SPEAKER Protecting Catholic Identity Important, Scalia Says By aya Noronha Special to The Hoya

Charles Nailen/The Hoya Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (CAS ’57) speaks about the importance of protecting Jesuit and Catholic identity at Georgetown on Monday.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (CAS ’57) spoke about the importance of protecting Jesuit and Catholic identity at Georgetown Monday to about 400 people in Gaston Hall. University President John J. DeGioia concluded the lecture after one hour, presenting Scalia with a plaque with the unofficial Jesuit motto “ad majorem Dei gloriam” – “for the greater glory of God.”

Scalia mentioned various institutions of higher learning – including Yale, Duke, Northwestern and Princeton – that transformed themselves from religious to non-denominational institutions.

“One of the reasons I was so pleased to participate in this commemoration of Jesuit Heritage Week is that the week and the long list of events that I see that are scheduled for the week persuade me that this institution is not losing its soul the same way,” Scalia said. He said the move to secularize this country has been “distorted by social beliefs.”

“I would be a different person if not for my years here,” Scalia said of his experiences at Georgetown. He described the Jesuit identity as having three focuses: intellectualism, scholarship and activism. Scalia said he considered the third goal to be defined by the ad majorem Dei gloriam. He illustrated in the life of Ignatius Loyola, as the “most important principle.” He said that it was just as important in the 20th century as in the 16th.

When asked about connecting his Catholic identity to his position on the death penalty, Scalia connected his view with that of St. Paul, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine and Sir Thomas More. Scalia said that in the Catholic tradition, “the primary object of criminal punishment is retribution – to set right the disorder that has been introduced by the act of adrenaline,” he said. Despite the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion, Scalia said, “It’s not abortion where I am not part of the process. I am part of the process of imposing the death penalty.”

The lecture ended after one hour and five questions from students followed. A dozen people, however, were still waiting in line to ask questions. Hannah Powell (SFS ’05) said there were still several unanswered questions on her mind. “There’s a lot of questions I wanted to ask,” she said. “With a Catholic and Jesuit identity, what responsibility do we have to people of different faiths?”

When asked about a proposed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender center at Georgetown, Scalia said, “I am not going to get into whatever the immediate controversies are on campus. I think you should be able to gather my thoughts on that from what I said in my talk.”

An attendee also asked Scalia about the court’s interpretation of separation of church and state. “There are so many of our traditions that constantly we speak the fact that we are religious people whose institutions presuppose a supreme being,” he said. “We are rigidly neutral between one religion and another. My court has always opened its sessions, `God save the United States.'”

Joe Piantedosi (MSB ’02) said he enjoyed the speech. “It reminds us of where we came from in the tradition of Catholic higher education,” he said. “It’s a great way to start Jesuit Heritage Week.”

At Georgetown, Scalia was president of the Mask & Bauble Dramatic Society. As class valedictorian, he graduated, summa cum laude with an A.B. in history. After being note editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, Scalia studied in Eastern Europe as a Sheldon Fellow. He has been a professor at the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, the University of Chicago and Stanford University. In 1982, President Reagan appointed Scalia to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Four years later, Reagan appointed Scalia to the Supreme Court.

Scalia spoke as the alumnus spotlight for Jesuit Heritage Week.