by Gabrielle Tremblay

A wise Jesuit priest, Fr. Larry Gillick, S.J., once told me that “a good education coaches a person to listen, reflect, and respond to invitations.” Only three months into my first year of law school, I have already encountered numerous invitations at the University of St. Thomas – lunchtime presentations inviting me to reflect on my future goals as an attorney, professors inviting my class and I to a moment of peace in prayer or reflection at the beginning of class, or peers inviting me to learn more about them in conversation. This reflection is about a more large-scale invitation that I received at St. Thomas – the invitation to pursue a Law and Catholic Studies Joint Degree (JD/MA).

Growing up in a small town in northwest Wisconsin, I did not have a Catholic education until my undergraduate career at Creighton University (Omaha, Nebraska). I majored in philosophy and history, and pursued research on Catholic theology, feminism, and domestic violence. I fell in love with the humanities and even more with research. At the same time, these opportunities invited me to reflect on the value of justice – a value that played a large part in my decision to attend law school and still motivates me as I study law.

As an undergraduate, I also felt at home in Creighton’s community. I first accepted the offer to attend law school at St. Thomas because it was clear during my visit that its kind and welcoming community resembled the community at Creighton. It was only after deciding to attend St. Thomas law that I discovered the JD/MA program. This would be the perfect opportunity to combine both my desire to become a lawyer and my passion for the humanities and research.

The Master of Arts in Catholic Studies involves both a deep dive into all humanities’ disciplines and research. It takes a holistic approach to teaching the Catholic tradition by offering classes in Catholic literature, culture, theology, philosophy, and more. Not only will these classes fill my desire to continue studying humanities, but the required master’s thesis will also satisfy my intellectual curiosity which I explored through research in my undergraduate studies.

The Catholic Studies course offerings and independent thesis invites students to think critically about values which is essential for the next generation of lawyers. During law school orientation at St. Thomas, each first-year law student is required to take a class called Moral Reasoning for Lawyers. There we discuss the trend of law students often becoming morally indifferent through a traditional legal education. Students spend three years reading cases but never meeting the real people behind them. Discussions of values are rarely introduced in class. Students feel that the law is whatever the judge decides rather than reflecting any higher moral or ethical values. To assuage these tendencies, St. Thomas law has several offerings like the Moral Reasonings for Lawyers class. Another of these offerings is the JD/MA joint degree, and I am so grateful to supplement my legal education with a master’s degree that invites critical thinking about values.

Of course, I am frequently asked, “what are you going to do with a Master’s in Catholic Studies?” This question implies I come up with “practical” use for my joint degree. For many students, the Master’s degree in Catholic Studies opens opportunities serve their communities through ministry. Although this is likely not the case for me, this is not a concern for me because I believe education does not always require a “practical” use to be worthwhile. Too often education as merely a tool for intellectual and spiritual development is deemed “impractical” as if that were a bad thing. For me, the opportunity to continue what I began at Creighton through humanities studies and research is a good in itself.

Not only do I enjoy the critical thinking about topics in the humanities, but my reflections on values of justice, fairness, and equality, were a large part of my motivation to attend law school. The times that I lose sight of this purpose are the times that my motivation to study law tends to decrease. I think it is essential for the next generation of lawyers to critically think about values because we are entering a profession that enforces laws that ought to reflect society’s values, and in turn applies those laws in ways that affect real people’s lives and aspirations. Opportunities like the JD/MA are vital for us to learn how to “listen, reflect, and respond to invitations” that this world will present us when we enter the law profession, whether that be an invitation to mentor a younger lawyer or to take a difficult pro bono case. All in all, if you’re like me, and you want to be a lawyer while pursuing intellectual and spiritual growth through the humanities and Catholic tradition, this is my invitation to you to consider the Juris Doctor – Masters in Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas.

Gabrielle Tremblay is a Murphy Scholar and 1L at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in the JD/CSMA program.

“Student Perspective” is a recurring blog series which highlights the various activities of the Murphy Scholar graduate students during their fellowship.

by Paul Befort

Each year, the Murphy Scholars participate in a program series focused around a theme which delves into the philosophical and theological foundations of law and policy matters.  I was fascinated by the vision of this year’s series since, as a former seminarian and a Master in Catholic Studies aspirant, I consider myself to have scratched the surface of the beauty and truth present in the Catholic faith. But this year revealed a fantastic depth to what I thought was an old topic: natural law.

The world has its own way of doing things. Unfortunately, this way of doing things is no longer closely connected with natural law. Why is this a problem? Isn’t natural law just an antiquated medieval mode of thought that is somewhat outdated in terms of solely shaping an appropriate worldview? I thought it was losing relevance until I heard three St. Thomas professors; Fr. Austin Litke, O.P., Dr. William Stevenson, and Msgr. Martin Schlag present on the subject throughout the semester.

Natural law, when referenced today, largely comes from the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, Prima Secunda Pars, question 91. Natural law is God’s eternal law. God is the eternal law. We are all designed to participate in the natural law by our participation in the life of God. Natural law is therefore imprinted on our hearts, integral to each of us. Natural law is our guide to what it means to live our humanity to the fullest. The more we follow natural law, the more we participate in the eternal law Who is our ultimate end. The more in accord with natural law we are, the more human we are because we are living in accord with the design that God intended.

In Romans 2:15: Saint Paul talks about the law inscribed upon our hearts. At times our feelings might be at odds with this law, but the transcription of the law into our hearts is not on an emotional level, flawed by original sin, but rather on an intellectual level. Right reason will lead us to closer union with God. Our reason knows what is better for us than our feelings. We know, intellectually, that excess and comforts do not allow us to flourish in the long term. But our physical appetites are insatiable when not governed by reason. Our participation in the natural law is how we are the happiest long term.

