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It’s not every day one of the state’s most powerful religious figures comes to Orono, but Thursday night, His Excellency, The Most Reverend Richard Joseph Malone, bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine, came to the Newman Center and delivered a speech titled “The Challenge Of Faith Within Higher Education.” Malone spoke to a crowd of approximately 100, some of whom gathered earlier in the evening for a community meal with the bishop.
“It really feels like being at home when I come to Orono,” Malone said. “It’s great to be with you.”
He opened his speech by addressing what some see as the contradictory nature of faith and academia at large.
“I think there are two sides to the coin when it comes to challenges of faith and higher education,” Malone said. “Faith always involves an act of the intellect. It’s really an act of trust.”
He said Roman Catholicism has a firm and balanced respect for the rigors of education and that the two often play well off each other.
“There is the challenge of faith … and there is the challenge faith can bring to the academic community,” Malone said. “The Catholic tradition has enormous respect for the life of the mind and intellectual pursuit.”
He did note in his speech, however, that as a bishop, he is most interested in addressing what he sees as silent issues that can enter people’s lives without their conscious knowledge.
“I am more concerned with problems not so distinguishable and identifiable,” Malone said. “The most pervasive thing [in modern times] is the secularism in our society.”
“It simply leaves the religious values off the radar of life,” he said.
Malone said the lack of standards in the current cultural climate is having a negative impact on both the church and higher education.
“This secularism is more a mood than a movement,” he said. “It’s about making judgments on the basics of feelings alone … as if there were no moral absolutes.”
He feels that many of the current battle cries of the collegiate community often start with good intentions, but end up distorting truth. Malone said this is due to a state of relativism, which he said is when absolutes are not present in a society.
“The danger of relativism is obscured in the name of diversity,” Malone said.
He said that cultural diversity is a beautiful thing and noted the immense racial and cultural spectrum of both the Roman Catholic Church and the entire Christian community.
“But to celebrate diversity does not mean every principle is on equal par,” he said.
Malone then shifted his speech to make suggestions and comment on the pressures facing college students.
“Every student knows the pressures of a university environment,” Malone said.
He did note his frustration with the common perception that if someone is a smart, well-educated individual and if someone is “with it,” then others tend to make tacit assumptions about them. An example he raised was the thinking that someone matching this description is automatically pro-choice.
“Human rights do not come from a generous society,” Malone said. “But from the hand of God.”
Malone said that he feels every university community should do more to encourage students in their own faith, regardless of creed.
“Faith traditions bring challenges to the academic community,” he said. “Our argument is that the human person is religious.
“Not only does academic exposure to religion aid the student … it’s a way to deepen understanding of one’s own religion,” he said. “The more one knows of his faith, the more apparent is a community of faith on campus.”
Malone said that people of faith, specifically Roman Catholics, enormous contribute to any campus environment.
“What a difference it makes to believe every human being was created to live in communion with God,” he said. “The Catholic moral vision is about the dignity of every human person. The [Catholic] church brings its own understanding of wisdom to campus.”
Malone closed his speech by thanking the audience, he left a few words of parting wisdom for them.
“Be an active part of the faith community,” he said. “Know yourself as created and loved by God and know your faith. You need an adult knowledge of faith.”
In an interview following the speech, Malone recounted his own experiences as a Catholic campus minister in the early ’90s and explained that this is why he feels so comfortable in any campus community.
“I feel very much at home amongst students,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier.”
For student Arian Eicke, a sophomore secondary education major, the talk was a chance to meet church leaders up close and personal.
“I really liked it,” Eicke said. “I agree with him that it’s important to keep faith in mind in any aspect of education. Every aspect of education is active in our lives and so is faith, so they go hand-in-hand.”
For sophomore music education major Beth Rucci, Malone’s talk on the positives of education was both positive and uplifting.
“I thought it was nice that he reflected on furthering your education in science being OK,” she said. “A lot of times, the advancements in science go away from religion. Going forward in science is not a secular thing.”
Casey Murphy, the Catholic campus minister at the Newman Center, praised Malone’s visit and said she hoped students would reap the benefits of the speech.
“[Malone] values the faith of students highly and wants to encourage students in their faith,” she said. “I hope the students will be encouraged by his visit and words and the he will encouraged by his visit with them.”
Malone was installed as bishop of the diocese of Portland last March. Since then, he has traveled over 29,000 miles across the state, from Berwick to Madawaska, visiting a plethora of parishes. He holds a doctorate of theology from Boston University and was previously involved in the Catholic community in Massachusetts before coming to Maine, following appointment by Pope John Paul II.
