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Faculty Reflections

Student interview with Brother Richard Daly

     

Brother Richard Daly

    Veteran of the Holy Cross Congregation and longtime affiliate of St. Edward’s University, Brother Richard Daly has authority of experience on the matter of transition in Catholic education. Having graduated from a Holy Cross high school and then earned a degree in both English and History at St. Edward’s in the closing of the pre-Vatican II era, he has first-hand knowledge of the doctrine taught and the devotions performed at the university and within his own sect of the Church. After spending 15 years as an administrator in various high schools around the nation, he returned to St. Edward’s for a brief stint as a fundraiser but soon pursued a career as a lobbyist and legislator of the Texas Catholic Conference. His close interactions with the bishops of each Texan diocese—three of whom were actually present for the three Vatican assemblies in the ‘60s—have established an intimate and educated knowledge of the effects of the “major watershed event.” Just within the past decade, Bro. Daly has taken up another position here as a part-time teacher as well as continuing his role in the Board of Trustees.

     Describing the assembly Pope John XXIII called in 1962 as a the “most significant teaching moment” for the clergy in the past four centuries, he contextualized the global stage during this time and the crisis the Church faced in the spread of modernization. In reaction to the growing threat of nuclear warfare, an insistence for world peace was issued out to all states, Catholic or otherwise; this acknowledgement of contemporary issues prompted the movement to “open the windows and get some fresh air” into the stiff Catholic ideology. Perhaps the most influential factor to the shifting of ideology was the sharing of ideas between the bishops from all over the world, called to witness and participate in the council. The press for universal salvation, radical reversals of traditional devotion, and movement away from Aquinas teachings were the most significant changes put forth according to Bro. Daly.

    Turning an eye to the micro-level effects of the council, St. Edward’s University’s interpretation and implementation of these themes were immediately apparent. The school chapels were renovated and the sermons translated to English; the entire social dynamic of mass had transformed from silent, attentive ranks to chattering, friendly participants. As the focus of the Church shifted away from salvation through piety and began to embrace the “inherent dignity” of all people, new opportunities arose for students to serve on mission trips with the goal of helping humanity in the name of Christ, caring for their brothers as prescribed in the Bible.

    Non-Catholic students were now being admitted on greater numbers than ever, diversifying the classes and providing all the more reason to expand curriculum past its narrow focus on Aristotelian-Thomistic catechism into deeper realms of philosophy and religion. The academic expectation to pursue theological studies was softened into suggestion. Bro. Daly recalled the completion of his English degree requiring a total of 24 credit hours of theology and philosophy; returning to St. Edward’s years later, he now works within the educational model with the less intensive requirement of a mere 3 hours of any religious studies class.

    As a current standing member of the Board of Trustees as well as having been a student prior to 1969, Bro. Daly witnessed the grand transition of entrusting the BOT into laymen’s hands. The administration of the ‘60s faced a rising competition among universities to be the most efficient, bureaucratic institutions in a modern world; by turning over the “ultimate governing authority” to those outside the Holy Cross Congregation, the new BOT was able to direct the university’s functions with business-like style. Following the same trend, educated laymen were hired more and more frequently in the absences left by clerical faculty.

   In concluding his interview, Brother Richard Daly made it clear that the Vatican II Council was not an easily accepted revision to the traditional ways held dear by many. For many Catholics this was a divisive issue, especially in the years immediately after the proclamations when radical change was happening before their eyes. Even within this small campus, tensions rose between students, faculty, administrators, and local clergy over the validity of Brother Fleck and his peer’s choices for the university.