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In the ninth episode of the fourth season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Rev. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., the Vice President of Mission and Ministry at Catholic University of America (CUA). Guilbeau opens by discussing the renewed interest in the work of Thomas Aquinas amongst Catholic scholars as well as the growing interest in his work amongst Protestant scholars. Part of what Guilbeau believes may be contributing to that interest is the exhaustion exhibited by the present age with merely subjective pursuits of truth. Thomas, in contrast, provides a compelling rationale for what it means to be human in relation to a world which God created and sustains. Guilbeau then discusses his own calling to the priesthood and to the Dominican order, the influence of growing up in south Louisianna, and his gratitude for mentors he encountered. He shares the details of his own educational journey, the vocational satisfaction he derives from serving on the president’s cabinet at CUA, and how his greatest vocational satisfaction is derived from saying Mass for students—even when that Mass occurs at the student-friendly hour of 10:00 PM. Guilbeau then concludes by discussing the virtues one needs to cultivate in order to serve well in a calling to campus ministry.
Todd Ream: Welcome to Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. My name is Todd Ream. I have the privilege of serving as the publisher for Christian Scholar’s Review and as the host for Saturdays at Seven. I also have the privilege of serving on the faculty and the administration at Indiana Wesleyan University.
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Our guest is Father Aquinas Guilbeau, the Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Catholic University of America. Thank you for joining us.
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: It’s good to be with you, Todd. Thank you for the invitation.
Todd Ream: Ordained to the priesthood in Lafayette, Louisiana, arguably the capital of Cajun country, I must confess your name is one of my favorites. Your family name, Guilbeau, reflects your roots in Louisiana, and your religious name, Aquinas, the name you took when you entered the novitiate and received your first habit, indicates your identification with St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the most influential members of the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans, in the Order’s 800-year history, one of the Church’s 38 doctors, or individuals who play outsized roles in understanding the Christian faith, and one referenced as the Angelic Doctor.
Would you share with us a couple of details about what your first and last name say about you and how you understand yourself and your calling?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: That’s a great question. You know, a name is something that we receive, right? So I think first and foremost, it’s to see it as an expression of God’s providence, you know, over your life. Whether, you know, whatever the, the inherited family tradition is that’s captured by the last name.
You know, a first name given by parents you know, it certainly captures at least their imagination and their dreams for you and for your life. But, you know, when you think about it, names are you know, insofar as we don’t choose them for ourselves, but it’s something we receive, it’s something we can grow into. So certainly kind of family heritage.
So my last name, Guilbeau, you know, just one of the original Cajun names of South Louisiana. The Guilbeaus were one of the original families that were in Nova Scotia immigrating there in the mid-17th century so there was a good while.
And then were subject to the expulsion by the English in the 1750s just on the cusp of the French and Indian War. And through a long series of events the Acadians, the Cajuns ended up in, in South Louisiana, reconstituting their communities and their families there.
And so for the Cajun people, that’s an important identifier for us. I mean, that shapes the imagination, shapes our understanding. And it also gives us the lens through which just to understand the culture in South Louisiana that we find ourselves and with the food and the language and the music and the religion.
I mean, that was it’s, it’s Christianity, it’s Catholicism, is something that, that was important you know, factor in that whole history of identifying and forming a people and keeping the people, you know, together and really giving them a way to express not only their faith in God, but also a, a cultural legacy and and identity. And that’s still very strong in south Louisiana.
So I’m very proud of my roots. And, you know, just knowing you know, the genealogy on both my mother and my father’s side of the family, going all the way back to the original settlers who came from France, that’s an important thing.
In terms of my first name, my religious name, Aquinas, again, by God’s providence, it’s something that I received. It’s not something I picked for myself, but was chosen for me. And as you said in the introduction St. Thomas Aquinas is not only a, I like that word, kind of an outsized figure, you know, in terms of, of his influence, his legacy.