Since under the natural law all is a gift from God, through a natural law lens, life is about growing in personal virtue to more fully participate in the life of God who has given us everything. A Christian’s civic life flows from a sense of grateful duty, therefore.

Straying from the natural law has caused problems. I was most affected by how the modern view of education is at odds with the natural law’s view of education. In medieval times education was focused on growing in personal virtue; mentor-to-mentee relationships were typically how this came about. Teacher-and-pupil relationships could become truly human relationships of discipleship. Today, now that civic life is no longer about personal virtue and trying to make a return to the Lord, education and relationships of all kinds often become fake and contrived. Teacher-student relationships are often limited to a sixteen-week term. Networking too is not about real encounters with another person, but about what can be gained from the other. Volunteering is not about making a return to the Lord, but about padding a resume. The focus has moved away from God and the Eternal Law, becoming more about economic advantage.

Social justice is a modern concept on how we can make a better society without God. It borrows from the natural law and our Christian past to deduce that humans have dignity. But it uses a distorted reference point. Social justice focuses on rights that are inherent to human beings for who they are (rather than because of who God is), and this dictates a legal and educational system that attempts to cultivate a virtuous society from the top down. Instead of personal virtue, which then flows out to change society on the individual level, social justice contends that human beings can be perfected of things like racism, etcetera, when institutions are perfected. Of course, legislating morality rarely works. Success in modern society, when not flowing from an interior place of virtue or a response to the Goodness we have received, currently involves using others to pad one’s resume.

Natural law sets us free from social contrivances for organic relationship with the Eternal Law. Everything else flows from there. It is a law that does not constrain us but allows us to have freedom for what we are created to be: truly human through a relational participation in the Eternal Law.

Paul Befort is a Murphy Scholar and 1L at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in the JD/CSMA program.

“Student Perspective” is a recurring blog series which highlights the various activities of the Murphy Scholar graduate students during their fellowship.

By Caleb Callanan

Each year the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture’s fall conference is the meeting place of world class Catholic thinkers, philosophers, and academics as they come together to address the most pressing issues of our time from an interdisciplinary perspective. While I may not be a world class Catholic thinker, philosopher, nor academic, I was fascinated by the theme of this year’s conference “’And It Was Very Good’: On Creation”. My interest in topics like the Imago Dei, natural law, and human dignity and their interwovenness with both the law and Catholic social teaching is precisely why I was excited to join the Terrence J. Murphy Institute as a Murphy Scholar; so, the opportunity to explore these important topics with some of the best and brightest from around the world was a great honor.

I was blessed to be able to join seminarians from Saint John Vianney College Seminary, Catholic Studies majors from the University of Saint Thomas, and others from the Murphy Institute as we travelled to Indiana for the conference. Naturally, with a group like this the thought provoking and presupposition challenging conversations began well before we even stepped foot on Notre Dame’s campus. Our group was fortunate enough to stay in the campus’ parish center for our visit and the walk to the conference center each morning took us past the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. This shrine to Our Blessed Mother, located in the center of a prestigious university, served as a beautiful reminder that our Catholic faith is synonymous with the pursuit of knowledge.

As I have Thomas Aquinas for my confirmation name, attended the University of Saint Thomas for my undergraduate degree, and am now continuing my studies at the University’s School of Law, I have grown quite familiar with the Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas and I saw every word of it in action through the professors, speakers, and other attendees I had the pleasure of conversing with at the conference.

Grant, o merciful God, that I may ardently desire, prudently examine, truthfully acknowledge, and perfectly accomplish what is pleasing to Thee for the praise and glory of Thy name. Amen

This prayer served as a guide as my fellow conference goers and I attended lectures and presentations from leaders in a diverse array of fields. From classical art and music experts to astrophysicists, biologists, theologians, and monks; the presenters at the conference covered topics ranging from bioethics and mathematics in creation to craft beer brewing as an act of co-creation. The common thread joining these myriad topics was that they all pointed to the divine in us, the “in His image” that we all share which is the source of human dignity. This was an idea I had hoped to explore at the conference and was especially pleased to see this recognition of one another as children of God wasn’t lost, as it so often is, when the conversation turned to politics and law.

It felt like a respite from our modern political climate to witness and participate in conversations and debates on the most contentious of issues where these topics served not as the flashpoints of rage that they typically function as, but rather as means of deepening our own and each other’s understanding of the fundamental questions of the day and working together to propose better laws and solutions. The cooperative nature of these debates stemmed from all who were involved desiring to defend human dignity, despite the stark differences of opinion on how to best achieve this. It was through observing this that I saw firsthand how the best parts of our laws and legal system are those that (perhaps even unintentionally) follow Catholic social teaching on human dignity and natural law.

Hearing ethicists, scientists and theologians discuss the development of technologies and sciences that are giving rise to increasingly sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence, neural organoids and lab made chimeras made it clear to me that technology, society, and the law are on a collision course. For this reason, we need now, more than ever, to look to and bolster the best parts of our legal system and laws; those that celebrate the image of God in each of us, protect human dignity, and advance the Common Good. This will be a challenge, but after hearing from but a few of the many brilliant attendees at the conference, I am confident that with the Grace of God, it is a challenge we are well prepared for.

I am grateful to the Terrence J. Murphy institute for making my attendance possible and look forward to applying all that I learned as I continue my legal education.

Caleb Callanan is a Murphy Scholar and 1L at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

“Student Perspective” is a recurring blog series which highlights the various activities of the Murphy Scholar graduate students during their fellowship.