Bishop O’Connell addresses national gathering of Catholic college, university leaders
February 2, 2025 at 5:21 p.m.
Bishop O'Connell celebrates Mass during the annual meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Washington. At right is Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Papal Nuncio to the United States who concelebrated. Staff photoEach winter, presidents and senior administrators from the 230 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States and from around the world come together in Washington, DC for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities’ signature event. The Annual Meeting offers members the opportunity to greet colleagues, share ideas and discuss important issues in Catholic higher education. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Stewarding the Mission: Transforming the Enterprise.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities' Annual Meeting
Click here to read Bishop's ACCU Mass Homily
Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., serves as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education. The organizers of the Association’s Annual Meeting invited him to be the celebrant and homilist of Mass to begin their gathering.
Prior to his becoming the 10th Bishop of Trenton in the summer of 2010, Bishop O’Connell was the 14th president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, serving from 1998 to 2010. CUA is popularly known as “the Bishops’ University,” the national university of Catholics in the United States. During his tenure there, Bishop O’Connell also served as a consultor on the Vatican Congregation (now Dicastery) for Catholic Education.
In the homily at the Mass, which was concelebrated by the Papal Nuncio to the United States Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Bishop O’Connell reflected on the meaning of the weekend’s Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.
He began by highlighting Pope Francis’ frequent use of the expression “encounter” in his homilies, talks and writings. The Bishop told the Catholic college and university presidents and administrators gathered in Washington’s Grand Hyatt Hotel that the notion “encounter” refers to “what lies at the heart of the Christian vocation: meeting the Lord Jesus Christ.” Leadership in Catholic education today requires such an “encounter” on our campuses, the Bishop said.
Bishop O’Connell explained that on the Feast celebrating the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, the Holy Family encountered the Old Testament’s prophecies, traditions and laws that introduced them to the Messiah, ushering in a new covenant, a new opportunity to “encounter” the presence and grace of God. It is that experience of “encounter” that supports Pope Francis’ call to all the faithful of the Church to be “pilgrims of hope,” especially on Catholic college and university campuses, the Bishop said.
Bishop O'Connell greets Sister Raffaella Petrini, FSE, who serves as Secretary General of the Vatican City State. Staff photo
He continued, “Our conference this weekend has as its theme ‘Stewarding the Mission: Transforming the Enterprise.’ Those words represent the challenges, responsibilities and duties that are ours as leaders in the ‘enterprise’ of Catholic higher education. We ‘steward the mission’ that draws from our ‘encounter’ with the Lord Jesus in his Word, in his Church and its history, teachings and traditions, and in the experience of academic communities we serve through our leadership.”
The Bishop concluded his homily by saying, “My sisters and brothers, on this Feast when the Church, in parishes throughout the world, blesses candles, let’s make ourselves and our leadership ‘candles’ that light and illumine the paths of those in our classrooms and communities, seeking a hope-filled encounter with the Lord Jesus in the ‘temples’ of this world.”
Following the Mass, attendees gathered for a festive reception and dinner. One president asked the Bishop, “You have sat in our seats as a university president with all its challenges, and now you occupy a different ‘chair’ as a bishop with different challenges--- which position is harder”? Bishop O’Connell smiled and replied, “It depends on the day!”
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Bishop O'Connell celebrates Mass during the annual meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Washington. At right is Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Papal Nuncio to the United States who concelebrated. Staff photoEach winter, presidents and senior administrators from the 230 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States and from around the world come together in Washington, DC for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities’ signature event. The Annual Meeting offers members the opportunity to greet colleagues, share ideas and discuss important issues in Catholic higher education. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Stewarding the Mission: Transforming the Enterprise.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities' Annual Meeting
Click here to read Bishop's ACCU Mass Homily
Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., serves as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education. The organizers of the Association’s Annual Meeting invited him to be the celebrant and homilist of Mass to begin their gathering.
Prior to his becoming the 10th Bishop of Trenton in the summer of 2010, Bishop O’Connell was the 14th president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, serving from 1998 to 2010. CUA is popularly known as “the Bishops’ University,” the national university of Catholics in the United States. During his tenure there, Bishop O’Connell also served as a consultor on the Vatican Congregation (now Dicastery) for Catholic Education.
In the homily at the Mass, which was concelebrated by the Papal Nuncio to the United States Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Bishop O’Connell reflected on the meaning of the weekend’s Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.
He began by highlighting Pope Francis’ frequent use of the expression “encounter” in his homilies, talks and writings. The Bishop told the Catholic college and university presidents and administrators gathered in Washington’s Grand Hyatt Hotel that the notion “encounter” refers to “what lies at the heart of the Christian vocation: meeting the Lord Jesus Christ.” Leadership in Catholic education today requires such an “encounter” on our campuses, the Bishop said.
Bishop O’Connell explained that on the Feast celebrating the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, the Holy Family encountered the Old Testament’s prophecies, traditions and laws that introduced them to the Messiah, ushering in a new covenant, a new opportunity to “encounter” the presence and grace of God. It is that experience of “encounter” that supports Pope Francis’ call to all the faithful of the Church to be “pilgrims of hope,” especially on Catholic college and university campuses, the Bishop said.
Bishop O'Connell greets Sister Raffaella Petrini, FSE, who serves as Secretary General of the Vatican City State. Staff photo
He continued, “Our conference this weekend has as its theme ‘Stewarding the Mission: Transforming the Enterprise.’ Those words represent the challenges, responsibilities and duties that are ours as leaders in the ‘enterprise’ of Catholic higher education. We ‘steward the mission’ that draws from our ‘encounter’ with the Lord Jesus in his Word, in his Church and its history, teachings and traditions, and in the experience of academic communities we serve through our leadership.”
The Bishop concluded his homily by saying, “My sisters and brothers, on this Feast when the Church, in parishes throughout the world, blesses candles, let’s make ourselves and our leadership ‘candles’ that light and illumine the paths of those in our classrooms and communities, seeking a hope-filled encounter with the Lord Jesus in the ‘temples’ of this world.”
Following the Mass, attendees gathered for a festive reception and dinner. One president asked the Bishop, “You have sat in our seats as a university president with all its challenges, and now you occupy a different ‘chair’ as a bishop with different challenges--- which position is harder”? Bishop O’Connell smiled and replied, “It depends on the day!”