Every spring, the slate of commencement speakers at Catholic colleges across the country delivers a fresh round of inspiration — and sparks controversy. 

In fact, debate on the merits of this or that speaker usually begins well before graduation day, as indicated by recent flare-ups over who the University of Notre Dame didn’t invite and who Saint Mary’s College across the street did.

While some institutions focus on having their graduates hear from a compelling witness of the Catholic faith lived out, others choose to platform speakers with secular notoriety, who may or may not even be Catholic. And then, in the wake of headline-grabbing speeches like Harrison Butker’s last year at Benedictine College, there’s the question of who a commencement speaker should be primarily addressing: the graduates in front of them, or a wider audience? 

George Weigel has some thoughts on these and related matters. The biographer of St. John Paul II and a longtime Catholic thought leader, the 74-year-old public intellectual has given 20 commencement addresses to Catholic institutes of higher education over the years. He even has a new book that pulls them all together, entitled Pomp, Circumstances, and Unsolicited Advice: Commencement Addresses and University Lectures.

For Weigel, it’s important that speakers recognize that graduates of Catholic colleges and universities aren’t just recipients of a degree, but are also living links in the Church’s missionary tradition. And in a day and age marked by a crisis of understanding on what it even means to be human, that requires encouraging graduates to live out what Weigel calls an attractive “Christian humanism.”

That some Catholic colleges deviate from this approach is unsurprising based on Weigel’s assessment of the current landscape of Catholic higher education, which he describes as “a mixed picture.” And he doesn’t buy the argument that inviting speakers who deviate from Catholic truths is necessary for fostering “dialogue,” given the prevalence of these views on campus already.

Given that graduates are going out into “the world,” Weigel believes it’s completely appropriate to comment on the state of affairs beyond campus. At the same time, he says commencement speakers “ought not simply detonate a string of incendiary sound bites,” but should present a unified theme.

And when in doubt? Keep it short.

You’ve given 20 commencement addresses at Catholic colleges and universities. What makes for a good one? 

A dollop of humor, a serious challenge to the graduates to live as missionary disciples, whatever their vocation, and no more than 20 minutes in length. I may have violated the last on one or another occasion, but not by too much, I hope!


On graduation day, you’re typically giving words of wisdom to young adults about to leave the confines of schooling for the challenges of the working world and pursuit of their vocation. Now, in the spring of 2025, what particular advice do Catholic graduates need to hear? And how, if at all, has this changed over the decades? 

As Richard Rex of Cambridge University has pointed out, we’re now living amidst the third great crisis of Catholic history. The first — involving the question, “What is God?” — was settled by the Councils of Nicaea in in 325 A.D. and Chalcedon in 451. The second — revolving around the question, “What is the Church?” — was settled for Catholics by the 16th-century Council of Trent. Today’s crisis — “What is the human person?” — was addressed by the Christocentric humanism of Vatican II.

The challenge to graduates today is to live that Christian humanism so that others find it attractive — and then want to explore how they can live that way, too. There are many examples of how to do this, ranging from John Paul II to St. Teresa of Calcutta, from the contemporary martyrs to Blessed Carlo Acutis and St. Gianna Beretta Molla, and a good commencement address will lift up such examples. 

Your commencement addresses have been delivered at Catholic institutes of higher education, which, in the teaching of St. John Paul II, have the distinctive mission to pursue “the whole truth about nature, man, and God.” What’s your assessment of the landscape of Catholic higher education in the U.S. these days? 

It’s a mixed picture. There are great Catholic colleges and universities that take that mission seriously, and in my book readers will find some examples of those. There are historically “elite” Catholics colleges and universities that are “Catholic” vestigially, or in name only. And there are colleges and universities where there’s an ongoing battle to secure the institution’s Catholic identity.

We’re also living in something of a golden age of Catholic campus ministry across the country, including campus ministries at “elite” and deeply secularized schools and huge state colleges and universities. Better that a young Catholic adult go to one of those than a faux-Catholic school where the theology department — or what purports to be a “theology” department — teaches contempt for the truths of Catholic faith. 

 

John Paul II also describes the Catholic university as “a privileged place for a fruitful dialogue between the Gospel and culture.” Some institutions claim that this is what they’re doing when they choose secularly prestigious commencement speakers who, Catholic or not, promote policies and ideologies that violate human dignity. Is this consistent with John Paul II’s vision of “fruitful dialogue?” If not, what does effective dialogue at a Catholic college look like, including with those who hold such problematic views? 

Given the cultural air we breathe, those problematic views are going to be found on virtually every campus, so there’s no need to make things more challenging by inviting celebrities who embody resistance to, or ejection of, Catholic humanism to give commencement addresses in the name of “dialogue.” 

As for the dialogue on campus, good teachers and good campus ministers know how to lead students out of the slough of secular nihilism, because they teach or minister under the scriptural rubric “the truth will make you free.”      

 

Commencement speeches in the Catholic world sometimes have a much bigger reach than the audience they’re originally delivered to. For instance, Harrison Butker’s speech last spring made national headlines. What do you make of this trend? And what would you advise commencement speakers in terms of crafting their address — is it appropriate to try to appeal to a wider audience or should they just focus on the graduates in front of them? 

The graduates ought to be the focus of attention at a commencement address. On the other hand, many of those graduates are going out into “the world,” so there’s no need to ignore what’s going on out there. On the other hand, a commencement speaker ought not simply detonate a string of incendiary sound bites. To borrow from Winston Churchill’s critical remark that a certain dessert “lacks a theme,” a commencement address should have a theme, if it’s to delight and nourish.