Education for mercy

In this era of skyrocketing costs of higher education, it is important to remind ourselves of why it is still valuable. For many, especially the poor, the financial benefit that accrues for those with a college degree is a lifeline to pull them out of poverty.

Yesterday, September 24, was the beginning of a week-long celebration of Mercy Day. The Sisters of Mercy operate 17 colleges in the United States, and hundreds of other missionary works around the world. For eight years, I taught in one of those colleges: Mount Aloysius, in Cresson, Pennsylvania. Have you heard of it? Likely not, if you don’t live in Cambria County. That fact points to a hidden truth in much Catholic higher education in the United States: much of it is done outside the lights of Division I football or basketball, outside the often hostile rhetoric about what college is supposed to be about. It is a labor of mercy. I was regularly struck by how dedicated my colleagues at Mount Aloysius were: professors of business or English literature; admissions officers or counselors; residence life directors or members of the housekeeping staff. Education for mercy is not about rocketing the privileged to even greater positions of privilege; more often it is about giving single mothers or former truck drivers– my former students– a chance to have a better life for themselves and their families.