Creating Community
Dear Saint Mary’s Friends,
In my August letter, I wrote to you as I was reflecting on Sarah Bakewell’s book about French philosopher Michel de Montaigne. My observations were grounded in a certainty that free expression and free inquiry can and should be lived out in community on a college campus like ours. And now September has given all of us reasons to pause and reflect on how a rising tide of politically motivated violence has targeted and silenced controversial speech. Students and other members of our SMC community—from across the political spectrum—have expressed fear that they too could experience violence for expressing their views. In this fractured moment of our national life, I am distressed to observe how mistrust and polarization shuts down dialogue and dismisses the practices of respect, curiosity, attention, and hope that we so desperately need.
At Saint Mary’s, I hope we can model something better than a battle of entrenched viewpoints. With nearly 1,700 students, over 500 faculty and staff members, and a few hundred Sisters of the Holy Cross sharing one small campus, we already have a crowd. But a true community is more than a crowd, more than a noisy throng of thinkers and speakers. What distinguishes a community is that our words and actions matter to one another. We cannot allow our exchanges to be merely about seeking victory. To use a favorite word from Sister Madeleva Wolff CSC, these exchanges must instead be about discovery—the discovery of new insights, of shared values, and even of the limitations and blind spots in our own perspectives. Those blind spots and limitations can only be exposed by testing ideas with others who see and think differently than ourselves. This is how education moves from information to formation, from argument to understanding and wisdom.
We talk a lot about “belonging” at Saint Mary’s, and every lamp-post along The Avenue announces this with a banner proclaiming: “You Belong.” So let’s be clear: belonging here means more than just having a place at the table; it means being seen, heard, and taken seriously, even when disagreement is sharp—or maybe especially when it is. Belonging means that we are not talking into the void or shouting across party lines but entering into a kind of dialogue that carries the possibility of mutual transformation. In short, true community requires both freedom and belonging, and those values show up when we promote both the courage to speak and the openness to listen and to be changed.
In Catholic thought, these are not only civic practices but also moral ones. Catholic Social Teaching insists that each person’s dignity demands our attention. Each voice matters—not only because it expresses unique ideas but also because we are called to care about the person who speaks through it. Our listening cannot be merely a tactic for persuasion: it must be an act of deep regard for the humanity of the other. Montaigne’s wisdom bears repeating: our own judgments grow more subtle when tested against different lives and conflicting perspectives. We are formed not by echo chambers but by prisms where we can see ourselves refracted through others. Pope Francis called this “a culture of encounter,” a societal framework that builds bridges and combats indifference and a "throwaway culture.”
I encourage everyone to use this disquieting moment to encounter each other more fully, to listen more generously, and to disagree without contempt. Whatever you are feeling—fear, outrage, lament—turn toward each other. Join hands in friendship and in prayer. Make our community a balm. This requires the courage to resist the allure of our own certainty and the safety of homogeneity. Be brave! And be kind!
If we can hold this vision of community and actively cultivate it, we will model something urgently needed in our polarized world: a way of living together that is not about silencing or shouting—not about alienation or violence—but about seeking truth and building a common life that serves the common good. I’m eager to continue building that community with you.
September 30, 2025