But for the Dominican Order, because he was among, you know, the, in, within the first or second generation of Dominicans has really established at least our own intellectual heritage and tradition. And it’s really a part of the work of the Dominican Order today to preserve and to promote the legacy of, of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Not just in what he wrote and in the conclusions he came to, although those are important, but the witness and the model for the Christian life and for the Christian academic life or Christian scholarly life that he establishes. I think that’s, that’s in fact more important, I mean about St. Thomas, or at least as important as his writings.
I mean, the more we learn about St. Thomas and can imitate really the pattern of his prayer and intellectual life and shaped as that was by the ideal of the Dominican order. For Dominicans ourselves, that’s, you know, important.
And to carry his name is a, is a great honor. I mean, there are not many of us in the English Dominican-speaking in the Dominican English-speaking world who have the name Aquinas. There are a lot more Thomases than there are just Aquinases. And so it’s something I take seriously.
And, over the 20 years of my religious life now, have really come to consider St. Thomas not just a master and teacher, but a real guide and friend in the Christian life.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. Before we move on, I can’t help but ask that when you’re home in Louisiana and you’re not eating at, say, the table with your parents or grandparents or other family members, where’s your favorite place to eat?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Oh, gosh. I should start a list. You know, I get this question a lot. We have either members of the province, members of my own community and house, they’ll be, you know, for whatever reason, invited to south Louisiana. And in fact, we had one of our priests invited to preach the Red Mass in Lafayette last fall. And so he wanted a list of places to go.
So not to tip the scale in any one direction or, or in one place or other, you really, you can’t go wrong, you know it’s from gas stations to the finest establishments, the food will be good. It is worth your time and it is worth fasting a few days beforehand in order to enjoy it fully.
Todd Ream: I don’t know if I could fast for a few days beforehand with that kind of discipline I have, but I’ll schedule some exercise, you know, routines thereafter when I return.
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Indeed. We’ve got some wonderful places. I mean, south Louisiana is very much a food culture. I mean, you can’t end one meal without talking about the next one, right? And so that’s just the rhythm. That’s the rhythm of life.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. While not entirely new, since the 1990s, a growing number of Protestant theologians have also found the riches left by St. Thomas to be riches worth mining.
To what do you attribute the growing appeal and interest beyond the order and beyond the Catholic Church, but now including your Protestant brethren too?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: No, it’s a very interesting phenomenon. And it is not just unique to the Protestant world. I mean, within Catholicism too, in academic Catholicism there’s been a rebirth of Thomism. And that’s got its own particular 20th-century history. I mean, within the Catholic Church, the revival of Thomist studies beginning with Leo XIII in the late 19th century that really took off in the early 20th century.
But by the 1950s, that initial zeal, at least in our Catholic academic circles, had begun to wane. Other interests, other influences, and, and I would say mainly from the Protestant side you know, began to shape the Catholic academic imagination so that by the time you get to the Second Vatican Council there are other influences at play. And many were really, you know, singing the, a kind of funeral dirge, you know, for Thomism, thinking that it was, it was over. And that was probably the overriding spirit of the ’60s and ’70s, maybe.
But, you know, there was a faithful remnant who kept the Thomist fires burning within the Church, so that when you get to the, the ’90s and the 2000s there was this kind of, even on the Catholic side, this kind of explosion in, in interest in Thomism. You see it especially in younger academics. You see it in Catholic seminaries a real return to an interest in St. Thomas. I think that has a long history and I mean, that could be its own, own episode.
But the way I understand it is that you know, there was, coming out of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, there really was a kind of turn to the subject in both philosophy and theology. Some of that was needed and very well intentioned. But as you go through figures like Descartes, you know, and then Hume, there’s the turn to the self.
And then with Hume, you really do get a skepticism about what we can know externally to ourselves, causes, you know, he called into question. That’s, I mean, from the Aristotelian point of view, I mean, that’s it. I mean, you basically kind of put the spear in the heart, you know, of that academic project.
