More on Law Schools and Catholic Universities

Another correspondent takes a break from studying for exams and writes, in response to my question "about the place of a law school in a university, particularly in a Catholic university that aspires to be 'great'":

The correspondent whom you have already posted makes good points and I agree with them. I would add to them at least two points:

1)  Catholics disproportionately tend to enter into "professional" programs after graduation, rather than, say, PhD programs (at least the statistics used to say so).  Thus, there ought to be top flight JD & MBA programs at Catholic universities because we know that this is where our students are headed and we ought to provide a Catholic context for those pursuits; this in particular because of . . .

2)  The Universal Call to Holiness.  "The followers of Christ, called by God not for what they had done but by his design and grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus, have been made sons and daughters of God by the Baptism of faith and partakers of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified.  They must therefore hold on to and perfect in their lives that holiness which they have received from God." (LG 40)  "The forms and tasks of life are many but there is one holiness, which is cultivated bay all who are led by God's Spirit and, obeying the Father's voice and adoring God the Father in spirit and in truth, follow Christ, poor and humble in carrying his cross, that they may deserve to be sharers in his glory.  All however, according to their own gifts and duties must steadfastly advance along the way of a living faith, which arouses hope and works through love." (LG 41)  These words of Lumen Gentium suggest that the Christian life is meant to be lived, of course, not merely or even primarily within the walls of the chapel or church.  Rather, the sacred mysteries we celebrate their, while the summit of our communion in Christ, are also meant to be the source of our Christian living.  When we gather in prayer we arrive as Christians and leave as Christians.  And therefore Christians we must be in the say, 100 hours of work in a tough week at Cravath, Swaine, and Moore.  Indeed, if we find there to be an irreconcilable conflict between our work and our Christianity, we must be prepared to make the courageous choice to reform or abandon the former in order to cling to the latter.  Lawyers, however unfairly derided en masse as a professional class, do certainly face extraordinary pressures and temptations to choose the expedient over the virtuous. 

And this is so not simply in the well known ethical dilemmas that are the stuff of legal ethics curricula and debates.  Much more fundamentally, the role of lawyers and law in society should be pondered at Catholic schools, shaped by Catholic lawyers in their work, and ultimately therefore sanctified by the presence of the Church, and so many of her best and brightest, in this profession.

Rick