A ‘Trophy’ Building for Benedictine’s Mission (President Minnis’s Remarks)

Moritz Library in D’Aniello Hall was built to make visible two convictions at the heart of Benedictine College: that we must prepare our students through the highest standards of academic excellence and form our students to love and serve their country.

One day I was talking to Erik Bootsma, one of the architects on this building, and he mentioned that this would be Benedictine College’s Trophy Building. He went on to elaborate that the word “Trophy” comes from the Greek word meaning “Turning Point.”

After a victory on the battlefield, soldiers in Ancient Greece would erect a monument — or trophy — at the site where the battle turned in their favor. This library, located at the top of the hill, stands as a monument, or Turning Point, to Benedictine College’s commitment to Academic Excellence and Catholic Patriotism.

Academic Excellence

This building represents our commitment to Academic Excellence.

As we started this project, a lot of people asked me why we would build a new library in the digital age. I have always responded that it is precisely because of the digital age that we wanted to build this library.

As other colleges and universities empty out their libraries, we must do what the Benedictines have always done: We must preserve the great works of western civilization, make them available for learning, and surround our students with books and knowledge so their intellectual senses will be heightened, and they will reach for intellectual greatness.  And that is happening in our library.

Catholic Patriotism

Not only is this building a symbol of Benedictine College’s commitment to Academic Excellence, it is also a symbol of our commitment to Catholic Patriotism.

This magnificent building is modeled on Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Inside is a replica of the Liberty Bell and this room is a full-size, museum-quality replica of the Assembly Room where, 250 years ago, the Declaration of Independence was debated and adopted—and where, just last week, we marked the 239th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

At Benedictine College, we believe “the last best hope on earth” should be celebrated and that those values of constitutionalism, self-government, individual liberty, and civic virtue must be taught and passed from one generation to the next. And that is what this building will do. A few decades after our founding, the American bishops met in Baltimore—including our very own Bishop Fink of St. Benedict’s Abbey — and the bishops exhorted Catholic families to send into public life “not partisans, but patriots.”

Not partisans, but patriots. That remains part of our task at Benedictine College. But our patriotism does not come at the expense of our faith.

Mary Help of Christians

When one walks in the tower entrance, you walk under the watchful eye of Mary, Help of Christians, the statue above the south doors.

This Carrara marble statue, hewn from the same quarry where Michelangelo selected the marble for the Pieta, features Mary and the Christ Child, both wearing crowns.

This statue was commissioned to make something unmistakably clear. Although we celebrate the American Founding and want to inspire our students to love their country, everyone who crosses the threshold of this building should understand that no matter what form of human government was devised and enacted in Independence Hall: All Should Remember that Mary is our Queen and Christ is our King.

The significance of Mary, Help of Christians, goes even deeper for Benedictine College, though.

In 1856, Father Henry Lemke became lost in a terrible storm while serving Catholics on the Kansas frontier. Weak and surrounded by rising waters, he prayed to Mary, Help of Christians.

Through her intercession and apparition, a light appeared in the distance — a lantern in the window of a cottage — and led him to safety. Two years later he founds the college. Without the intercession of Mary, Help of Christians we are not here today.

Thus, we are pleased to honor Mary, Help of Christians, as our special patroness.

Tower of the Mission

This building also represents the finalization of the towers representing the mission of Benedictine College, to educate our students within a Community of Faith and Scholarship.

For generations, two towers defined the skyline of Benedictine College. The tower of Elizabeth Hall — the original Abbey and now a residence hall — has come to represent our extraordinary Community. And the Abbey Bell Tower, rising above the Blessed Sacrament, the highest point on campus, unmistakably represents our Faith.

And now there is a third tower on this hill. The tower of the Moritz Library stands as a visible sign of Scholarship. The mission of Benedictine College is now written into the very architecture of our campus. Moritz Library in D’Aniello Hall will help prepare generations of students for that mission.

May they carry what they learn here into their homes and parishes, their professions and communities, their courthouses and hospitals. And may all that we do serve the purpose St. Benedict gave us more than fifteen centuries ago: Ut In Omnibus Glorificetur Deus (That in All Things God May Be Glorified).

St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, Pray for Us.

Our Lady, Help of Christians, Pray for Us.

And may God bless Benedictine College and God bless the United States of America.

Thank you.

 

By Benedictine College