Kant kind of brings all that together. And both within theology and in philosophy, you know, man’s interiority and what we can understand of man’s own psychology kind of becomes the measure, you know, of all things. And I think you can just only stare at our own psychology for so long without, you know, becoming disoriented, disillusioned, because there’s so much of our life and our daily experience that’s just not measured by that.
But the intellectual project is to try to force everything, you know, into that or understand our experience only through what we can understand of our own psychology. I think that project has, it’s still hanging on in many ways. And there are certain things that we’ve gained from it. So it’s not all bad.
But I think there’s a new generation coming up who by, let’s say, appreciating the best of modernity, but also seeing that Objectivity is a real thing, kind of realism and, and looking not only at the subject, but also really focusing on the object is not only a legitimate use of our intelligence and reason.
But even in the articulations of the ancients and the medievals, we find a lot that is illuminating that’s enlightening, that casts a light onto our experience that maybe our own native ways of understanding this have fallen short.
So if you’re looking for a good example of this, it’s Karol Wojtyla, who’s later known as Pope John Paul II. Before his election as pope, this was his philosophical project. You know, he really saw it as his work to, beginning with the questions of existentialism, right. And beginning with the turn to the subject. He thought you really could reconcile it with the insights of a more objective and realist approach to the intellectual life or to philosophy and theology.
And so beginning, let’s say for example, with the “I-thou”, you know, of Martin Buber and all of the questions that that brings up, he says, “Well, that’s not far enough, in fact, if you want to start with the subject, because the I-thou isn’t an end in itself. The I-thou actually resolves into a we, right? That’s a different kind of understanding of not just an I and a thou, but a we, and all of the implications that, and questions that that brings up.
Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II said, “You can’t come to understand the real dynamics of, of the we simply by looking at the intersubjectivity of each person,” right? That there’s something else at work there, something objective, something external to the we that defines the we, that identifies the we, and that’s the common good, you know, of whatever, you know, that community is, whether it’s a friendship, a family, a political community, the Church.
What exists as its end outside of it is in fact more important for, for determining even the interior subjectivity of each of the members, but in identifying the group. So that’s what Karol Wojtyla, John Paul II, tried to, tried to reconcile, and he’s not, he’s not alone, right?
I, I do think moving in further into 21st century, that’s going to be a real, you know, part of Christian philosophy, Christian theology is recognizing both the strengths and weaknesses of modern thought, but then reaching back to the ancients and to the medievals to find the aspects and that really taste for the objective that can complement you know, the concerns of the modern. And I think that’s what the newer generation is discovering and experiencing.
Todd Ream: Thank you. I want to ask you now a little bit about the origins of your calling. You earned a bachelor’s from St. Joseph’s Seminary College there in Louisiana, a master’s from St. John’s Seminary in Massachusetts, a licentiate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and a doctorate from the University of Freiburg in Switzerland.
At what point in time did you discern a call as a Dominican friar preacher?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Right. So for me, the call to the priesthood came, came I think rather early. I mean, I was always interested in who the priest is, what he does, how he lives. So as a, in elementary school in high school, it just had really good priests in my home parish who yeah, I looked up to and really saw as an example of not only a helpful life, but a, a good life, right? And so I started thinking about the priesthood itself while I was in high school.
Coming to the end of my senior year, I applied to my home diocese, the Diocese of Lafayette, to begin seminary studies. And so they sent me to St. Joseph’s Seminary College, and then to St. John’s Seminary in Boston. I entered and just loved it. I loved the studies. I loved the fraternity. I loved the intensity of the Christian life. You know, live together with others who were also pursuing ordination and live as priests.
So I was ordained for the Diocese of Lafayette in 2002. But all that time the seeds of a religious vocation or a call to consecrated life also began to develop and through, yeah, a long series of discernment and discussions and meeting religious communities and learning about them.
Then three years after ordination to the priesthood entered the Dominicans. So that was in the fall of 2005. And beginning of the novitiate, that’s when I received the habit, the name Aquinas, and then after that, it’s you know, I’ve done pastoral work in New York City, but also then was asked in 2010 to, to pursue these doctoral studies in order to, to teach.
