In the opening scene of A Man for All Seasons, Thomas More is trying to encourage Richard Rich to become a teacher instead of entering into a public political life. More tells him that he would be a fine teacher. Rich asks: “And if I was who would know it?” More answers him: “You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public that . . .”

For me, that “public” has been a great gift these past 50 years (give or take a few). It is in the Sinsinawa Congregation that I learned that teaching was a vocation and to be a teacher was a gift. So I began with 1st graders, and I loved teaching them just as I now love teaching university students. It might seem to be a great leap between those levels, but there is an old adage: if you can teach 1st graders, you can teach anyone.

For the past 24 years, I have been on the faculty in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America (CUA), Washington, DC. I teach in the areas of catechetics and liturgy on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. All students at the university are required to take four religion courses as part of their undergraduate program, so these classes are a mixture of students from many fields. That can be a bit of a challenge, but it is always interesting. The religion majors are young people who want to teach in Catholic schools and work in youth ministry, social ministry, or other ministry in the Church. Several years ago, I began an internship program in which they spend a semester under the guidance of an on-site mentor, working in parish youth ministry or Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), teaching in inner-city schools, hospital pastoral care, or at agencies such as So Others Might Eat, St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home, and the local homeless shelters. I meet with them once a week for theological reflection.

The graduate students are preparing to be university or college theology or religious studies teachers. It is a privilege to work with them in their studies and in developing their doctoral dissertations. As graduates, I am so proud of the significant contributions they make through their writing and teaching.

Most of all, it has been a privilege to be part of the CUA faculty and to have the opportunity to learn and to discuss, not only with the Catholic theologians involved in so many aspects of Church and ecumenical dialogue but with the Imam, the Rabbi, and the Buddhist specialists who are also our colleagues.

As Thomas More would say, “Not a bad public, that . . .”

Sister Catherine Dooley, OP (Mary Conan)
Catholic University of America Washington, DC