Our Place of Deep Faith

A Message of Welcome

By: Thayne M. McCulloh, Ph.D.

Posted: 10/1/09

Dear Readers:

I am honored to have been asked to write a "Message of Welcome" for this first issue of the 2009-10 Gonzaga Witness. As I write, the first true signs of autumn are making themselves known even as the excitement of the first week of the semester continues. Fall is my favorite time of year!

Gonzaga University is many things to many people: a bustling community; a place of educational excellence and challenge; a place of employment; a "home away from home."

But across the continuum of my experience, Gonzaga has also always been a place of deep faith, and a place where people of faith can experience numerous opportunities to live out their faith and express their spirituality fully and with joy. The Jesuits, through the pursuit of ideals first articulated by St. Ignatius of Loyola, are enjoined to seek (and indeed to see) God everywhere, in all things; in turn, this is a community that seeks to make that same pursuit a possibility for everyone.

As president for this interim period, I am committed to three overarching goals; the first of these is to advance the Jesuit, Catholic, and humanistic mission of the university and make our distinctive mission identity evident throughout all of our activities. Indeed, I have shared with the leadership of our governing board, the Trustees, my deep belief that Gonzaga can easily stand as an exemplar of what it means to be a Jesuit university in America today. In its most recent General Congregation (GC 35, January-March 2008), the Society of Jesus called for a strengthening and renewal of "the intellectual apostolate . . . as a privileged means for the Society [of Jesus] to respond adequately to the important intellectual contribution to which the Church calls us." The work we do at Gonzaga is important work, not only in its own right, but for the purpose of fulfilling an important task the Catholic Church sets for us: to be the place, as Fr. Ted Hesburgh once said, "where the Church does its thinking."

In discussing the purpose and goals of The Gonzaga Witness with its editors this year, I am excited about the possibilities for the magazine and its readership. The Witness intends to provide a forum where people who wish to more fully understand the (and/or their) Catholic faith can raise questions, debate issues, and grow to more fully understand themselves and their relationship with God. It is my hope that those who read The Witness will see in its writers' efforts a chance to ask and ponder important questions which relate directly to all of us and the decisions that face us in our everyday lives.

May Christ's Peace and the blessing of the Holy Spirit be with each of us this year.

Thayne M. McCulloh, Ph.D.
Interim President