Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, will be the 2013 Commencement speaker, according to a University press release.
Dolan will speak and receive an honorary degree at the University's 168th Commencement on May 19 at Notre Dame Stadium.
"Over the past several years, I have had the honor and pleasure of getting to know Cardinal Dolan," University President Fr. John Jenkins said in the press release. "He is a man of great intelligence and personal warmth, and a dedicated shepherd of the Church. We were pleased to have him here in 2011 to give the inaugural lecture for the Notre Dame Project on Human Dignity, and we are grateful that he has accepted our invitation to join us in celebrating the achievements of our students and to provide them with words of wisdom as they set out into the world."
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI named Dolan Archbishop of New York in February 2009 after Dolan served seven years as Archbishop of Milwaukee. Dolan was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November 2010. The pope elevated him to cardinal in January 2012.
Dolan was ordained to the priesthood in June 1976. He completed a doctorate in American Church history at The Catholic University of America.
From 1994 to 2001, Dolan served as rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. While there, he was also a visiting professor of Church history at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a faculty member in the Department of Ecumenical Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Dolan served as chairman of Catholic Relief Services from January 2009 to November 2010. He is currently a trustee at Catholic University and a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
