Judge Sergio Moro will deliver the 2018 Commencement address at the May 20 ceremony, according to an email sent to the Notre Dame student body Sunday night.
Moro is a Brazilian jurist who has worked to combat corruption in his country, University President Fr. John Jenkins said in the email.
“Earlier this month in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I presented Judge Moro with the Notre Dame Award, and found him a courageous, conscientious, humble public servant dedicated to justice and the common good,” Jenkins said in the email. “I asked him if he would come to address the graduates of 2018 at our Commencement, and he generously agreed.”
Jenkins said in the email he encourages members of the Notre Dame community to inform themselves of Moro’s achievements.
“Because his work has not been extensively reported in the media in this country, his is less a household name here than it is in Brazil,” he said in the email.
Moro's work — dedicated to exposing political corruption within Brazil — earned the name Operation Car Wash, according a Time magazine report. His contributions to a number of high profile cases revealed that lawmakers were accepting money in exchange for contracts with the state-run oil company, Petrobras, the report said, and as a result, hundreds of politicians were subjected to further investigation.
Moro became a federal judge in 1995, one year after he earned his bachelor of law degree at the Maringa State University in his home state of Parana. He then enhanced his legal knowledge by studying abroad at Harvard Law School, and he received a Juris Doctor from the Federal University of Parana in 2002.
When Jenkins presented the Notre Dame Award in Brazil, he said Moro exhibits exemplary behavior and showcases how to effectively promote justice, according to an National Public Radio transcript.
“As a result of Dr. Moro and his team's good work, Brazil, instead of being infamous for corruption, has become a beacon for the rest of the hemisphere on how to fight it,” Jenkins said in the transcript.
