To Serve Truth

Web Posted: Jan. 24, 2004

As the Marquette community commences the academic work of the spring semester, the Church's commemoration, on January 28, of Saint Thomas Aquinas, patron of Catholic schools, provides us with a timely reminder of the university's explicit commitment to the service of truth.  Our Mission Statement notes that a foundational component of Marquette's mission and institutional identity is "the search for truth, the discovery and sharing of knowledge."  These words express the  orientation and ideal to which Thomas Aquinas dedicated his brilliant career of research and writing, learning and teaching.

It was the genius of Thomas to acknowledge and celebrate the surpassing dignity of all creatures in the universe, particularly the splendor and possibilities of the human person.  As one of the preeminent intellectual synthesizers in Western thought, Aquinas sought to reconcile the truths of faith and supernatural revelation with the reality and variety he found in the world of natural creation.  Faith and reason were not properly in competition with one another; rather, they complemented and completed one another, for truth is one.  Thomas was a tireless defender of this unity of all truth in and under God.  Marquette's academic mission is energized by similar conviction and commitment.

In a recent address, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, emphasizes: "The measure of Jesuit universities is not what our students do, but who they become, and the adult responsibility they will exercise in the future towards their neighbor and their world." 

The words of Thomas Aquinas illumine the Marquette mission: "Of all human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is most perfect, most noble, most useful and most full of joy."

Father Wally Stohrer, S. J.
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy