archbishop john carroll

Late Friday night, I returned from two days at Georgetown University, somewhat dazed by hard hours of travel, somewhat dazzled by a book I’m currently reading, and certainly hopeful for the future of American higher education and the role of Catholicism within it.

Why hopeful?

I rarely feel hope for the world beyond my family and college in these days of my middle age, especially after having traveled to the federal capital, its glorious republican architecture now suffused with the full machinery of empire and war.

West of the federal barricades, surface to air missiles, and innumerable video cameras, I encountered true excellence while visiting the venerable Jesuit institution. Founded by our first American archbishop, John Carroll, with significant financial help from his cousin, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, Georgetown still stands majestic. This proves especially true in its Department of Government, already well known for the perceptive and humane scholarship of George Carey and James Schall.

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