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‘The greatest day of my life’

Mark Zimmermann | Catholic News Service

Fr. O’Connell is stepping down as president of Catholic University after 12 years.

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Vincentian Fr. David M. O’Connell, president of Catholic University, smiles as Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges cheering students at the university April 17, 2008. Fr. O’Connell called that day “probably the greatest” of his life.

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WASHINGTON – April 17, 2008, the day Pope Benedict XVI
visited the Catholic University of America, was “probably the
greatest day of my life,” said Vincentian Father David
O’Connell, who will step down Aug. 31 as president after
leading the university for the past 12 years.

On the day of the pope’s visit to campus, thousands of
students cheered his arrival. Inside the university’s
Pryzbyla Center, the pope addressed a gathering of Catholic
educators from across the country, reaffirming them in their
work and in their mission.

As Pope Benedict rode in an elevator with Father O’Connell
and with Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, the
university’s chancellor and an alumnus himself, the pope
turned to the priest and said, “I know what you’ve done here.
This is truly a great Catholic university, and the church is
grateful.”

Father O’Connell considers the papal visit the highest honor
of his 12-year presidency, and he regards the enriched
Catholic identity of the school to be his crowning
achievement.

Since his arrival at the university, Father O’Connell put
strengthening its Catholic identity and mission at the heart
of all his work, making it the basis of every decision he
made.

“The profile of the university as the national university of
the Catholic Church in our country is clear and evident to
everybody,” the priest said in an interview with the Catholic
Standard, newspaper of the Washington Archdiocese.

Walking through campus, as he has done nearly every day as
president, Father O’Connell wore a bright red Catholic
University Cardinals jacket. “It (the university) takes pride
in its identity and mission,” he said.

When asked about his favorite place on campus, the priest
spoke about his residence at Nugent Hall. As a member of a
religious order, he had never had his own home before. Every
day, he gets up at about 5 a.m., walks his Jack Russell
terrier, Sweetie, starts his coffee and then goes to his
private chapel for morning prayers or Mass if he doesn’t have
another one planned for later in the day.

“To me, my life as a priest is centered on the Eucharist, and
everything we do as a church is centered on the Eucharist,”
he said. “The Mass gives me the opportunity to bring
something to the altar and to take something from the altar.”

With some pride in his voice, he noted that the one campus
activity that draws the most students is the Mass. They come
together to pray at daily and weekend Masses, in good times
and bad times.

On 9/11, “it’s safe to say there was panic throughout the
campus,” Father O’Connell remembered, noting that with
conflicting news reports about the terrorist attacks,
students weren’t sure what was going on.

“I had to find a place to bring everybody together, and that
place was the shrine,” the priest said, referring to the
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Built alongside the campus in the last century, it has become
a special gathering place for the university community.

A group of bishops met nearby at their conference
headquarters on 9/11, and Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick,
then the archbishop of Washington, joined the university
community at a mid-day Mass at the shrine.

Afterward, the priest said, he noticed a sense of peace at
the university. “I’m convinced it was God’s grace at work,”
he said. “Although we didn’t understand the day’s events, we
understood God was with us, and he would see us through.”

That same spirit of faith was evident in January, when
students organized a novena of prayer services and a
collection after the earthquake in Haiti. “Our first response
was to pray, and that desire to pray was so clearly evident
on the part of students,” Father O’Connell said.

The priest said that Catholic University students know that
“our prayer has to lead us somewhere, and where it leads is
to service.”

Day in and day out, the school’s students volunteer
throughout the community, tutoring children in poor
neighborhoods in the city, serving the homeless at soup
kitchens and visiting the elderly at a nearby residence
operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

“The students have taught me this is a great generation, and
we have great reason for hope in the future, both as a church
and as a nation,” the priest said.

During his tenure, the university has set several enrollment
records. He also is proud the new and restored buildings on
campus, including the renovation of McGivney Hall supported
by the Knights of Columbus and the construction of three new
residence halls and the Pryzbyla Center, with its meeting
facilities and food court.

He said Archbishop Wuerl has strongly supported him in his
work.

Perhaps Father O’Connell is happiest about the fact that he
has been able to serve as a priest for the university
community for the past 12 years.

“The students, faculty and staff in a sense became my
parishioners. … These are people I was called to serve,” he
said.

The university board is expected to name a new president by
mid-June, with the approval of the Vatican. Father O’Connell
told Catholic News Service he’ll have time to assist in the
transition before his scheduled August departure.

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