NEWS & VIEWS
Common Ground Lecture Celebrates Tim Russert’s Life

The annual Philip J. Murnion lecture of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative was to have been given June 27 by Tim Russert, journalist and long-time host of NBC’s Meet the Press. Russert died suddenly June 13, and his friend and colleague Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of the NBC Evening News, spoke in his place. The title of the lecture was changed from “Learnings from the Political Process for Common Ground in the Catholic Church” to “Tim Russert, the Political Process, and Common Ground for the Catholic Church.”

Before the lecture, the Initiative’s annual Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Award was presented to Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., for his contributions to building common ground in the Catholic church, particularly in the areas of immigration, the consistent ethic of life, reconciliation in the wake of the clergy sex abuse crisis, and lay ecclesial ministry.

Bishop Kicanas, ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, spoke of the late Cardinal Bernardin as having been his mentor. He mentioned the cardinal’s concern for individuals, his commitment to the church, and the integrity and honesty with which he handled an accusation—later withdrawn—that he had himself been guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor. Bishop Kicanas also spoke of the Chicago archbishop’s concern about the tendency of some groups within the church to become polarized from one another, which led to his founding, with others including the late Msgr. Murnion, of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, which seeks to facilitate conversation among Catholics of good will who have differing opinions about polarizing topics. The Initiative is staffed by the NPLC.

Williams spoke, as others have spoken and written, about how important Tim Russert’s Catholic faith was to him. He said that for Russert, Catholicism “wasn’t an elephant in the room—it was the room.” He said that Russert’s Catholic upbringing and education were an overwhelming influence on his journalistic commitment to the search for truth, and that Catholicism was “his base, it was never his bias.” Williams said, “He knew the civility of our dialogue was under attack; he knew that diversity in the public square takes work every day; and he knew that our standards of journalism were being attacked.” But he said that he had hope that Russert had a positive effect on the younger generation of journalists who were privileged to work with and around him, to inhale what Russert exhaled.

Responding to Williams’s remarks, the Rev. J. Cletus Kiley, president of the Institute for Faith and Politics, spoke of Russert as an “icon” who personified virtues which “help us make sense out of life and certainly help us make sense out of politics.”

The lecture was given in the Pryzbyla University Center of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; more than 200 people attended.