My primary concern as a priest and a chaplain is the salvation of souls, and so my main focus must always be to teach the Catholic faith accurately and to offer the sacraments to help people grow closer to God and sanctify their lives, so that they can stay on the road to heaven. My primary focus must always be the spiritual and pastoral care of souls. But I am also excited about the opportunity to be back in the classroom and help to preserve the Catholic tradition on the necessary conformity of the civil law to the natural moral law, which was so powerfully taught by Pope St. John Paul II. I also hope to offer students the encouragement and counsel to persevere through the labor and sacrifices that law school requires, by reminding them to rely on the help and the consolation that come from fidelity to God.

The Catholic faith helps us not to lose sight of the forest through the trees during law school. Our faith teaches the ultimate purpose and meaning of our lives, together with the ultimate reason for the dignity of the human person. In this way, the Catholic faith provides the ultimate horizon and context for the study of law and provides a perspective that helps the law student recall what is objectively good and true. The Catholic faith reminds a law student that the ultimate purpose of law is to direct us to our proper and final end – a life of virtue here on earth, and a life of beatitude with God in heaven. The faith also impacts the community by fostering those Christian virtues, such as compassion, humility and mercy, that help us encourage and inspire each other to persevere in the rigors of legal studies.

I hope to encourage students never to lose sight of the eternal truths that explain the reality and mystery of our lives. As the Second Vatican Council taught, “the highest norm of human life is the divine law – eternal, objective and universal – whereby God orders, directs and governs the entire universe and all the ways of the human community by a plan conceived in wisdom and love. Man has been made by God to participate in this law, with the result that, under the gentle disposition of divine Providence, he can come to perceive ever more fully the truth that is unchanging” (Dignitatis Humanae, 3).

I also hope to remind students, as Pope Benedict XVI taught, that “man is not self-creating freedom,” and that the nature and limits of our freedom are defined and designed by God to bring us to lasting happiness and fulfilment.

Lastly, I hope to convince and remind the students that the Catholic faith teaches the morality and virtues that will help a lawyer exercise his profession in a way that is honorable and noble.

Prior to my ordination as a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, MA, I graduated from law school and worked for a short time as an attorney at a Boston law firm. Although I left the legal profession, I have always remained very interested in the law and have had occasions as a priest to teach constitutional law with a focus on religious liberty. It has been a great concern to me that positive law has moved more and more away from objective truth. It was a great and pleasant surprise when I was contacted during the search for a new chaplain at Ave Maria School of Law, and I am very grateful to the Law School and to my bishop for allowing me the opportunity to serve as Chaplain.

It’s edifying for me to meet and speak with individuals who share an interest in the law without denying or neglecting their religious obligations. In the short time that I’ve been here at Ave Maria School of Law, I’ve been heartened by the shared and expressed desire to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and the acknowledgement that our Christian faith must be the first priority in our lives. It’s also rewarding for me to meet faculty and students who see the great project and study of law from the perspective of what is lasting and eternal.