Good evening.
There are occasions as president when I am reminded, in a very personal way, why DePaul's Catholic, Vincentian mission matters.
This week has been one of those occasions.
As I listened to our Opus Prize finalists, I kept returning to a simple thought: every one of their ministries began because someone was willing to see another person differently.
Not as a problem to solve.
Not as a statistic.
Not as someone else's responsibility.
But as a person whose life has dignity and whose suffering asks something of us.
Our finalists remind us that seeing injustice is only the beginning.
We can recognize suffering from a distance. We can be troubled by it. We can study its causes, speak about it, and even advocate for those affected by it.
All of that matters.
But there is a difference between seeing suffering and moving close enough to be changed by the people who experience it.
The life example of each of our honorees teaches us that there is a difference between working on behalf of those who are marginalized and working with them.
Proximity asks more of us.
It asks us to move beyond observing another person's struggle and to form a deep connection with that person. It asks us to listen before deciding what is needed. It asks us to recognize that people and communities are not merely recipients of our compassion—for they possess wisdom, strength, agency, and gifts of their own.
Our university's namesake, St. Vincent de Paul, did not discover his calling from a distance. It happened through encounters with people who were poor, forgotten, isolated, and suffering. Their lives changed the direction of his own.
Our honorees have each set St. Vincent's Table—a place where ideas, thoughts, backgrounds, and differences are engaged by all who are affected—with an eye towards figuring out, “What must be done?"
But today, perhaps we must add another question: Who will join you at St. Vincent's Table?
Here, our honorees show us the way again.
Father Kelly and the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation do not simply see the consequences of violence and incarceration. He connects with individuals, families, and communities living with those realities. His work creates the conditions in which people can name their own pain, reclaim their own dignity, and participate in the work of healing and transformation.
Father Vitaliy Novak, Anna Skoryk, and the entire Depaul Ukraine team do not look upon homelessness, displacement, and the suffering caused by war from a safe distance. They remain close to people whose lives have been upended. They accompany through uncertainty and recognize the individual human life within the enormity of war.
Nontsasa Nyovane and her charity, Siyakhathala, do not see children experiencing loss and hardship merely as people in need. She sees their promise, listens to their stories, and helps create a community in which those children can begin to imagine a future shaped by hope, rather than hardship.
Different people. Different places. Different ministries.
But each has answered two essential questions:
What must be done?
and
Who will join you?
That is what our honorees have done.
And it is why I am so grateful to Dan McGinty and The Opus Prize Foundation for including DePaul University in this work.
To everyone who joined us at the table - our faculty and staff, our student ambassadors, the Opus Prize Foundation, and our distinguished jury chaired by Sister Barbara Reid: thank you for bringing this extraordinary experience to our community.
In fact, would the jury members and members of the groups that made site visits to the honorees' locations please stand to be recognized?
And lastly, to our honorees, thank you.
You have given us much more than inspiring stories.
You remind us that human dignity is not something we bestow upon another person. It is already present. Our responsibility is to recognize it, honor it, and build a world in which every person can exercise the gifts and agency God has given them.
Tonight, we honor you.
Tomorrow, the challenge belongs to all of us.
May we see injustice clearly but never be satisfied with seeing it from a distance.
May we have the humility to move closer.
May we listen before we act.
May we work not only for others, but with them.
Our honorees have shown us how.
May God bless them, sustain them, strengthen the communities with whom they serve—and help us use their example to inspire all our work.
Thank you.