In his address, he called on the class of 2012 to vigorously defend religious freedom “as part of both our American and creedal legacy.”
Cardinal Dolan then touched on how children usually first learn about the Law of the Gift in their family.
In a reference to attempts to redefine marriage and family, he noted that the law “is most poetically exemplified in the lifelong, life-giving, faithful, intimate union of a man and woman in marriage, which then leads to the procreation of new life.”
This union is so critical to the order of the common good, that “its very definition is ingrained into our interior dictionary,” he said.
Cardinal Dolan challenged the new graduates to live out the Law of the Gift in a world that “prefers getting to giving” and “considers every drive, desire or urge as a right.”
University president John Garvey also spoke at the commencement ceremony, discussing the virtue of patience, which he described as “persistence in knocking on God’s door.”
Patience is “not the disposition to wait for what you want,” but rather “the disposition to await God’s grace,” he explained.
Garvey encouraged the graduates to imitate St. Monica’s patient years of praying for the conversion of her son, Augustine, who later became a great saint in the Church.
“Patience is the ground that virtue grows in,” he said.
The university awarded approximately 1,500 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees during the May 12 ceremony.
Michelle La Rosa is deputy editor-in-chief of Catholic News Agency. She has worked for CNA since 2011. She studied political philosophy and journalism at the University of Dallas.