Founders Week

Sean Tierney, a Duquesne University graduate and instructor in the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts, delivered the following speech at the 2015 Founders Week Faces of Courage luncheon in the Africa Room on Feb. 5.

Sean Tierney

Good afternoon, everyone.

I’m honored to be here representing the alumni of Duquesne University, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about the impact that the Spiritans and their mission have had on my life.

For those of us who hold Duquesne dear, this week serves as an important opportunity to reflect on the values of our founding congregation. I’m proud to say that I have a very personal history and long-standing relationship with the Spiritans.

First, I’m a graduate of Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia, which was founded by the Spiritans in 1897 as a preparatory and junior collegiate seminary for young men who were studying to become members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Although just a college preparatory school by the time that I attended, my relationship with the Spiritans began there many years ago. After Holy Ghost, I completed my undergraduate work here at Duquesne, and while we were students, my wife Audrey and I were active members of Spiritan Campus Ministry. After graduation, we were married in the University chapel. I know that I speak for Audrey when I say that, for us, returning to Duquesne as employees and being able to continue our relationship with the Spiritans and the campus community has been a true blessing. More importantly, the opportunity for me to serve as a member of the faculty allows me to continue to cultivate the very strong personal friendships that I have formed with members of the Spiritan community in these past two decades. So for me, living the mission has often meant putting into practice the kindness and the example that these men have shown me over the years.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a graduate of Holy Ghost Prep, and while I was a student there, the campus contained a house (much like our own Trinity Hall) where many Spiritans, actively teaching and retired, had lived. As students, we were given the opportunity to interact with the Spiritans often—a unique and endearing component of my high school education, and one that you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. In talking with these men, serving beside them at Mass or accompanying them on walks around campus, the Spiritan charism was abundantly clear. Because this week is about honoring the legacy of the Spiritans and their influence, I would like to recognize one man in particular who had a tremendous impact on my life, and who taught me what it truly means to live the Spiritan mission.

In the fall of 1997, while a student at Holy Ghost, I was fortunate enough to meet Fr. Norman Bevan, who had just begun a brief stay as a teacher at the prep. A remarkable man of integrity, Norm’s generosity was matched only by his kindness and concern for others. In fact, Norm was so compassionate that many mistook his good-naturedness for naivety. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Before his time at the prep, Norm was the provincial superior of the USA-East Province of the Spiritans and president of Catholic Theological Union. But to us, he was just Fr. Norm. As my teacher, he first introduced me to the Spiritans and the charism. As a sophomore in high school, he introduced me to Duquesne University as part of a vocational retreat. And upon my visit, I fell in love with the campus and with the people, and knew that I wanted to do my undergraduate study here. It was during that retreat, almost 20 years ago, where I first met members of the Spiritan community who are still my dear friends. And as fate would have it, upon my acceptance to Duquesne, Norm was appointed superior of Bethel Animation Center—a retreat center as well as a retirement center for members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit here in western Pennsylvania—so I was able to see him regularly.

When I told Norm that I wanted to be a teacher, he was so encouraging. He called it “a noble profession,” and as he reminded me often, a profession tied very closely to the Spiritan mission. Given his history as an educator, Norm had tremendous insight to share. One night, after retreat activities had ended at the Bethel Animation Center, he and I sat up talking about pedagogy. I have never forgotten what he said that night. In keeping with the tradition of the Spiritans, he reminded me that education goes beyond the walls of the classroom. “Educate the person,” he said. “Educate the person.” It’s not always about a transfer of content —it’s also about inspiring growth as individuals: mind, heart and spirit. Norm was echoing the charism—a drive to evangelize—and as part of that, a drive to educate, formally and informally.

As a member of the faculty at Duquesne, I strive to serve God by serving students. For me, living the mission is “educating the person.” As faculty, yes, we owe it to our students to be well prepared in our lectures and accurate in our presentation of content, but we owe them so much more. At Duquesne, we take pride in the fact that students are more than just a number here or a face in the crowd. Educating the person means striving to show students that they matter.

On the first day of classes, we’re given photo-rosters of our students. And each semester, I teach somewhere between 150 and 175 students. But in that first week of classes, I spend time every evening studying those photos, and by my third or fourth lecture, I am able to take a few minutes and go around the room, calling each of my students by name. I’ve always done this because I believe my students and I are forging a partnership, and as faculty here at Duquesne, living the mission involves showing students that they are more than just a number. As a younger faculty member, many of my service opportunities are rooted in efforts to help (and collaborate with) my students in a variety of unique settings. Whether it is accompanying members of a sorority or fraternity to dinner on campus or attending the floor programs of resident assistants, these are opportunities that are not presented to all members of the faculty; therefore, I strive to provide my assistance whenever asked, remembering Fr. Norm’s challenge to “educate the person.”

So the wisdom and life lessons that I learned from Fr. Norm are always with me, guiding my actions in the classroom and beyond.  And his are just a handful of lessons that I have learned from the Spiritan brotherhood over the many years that I have known them. They also helped me to find strength during some of the darkest moments of my life. When my dad died several years ago, I was a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh and struggling to find the same support system and sense of community that I had experienced when I was a student here at Duquesne. It was an extremely difficult time for me, which arguably would have been much worse had I not been able to call upon Spiritan friends like Frs. Ray French and Jim McCloskey, who were there for me and who helped me to summon the courage to find meaning in the loss and ultimately to use that courage to help others through the same ordeal. As one of the countless individuals who turned to the Spiritans and their charism and found inner courage, I’m grateful for the opportunity to say, “Thank you.”

As the week comes to a close, we are called to reflect upon the legacy of our founding congregation and the courage of its members. Let us also strive to find the courage within ourselves to live, as Francis Libermann did, in “practical union with God,” for living the mission involves finding the divine in the everyday and facing our challenges with the courage that only faith can bring.