On Monday and Tuesday evenings on Library Lawn, the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative and the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good sponsored “Fr. TED Talks: Ideas from the Catholic Social Tradition That We Find Inspiring.” The two-day event was held as part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum: What Do We Owe Each Other?
To conclude the TED Talk-style speaker series, University President Fr. Robert Dowd spoke on “twin crises” of civility and sustainability and their shared solution in awareness, spirituality, intention and positive change.
The event was hosted by the young alumni and current student program director for the Notre Dame Alumni Association Iliana Contreras. In addition to Dowd’s speech, four speakers spoke each evening, including four current undergraduate students.
On Tuesday, Monica Caponigro, a senior majoring in film, television and theatre, kicked off the evening with an emphasis on the idea of “yes, and.”
She was followed by Alex Sejdinaj ‘15, who is the founder of the South Bend Code School, South Bend Code Works and GiveGrove. Sejdinaj discussed her career discernment process, centering on a conversation she had with her Notre Dame academic adviser. According to Sejdinaj, her adviser encouraged her to pursue her passions, be patient and be open.
“This all started because my adviser shared what she had,” Sejdinaj said, while reflecting on her current position working in South Bend. “She showed me the power of sharing what we have with others.”
After referencing 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Sejdinaj portrayed the advice her adviser gave her as an example of love’s power and pointed to love as a source for both challenge and transformation.
“Love is turning outward instead of turning inward,” Sejdinaj said. “It’s asking how can I serve you instead of what can you do for me.”
Also acknowledging the need for love, Meera Bhakta, a junior majoring in science pre-professional studies, connected her experiences creating video interviews with family members and researching women and breast cancer in Ethiopia. Bhakta said the two are aligned in being opportunities to openly receive the stories of others.
“When we bring compassion into our work with others, we are able to recognize them as whole people and not just data points,” Bhakta said.
According to Bhakta, she cannot change others’ experiences, such as arranged marriages or a mastectomy without consent, but she can, “listen with empathy and respond with love.”
Concluding the speaker section of the two-day event, Dowd delivered a roughly 20-minute talk on the crises in civility and sustainability and the underlying cause which connects the two topics.
Dowd began by discussing a dumpsite in Dandora, Nairobi, Kenya, where approximately 200,000 people reside. According to Dowd, over 2,000 tons of garbage are dumped there every day by rich people in Nairobi who care for little the people and land of Dandora.
“Wherever convenience, profit and pleasure reign supreme, they are death dealing,” Dowd said.
In light of this issue, Dowd highlighted three core themes of Catholic social teaching as human responsibilities: life and dignity of the human person, rights and responsibilities and care for God’s creation. Dowd then said humans must be aware of their problems, one of them being incivility in a “diverse and plural society.”
“We’ve drifted into demonizing one another,” Dowd said. “We’ve drifted into labeling one another in ways that prevent us from addressing problems that we all face.”
According to Dowd, these problems are worsened by social media and cable news. Furthering the discussion on the lack of civility, Dowd said advances in technology have driven people to loneliness and isolation in virtual communities rather than “flesh and blood” communities.
“We tend to be so attached to our devices that we’re more connected to them than we are to the people around us,” Dowd said.
Dowd noted these technological advances have also fueled the sustainability crisis, beginning with the Industrial Revolution. These technological tools can be used to “plunder” creation or “protect” it, Dowd said.
“So the question then becomes, how can we develop more wisdom?” Dowd said. “How can we develop the kind of collective maturity that will help us to use our technology in ways that humanize, in ways that make our world more just?”
Acknowledging the context of the University, Dowd called upon students to be more aware of their surroundings, take challenging courses and engage with others. Dowd next urged listeners to take time for reflection and spirituality despite busy“We’re part of a society where consumption sometimes gets the best of us,” Dowd said. “A culture of consumption seems to be consuming us.”schedules.
“We’re part of a society where consumption sometimes gets the best of us,” Dowd said. “A culture of consumption seems to be consuming us.”
While Dowd said it is good to be busy, he also said being busy without taking time to reflect can lead to feeling lost and, using Pope Francis’s words, experiencing a “spiritual identity crisis.”
“We have forgotten who we are in the eyes of God,” Dowd said. “We have forgotten who we are and how much we depend on each other and on the non-human created order around us.”
Dowd next said humans must align their actions with intentions. He recognized the difference between outer freedom and inner freedom to demonstrate the way humans should behave.
Dowd wrote in his presentation, inner freedom is the “extent to which people … make sacrifices for each other, including future generations,” in contrast to outer freedom which outlines rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Self restraint and self discipline are at the root of inner freedom, Dowd said.
“For Christians, the greatest example, the model, the great model for inner freedom is Jesus who sacrifices for the sake of others, even those who crucified him, and he invites others to join in this inner freedom,” Dowd said.
After emphasizing the need to live aligned with a larger purpose, Dowd moved on to his final action step: to promote change in positive ways. Dowd said change must be promoted within culture and policy, not just within each person.
Dowd then referenced his heroes, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. While he acknowledged that neither was perfect, both “moved the needle in a more humane and just direction, in a more civil direction.”
Dowd finally acknowledged his hope that Notre Dame as a place for research, teaching and learning makes the world more humane, civil and sustainable.
“Notre Dame is a place where we really believe that spirituality is important, and hopefully everybody here at Notre Dame feels an invitation to get in touch with the spiritual, that deepest part of ourselves that calls us to turn outward in service of others in ways that make the world more civil and sustainable, humane and just,” Dowd said.