And so since 2015, I’ve been here at the Dominican House of Studies teaching moral theology. That’s the area I concentrated in. And then since 2002 now being the head chaplain and and eventually one of the vice presidents at, at Catholic University. So that’s kind of the trajectory of just the religious life I’ve lived up to now.
And yeah, all those things, you know, coming together, I think St. Thomas’s description of Dominican life just is what he calls the mixed life, right? It’s the pursuit of the perfection both of contemplation and of action, right? And that was a really innovative way of seeing. You know, that’s a perennial philosophical question.
You know, what is the relationship between contemplation and action? The ancients, you know, had a lot to say about that. And but it was really only until St. Dominic and, and being that reflected his ideal being reflected on by St. Thomas seeing or proposing that those two ends could be held jointly, you know, and together. So life is both 100% contemplative and 100% active. And now how that comes together in the life of each friar, that’s yeah, I mean, that’s the perennial tension in our life.
But just to hold that up as an ideal uh, of the life is what not only unites Dominicans in a common pursuit, but it’s a rather novel you know, approach to that perennial question. And something that I think the Dominican in, in his own life just rediscovers the dynamism of, of that question over and over again in his life.
Todd Ream: You mentioned that you were blessed to have good priests in your life uh, who aided in your calling. Are there any other mentors that you might note who have been formative along the way? And in addition to St. Thomas Aquinas, any other authors who’ve shaped your way of living and your theological reference point?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Yeah. So I mean, a big one for me is maybe a name that many people haven’t heard but in certain Catholic circles remains somewhat popular, Charles De Koninck. He was the Catholic philosopher of the first half of the 20th century, a Belgian by birth, taught in Canada at Laval in, in Quebec. He was a peritus, an expert at the, the Second Vatican Council for the Archbishop of Quebec City.
He was first and foremost a philosopher of science and on the side wrote works on the moral life generally, but politics and political theory in, in, in particular. So he’s the one who really got me onto the question of, of the common good and understanding it from an ancient perspective in answer to the legitimate questions raised by, by modernity.
In his time, I mean, the questions raised by totalitarianism, right? The common good started to get a bad name because of certain regimes in the early 20th century who were using the common good as an excuse for their abusive tactics. And there were reactions against that.
De Koninck actually reacted against the reactions because he thought that certain ways of responding to totalitarianism were ignoring too much of the ancient tradition when it comes to the understanding what the common good is from a real realist and objective point of view. So I would say Charles De Koninck, who’s a fascinating figure, people should know more about him.
And I would say just more as I was writing, I mean, having wonderful conversations with folks like Russell Hittinger, you know, who you know, a Catholic philosopher who has taught in many different places most recently here at the Catholic University. Actually, he started his academic career and ended his teaching career at Catholic University, so that’s a blessing for us.
He’s a gem of a man just a Christian gentleman and scholar, but has really imbibed the modern, kind of modern Catholic social teaching, in kind of the fullness of its kind of depth and, and breadth.
Another important person for me, who I only had brief encounters with, but certainly you know, through his writings was shaped by him, was Alasdair MacIntyre you know, who again, another Catholic philosopher, taught at Notre Dame for, for decades. But really did focus more on the, the political, social aspects of, of Thomism and St. Thomas’s thought and the Christian tradition more, more widely, and yeah, was a real, real influence for me.
Within the order, I just had the pleasure of working with figures like Father Romano Celzario, Father Michael Sherwin. I mean, living with you know, Father Gilles Emery with Father Jean-Pierre Torrell, who may be known to a lot of people as popularizing through his histories of St. Thomas you know gaining for St. Thomas you know, new audiences and a new appreciation.
So yeah, I’ve been really blessed to be surrounded by figures both inside the order, outside clerics and laymen, and women who, yeah, are just yeah, it’s kind of an embarrassment of riches. Yeah, I’m really grateful to those influences.
