or gender, not as a license to kill or a cause for repression, but as matters of no moral significance whatsoever.

Progress having as its goal some form of liberalism. Apparently Dr. Rice, like many of the elites, still holds on to the dreams of the Enlightenment. Do accidental differences between human beings constitute a basis for moral/political differentiation? Perhaps not in a secular Enlightenment polity like the United States. But to make this a universal goal? Whose version of distributive justice do we want?

All too often, difference has been used to divide and to dehumanize. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the Birmingham of Bull Connor and the Ku Klux Klan, a place that was once quite properly described as the most segregated city in America. I know how it feels to hold aspirations when half your neighbors think that you're incapable or uninterested in anything higher. In my professional life, I've listened with disbelief as it was said that men and women in Asia and Africa and Latin America and Russia and in the Middle East today did not share the basic aspirations of all human beings. Somehow, it was thought, these people were just different and by that, it was meant unworthy, unworthy of what we enjoy.

It is your responsibility as educated people to reject these prejudices and to help close the gaps of justice and opportunity that still divide our nation and our world. I know this mission is very close to the heart of Boston College. The Jesuit ideal of service to others has inspired this class to devote thousands of hours of your own time to help those in need. Most of you have spent a summer break on mission service or worked here at home in impoverished American communities, perhaps in New Orleans after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Others ventured beyond our shores to assist the needy in countries like Brazil and Jamaica and Mexico.

Ah yes, because the Jesuit ideal is centered on social justice, not Jesus Christ. If one is a follower of Christ, does one act justly for His sake and seek to promote justice within a political community? Yes. But if one is committed to 'justice' is one necessarily a follower of Christ? No. After all, Marxists could very well claim they are seeking to promote justice, and that revolution and murder is justified in the name of a higher good. When a student says it is more important to be just than to follow the teachings of the Church, which are unjust, what has gone wrong?

This experience, I imagine, has taught you that progress never unfolds passively or inevitably. No, the promise of human progress is always carried forward by men and women who serve a cause greater than themselves. I know how hard it can be these days, when we see images of genocide in Darfur or violence in Iraq or destruction along our own Gulf coast, to believe that such a thing of human progress is possible is sometimes difficult. I know that even optimists among us sometimes feel tested today, but in moments like these draw solace from education and also from historical perspective.

Progress isn't inevitable? What a shock. At least she admits that much. Instead, she encourages us to keep the faith, and to work to bring about the liberal design for the world. This is the cause greater than ourselves, not God, who apparently doesn't figure at all in this picture. What happened to sin? How can we overcome injustice if we do not seek to overcome injustice in ourselves and make things right with our Lord? It is not liberal justice that will triumph, but charity.

I spent last summer reading the biographies of America's Founding Fathers. I read of Jefferson and Adams and Washington and Hamilton. And when you read of their lives and their times, you are struck by the overwhelming sense that there is no earthly reason that the United States of America should ever have come into being. But not only did we come into being, we endured. And not only have we endured, we have thrived. We have thrived despite the fact that when the Founding Fathers said, "We, the people," they didn't mean me. We have thrived despite the fact that my ancestors were deemed to be three-fifths of a man and sold at auction. We have thrived despite the fact that it was only in my lifetime that we finally guaranteed the right to vote for all Americans. So remember, even when the horizon seems shrouded in darkness, the hope of a brighter beginning is always in sight. (Applause.)

The rebels got lucky. Is there a case to be made for independence, based on considerations of sovereignty and reasonableness? Yes. Was a violent revolution necessary to accomplish this? Debatable. The Union has endured, but at what cost? At the cost of the right of secession? States' rights and autonomy? The protection of local communities?

When the horizon seems shrouded in darkness, the hope we Catholics see is not in an order established by human beings following liberalism, but Christ.

I've been told that in keeping with the senior tradition, all of you gathered this morning on the roof the Beacon Street garage to watch the sunrise on your last day as college students (applause) -- your first day as men and women of the world. This morning indeed marks a new and glorious beginning for all of you and all of you are well-prepared for what lies ahead. You now leave Boston College to join the ranks of the world's most privileged community, the community of the educated. So as you leave, let me ask you to bear a few things in mind. Remember your responsibilities to find your passion, to use your reason, to cultivate humility, to remain optimistic and always to serve others. Remember this moment right now and remember all of those who contributed so that it could come -- your parents and your families and your friends who supported you through all of these times. (Applause.)

Traditionally the educated were among the elites, but with the continuing devaluation of education and of degrees, the phrase "community of the educated" does not contribute to humility but to pride rooted in a false appraisal of one's qualities.

But remember this, too. You've had a wonderful opportunity to become educated people, but what really matters is not what you have learned and not what is said to you on this day, but what you do with all the days ahead of you. May God speed you on your way. Thank you. (Applause.)

True, what is not important is not having knowledge, but acting and living well--still, acquiring knowledge and wisdom is the aim of education, and it is unfortunate that Boston College does not equip its students with the skills they need. How many of its graduates know where wisdom is to be found? Can they even distinguish between knowledge and opinion? Have they been cured of or innoculated against relativism and skepticism? How many have been taught instead to reject tradition, instead of coming to understand the rational basis for tradition? Have they instead learned how to justify contemporary mores against what they might have learned from their parents or church?

Undoubtedly at colleges and universities all over the country students are being served the same sort of warmed-over platitudes and pollyanna that passes for advice. The only reason I'm singling out Dr. Rice is because she spoke at Boston College and because BC is supposed to be a Catholic school. Is Ex corde Ecclesiae being consigned to the dustbin of history, like John XXIII's letter on the teaching of Latin? How many teachers and students are aware of Ex corde Ecclesiae?

I wasn't expecting Dr. Rice to apologize for the administration and for the continued poor leadership exercised by the elites in this country. She can't apologize for them, they must apologize for themselves. But ideally there should be an admission that things are not going well, and that we must learn how to be moderate in many areas. "I'm sorry we have failed you and have failed to make conditions in this country better, especially when it comes to protecting and fostering economic opportunity for our citizens." In 10 years, how many of Boston College's graduates will be dissatisfied and unhappy, because their current jobs do not match their expectations? If greater difficulties ensue, how many will have the character and spiritual formation that will enable them to deal with them in a Christ-like manner?