The following are excerpts from Cardinal Wilton Gregory’s 2018 address at the Boston College Commencement.
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words are powerful vehicles, as writers and poets know all too well. Words can bring tears and they can incite rage. Words can heal and they can inflame. Occasionally the very same words can inspire some people while they may enrage others. In today’s world, social media has provided indispensable platform[s] for words that can stir the human spirit to positive and negative passions… The greatest challenge that we all continue to face is to make sure that our words do not contradict our actions, our heart, or our faith… There are too many examples both in today’s world and throughout human history where a person’s actions were disconnected from an individual’s words…A few people historically have been able to use words that stir the human heart to great hope. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a master wordsmith. His death 50 years ago was largely in recompense for the inspiration and hope that many people found [in] his words that challenged our nation. Unfortunately, there were and remain people who find those same words to be intimidating and threatening… I now invite our graduates and I remind all others here today in their honor to take careful watch over the words that we use. We have entered a moment in human history where offensive[,] abusive words have been absolved and issued a carte blanche and perhaps even welcomed in public discourse. Through the great advantage and equal detriment of social media, debate and disagreement often have been reduced to defamation and denigration. This is absolutely counter to what your Jesuit education has striven to teach you. Disputes are best addressed to principles, ideas, and policies rather than to
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be used to demolish the reputation, dignity, and humanity of those with whom we may disagree. I urge you to use words that may clearly voice your strong opinions but also shun the annihilation of another individual’s human dignity… We must work together to address the causes that prompt and allow people to…acts of hatred and brutality…Too often, people have attempted to attribute those horrible events to people of a specific religion or culture—much like some people of a generation ago spoke about those engaged in the struggle for civil rights as agitators and disruptors...Our first responsibility ought to be to lower the tone of [the] rhetoric of hatred. Every one of us must be engaged in the struggle to speak more civilly and respectfully about and certainly to all other people… Let us now pledge to…always convey a heart that may be deeply passionate in its beliefs but always compassionate in its expression when speaking about and to all others. Saint Paul said it best to the Ephesians and to all of our graduates and to all of us: “No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear. ■ Wilton Daniel Gregory is the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and is the first African American cardinal. He also served as the first Black president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Reprinted with permission from the Boston College Office of University Communications.
To watch the video of this address, visit: bc.edu/c21spring21
Printed with permission from the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska
Cardinal Wilton Gregory
photo credit:
HOPES
Words Matter