Todd Ream: As you mentioned, you’ve served in pastoral ministry for a number of years particularly in New York City. You came to Washington, DC originally there to the Dominican House of Studies, and then crossed the street to Catholic University as head of campus ministry. But now you also serve as the vice president for mission and ministry for the university, a cabinet member there at CUA.
If at all possible, can you offer an overview of what an average day during the academic year might look like for you?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: It’s busy. I mean, it starts early in the morning just with community obligations here. First and foremost, prayer in the community, and then it’s to, to campus, and then it’s just every day is different. You know, both in terms of the demands of, of campus ministry, and we have a great, great team of of both other priests who serve as chaplains, but also laymen and women who, who round out our staff, religious sisters and they’re a delight, you know, to work with.
And through them, I mean, just contact daily with the students, right. I mean, that’s why we’re there. Principally the undergraduate population, but also grad students. And we also have appropriate outreach to, to faculty and staff. So we do cover, you know, the entire campus, the whole campus community. We’re at the institutional heart of the university, so we have a natural reach everywhere.
But then as head chaplain and head of campus ministry, also to sit on the, the president’s cabinet being part of the executive team that’s looking not only now at the religious life of the campus, but looking at the good of the university as a whole, working with admissions and the academic side of the house, and communications and athletics, and you know, student affairs general counsel you know, all of those.
Being part of that team, looking at the good of the whole and, and working with and for the president for the flourishing of the whole. That’s also been fascinating. And I think being, you know, on the cabinet as a member of the, as the person on the staff who’s also in charge of the liturgical, sacramental, catechetical service, you know, that whole you know, really animating the, the Catholic identity of the school on campus to be in the cabinet you know, gives me a, a, a unique way in making sure not only those interests are represented in the collective thinking of the administration, but also bringing that, that unique view into conversations, yeah, about the future of the school and its mission and its identity and how it continues to be itself for the Church and the world.
Todd Ream: What dimensions of your current role provide you with the greatest sort of vocational satisfaction? You echoed with some joy in your voice the students and your service to the students. But what, you know, what are those dimensions of your calling and your service that give you that?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: I mean, I have to say I really do enjoy the work on the cabinet. I mean, working with the president, working with the other vice presidents, and not only identifying but working towards solutions on some really complicated questions. I mean, so that gives a certain sense of satisfaction not just professionally but ministerially, right?
Insofar as the, you know, Catholic University is a project of the bishops of, of the country, right. Catholic University exists explicitly to serve the Church. So our whole life as a university has a ministerial, evangelical component to it.
But at the end of the day what as you, you know, indicated, what probably brings me the greatest joy is yeah, just being a priest and a pastor for the students, hearing confessions every day, offering Mass, and preaching every day. That’s the part of my day that I look most forward to is the celebration of Mass on campus.
We have five Masses a day, so we split those up, but every chaplain has at least one. And so whatever mass I have that day, whether it’s at 8:15 in the morning or 10 PM at night. In fact, I’ve grown with, you know, a certain affection and love for the 10:00 PM Mass. If you would’ve asked me that five years ago, I would’ve, I don’t know if that’s real.
But it is on our campus and it’s the, yeah, it’s probably the most attended, you know, Mass of the day. And to end the day, you know, with that moment of, you know, praise and worship, but also preaching and teaching is a great delight.
Todd Ream: One of the quirkier dimensions of my life as an educator that I’ve discerned is that I get older each year, but they stay the same age.
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: They do. And I, I wonder if they’re not getting younger, you know, with each year that passes.
Todd Ream: You know, the gap between their energy level and mine would indicate that there’s some truth to that potentially.
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Indeed. I mean, I, I’ve already met some of our first-year students coming to campus next year, and they just look like, you know, they belong in middle school, you know? And it’s a fascinating age, as you know. I mean, just 18 to 22, you’re dealing with undergrads, and there’s an incredible amount of growth and development that happens in those years.
And I’ve been at Catholic University now in the chaplaincy long enough to have seen, you know, an incoming group of freshmen now graduate as seniors. And to follow them through those four years is remarkable.
