Closing Thoughts: an interview with Francesco Cesareo of Assumption College
Catholic with a big C and a small c
Assumption College chose Francesco Cesareo last month as its 16th president out of a field of 55 applicants. He will assume his duties this summer. An historian and published scholar of the Renaissance and Reformation periods, he has been a frequent commentator for local and national media on issues regarding Catholic higher education and the Catholic Church. Previously, he served as Dean at Duquesne University since 2004. Here, he talks about his vision for Assumption, as well as the connection between the Catholic faith and catholic (universal and general) thought.
WBJ: You started your career as a history scholar. How did you make the mindset switch from scholastic to leadership?
Cesareo: Well, it's not a switch if you approach it in the way I always have. Even as a history professor, I took the approach that this was a vocation, very much rooted in a sense of responsibility. I believed in the values of the institutions with which I was affiliated, and wanted to assist them in living out their mission.
The jump to leadership came when I realized that if these institutions were going to be able to continue to exist as Catholic institutions, they needed leaders who were committed to the tradition, and who understood the tradition and lived it out.
WBJ: In making the change, what has been the biggest challenge?
Cesareo: One of the things I missed when I decided to go into administration full-time, was leading a classroom. Because I love teaching. I love interacting with students. And as a dean, I taught a course once in a while. Students have told me that even when you're not in the classroom, you still impact their lives. And I think that's the thing. What we're doing here is for the service of students. We're trying to impact the lives of students and we can't ever forget that. That has to be the central message.
The biggest challenge now: Looking to the future and making sure that we prepare students for the world in which they're going to go into.
WBJ: Assumption College is a Catholic-based school, but it has an ecumenical atmosphere. How can a Catholic institution, with a big C, encourage catholic thinking, with a small C?
Cesareo: A Catholic institution has to be welcoming to individuals of other faith traditions, without apologizing for who it is. If it does, it's not committed to the tradition of the institution. We need to welcome individuals of other faiths because the climate that we are creating says religion is an integral part of the human spirit and the formation of students.
We can ask religious questions here. We can speak about God, we can engage in faith issues. And what that does, regardless of faith, is to strengthen the individual in his or her religious tradition. If students graduate from Assumption being more committed to their own faiths, we have done what a Catholic institution should be doing - emphasizing the importance of faith commitment in the development of the person.
WBJ: How do you see Catholicism and liberal arts as meshing?
Cesareo: The liberal arts tradition is very much interconnected with Catholicism. The early institutions of higher education in Western Europe were institutions established by the church.
Catholicism has always had a link with liberal arts, a body of knowledge that allows us to develop our full potential as human beings. And it's the freeing of an individual from ignorance, provincialism, and fear. This body of knowledge which is rooted in the classical tradition, very much resonates with Catholicism's thrust of the development of the person, allowing that person to use the knowledge to create a society that is going to benefit others, the common good.
The Cesareo File: |
Born: Queens, NY, 1959.
Education: Summa cum laude, Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception; Masters and PhD, Fordham University.
Started career: Cathedral Preparatory Seminary High School, Elmhurst, NY
Biggest career challenge: Moving into academic leadership.
Biggest career achievement: The presidency at Assumption College
What do you do for recreation: Time with family (wife, Filomena, and three young children), also theater, opera, symphony.
Cesareo: The church has this rich body of Catholic social teaching, which unfortunately is the church's best kept secret, I think, that very few people know about: The social encyclicals that start with Pope Leo the 13th and go all the way up to John Paul 2. In terms of the importance of social reform and looking out for the marginalized and the poor, and creating a society that focuses on those who are not in positions of power, leadership or wealth.
In developing the social consciousness of our students we need to educate them in Catholic social tradition, because it's such a rich tradition that understands the need to work on behalf of the other. It's very much rooted in issues of social justice, remediation of poverty, and dignity of the human person, and that's where the social consciousness comes in. Once you accept that, you can start to deal with the issues that work against the dignity of the human person.
It needs to be interwoven into the curriculum, particularly the curriculum of the professional programs that are preparing future business leaders, so that they have sensitivity and social consciousness and can use their body of knowledge to improve the world in which we live.
This interview has been conducted and edited for length by Christina P. O'Neill.
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