I mean, they’re the same person, obviously, but just in terms of talent and experience and confidence and capacity yeah, it’s almost as if they’re new people. And that’s just really thrilling to participate in, to be part of that for, you know, the hundreds that we have on our campus as they, as they go through Catholic University.
Todd Ream: Thank you. As our time begins to become short, I want to ask you then some larger questions about campus ministry and the role that campus ministers serve. And to start, how would you define the academic vocation as expressed through campus ministry? What opportunities advance it, and what forces might we need to be mindful in the age in which we live that threaten it too?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Right. I mean, the thoughts that I’ve collected on this are, you know, in large part, I mean, thanks to you and the invitation to participate in the, Lilly Conference in October. I had scattered thoughts about this, but the invitation to, to focus on something like worship, you know, on a university campus. What, why, right?
But when you think about it from the Christian point of view, and it certainly, you know, in the kind of the Catholic origins of universities and, and university life this was explicitly, you know, tied together. You know, the pursuit of learning and the worship of God, right? There was no daylight between those two, right? And that’s a, that’s a certain understanding of the human person, human life, human excellence, you know, what we’re for.
And so insofar as God himself is, is the author, right? Not only of our lives, but of all truth, you know, there’s no opposition between what we know and can learn through honest study of creation but also what we know also by revelation, right?
So if God is communicating Himself to us through both creation and revelation that’s the great adventure, I think, of the human academic life, is bringing those two together. Not imposing one on the other, but to see how it is that those two are, are complementary, you know. So what we can know by the light of reason and the study of creation, what we know by the light of faith, by, by revelation, putting those two things together.
And I think that’s what St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, you know, attempts in the Summa, and why I think a, a new generation is picking that up and finding it so exciting, because there you do see a kind of seamlessness or a confidence in the seamlessness between reason and revelation that can not only help us to develop a science of reality, a science there, you know, classically understood, but also a real confidence in the goodness of ourselves and our lives.
And despite all of the, the interior struggles and external tragedies that can befall us in life there’s still something essentially true, essentially good about our existence because both the truth that we know and the goodness that we experience have their origins in, in God. So what better place to pursue that project than a university? You know, especially a research university that is dedicated to discovering and establishing, you know, science in the best sense of the term.
But you can’t do that by excluding a significant part of reality, which is, you know, the author of all and the human pursuit of Him. And from the certainly the Christian point of view, the divine pursuit of, of the human, right? So our response to that should, you know, form a significant part of our own growth in truth our own research and development of, of the world and of creation writ large, and, therefore the worship of God.
You know, finding itself at the, at the very heart of the academic or university life again, from the Christian point of view, and this is seen in the very origins of universities themselves as a, a kind of sine qua non.
Todd Ream: Thank you. For campus ministers then, what intellectual or moral virtues do you believe they need to cultivate in order to flourish in their vocations? And in terms of theological virtues, which ones do you believe they need to pray to receive?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Well, so all of them. Faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, right? That’s the beginning. And again, St. Thomas, I mean, drawing on the, you know, the Christian tradition that began before him is a great kind of master and communicator of the connection of the virtues.
That’s what I find exciting in my own academic life, you know, focusing on moral theology, especially Thomist moral theology. How does it cash out in the lives of people? It’s to seek the perfection and, and unity of those virtues in, in each of our, in each of our lives. So I mean, to be a Christian campus minister in whatever regard, faith, hope, charity, obviously you know, absolutely essential.
But then developing prudence, you know, developing the sense of justice, you know, rendering others their due. But also now I think what I’ve come to understand greater the older I get and, and the more I work in this area is how much, and this is what St. Thomas says, how much courage and temperance really are supports for justice and prudence, right?
If you can’t, you know, in terms of, yeah, temperance and courage, if you’re overcome by fear and and concupiscence, you know, in inordinate degrees, it’s going to be very hard to make prudential decisions that seek, you know, the best kind of rendering of, of what’s due to others. And so that’s, that, that takes a lot of work. And that’s not something we should try to pursue alone.
I think that’s, you know, teams of chaplains, teams of campus ministers. I mean, this can be a kind of focus without getting too prurient or into each other’s personal lives or, or an interiority. But to understand commonly how it is that temperance, courage, support justice, and prudence in the living of faith, hope, and charity is, yeah, can be both a challenging and an exciting way of striving for excellence together within a campus ministry team.
Todd Ream: Yeah.
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: And also I think then it informs the preaching and the teaching of the students, right? Because not only are you going to be modeling that in sometimes even untold ways, but you can articulate it, you know, in a way that students find both enlightening, inspiring, and encouraging.
Todd Ream: Thank you. For our final question then today, I want to ask you, in what ways do you believe campus ministers can be of greater service to the Church during these critical years with college students? And in what ways do you believe the Church can be of greater service to campus ministers and greater support of them?
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Right. Good question. I mean, one of the real skills, I guess, of a campus minister, and this is going to sound trite, but I, I think it’s true, and I think it can be deepened is just the, the campus minister or the chaplain just has to be one who, who listens and listens well. And what I mean by that is, is really kind of shaped by the classical understanding of obedience, right?
I mean, it’s not just a listening to be open to hearing the needs of the person or persons in front of you. That’s obviously a key part of it. But a real obedience just to the reality of the situation, right? Not creating, you know, in our work something that in fact is just not real or not there or doesn’t meet, you know, what the, the real circumstances around us are. I guess that, that’s it. It’s an obedience to circumstance, right?
Because we all have fantasies, we all have imaginations, we all have ideas about the way we think things should be, right? And it’s good to have that, right? I mean, to have goals, and ideals. But if that’s not complemented by and informed by a real obedience to reality then we’re going to miss the mark, and we’re going to be ineffective. You know, students will go somewhere else, you know, to find, you know, the answers that they need.
So I think that, I mean, dealing with young people, just being real about the, the circumstances of, of their lives and and of the influences that shape their generation is absolutely essential. And I think that is how campus ministries serve the Church, right? To be really the extension of the Church, the presence of the Church in, in the circumstances of the, the lives of the young, especially in their university days.
The way that the Church more broadly can, can support that is, I mean, through prayer, obviously, you know, fraternal and moral support. And in ways that are, are prudent and helpful, I mean pouring resources, you know, into, into those things. I think what we’re seeing if in the ’90s and 2000s, yeah, a lot of emphasis was put on university chaplaincies, and rightly so.
I think what we’re seeing now in the university chaplaincies is that there’s some attention that needs to be paid even earlier in the lives of young people. So middle school, we’re learning, is a critical time, you know, when young people are shaping their religious imaginations, but also beginning to make decisions as to whether they will be believers or not, right?
And sometimes that’s fixed by the time they get to a high school. And to expect then university chaplaincies to, to fix that, you know, by that time. I mean, we’re starting too late, right? And so within, at least in the Catholic world, different dioceses, the school systems are, are seeing this, I mean, really being creative in terms of middle school and high school catechesis and apologetics that it’s not a preparation for college.
It’s actually helping them as 13-year-olds, as 15-year-olds to be making the decisions, to be forming the spiritual habits and practices and, and shaping their imagination and understanding of reality that supports the act of faith. It’s not just to leave them to lose it and then try to rediscover it in the university. That’s a hard thing to do.
And so insofar as universities can be, can be helping that too I find that’s exciting. I think at least at the university level, that’s where we are right now. That’s what we’re seeing. I mean, we’re doing everything we can to serve our students while they’re in the university. But also, I think collectively we’re coming to see that the real help that they need actually comes earlier in life. And so yeah, I think we gotta be working on that too.
Todd Ream: Thank you very much.
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Thank you.
Todd Ream: Guest has been Father Aquinas Guilbeau, the Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Catholic University of America. Thank you for taking the time to share your insights and wisdom with us.
Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.: Thank you, and God bless. God bless and blessings on all your good work. Thank you.
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Todd Ream: Thank you for joining us for Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. We invite you to join us again next week for Saturdays at Seven.
