Graduation 2018

Published: May 24, 2018

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor delivered the following commencement speech during the graduation ceremony at Robinson Auditorium for Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock on Thursday, May 24, 2018 and at Catholic High School for Boys, also in Little Rock, on Friday, May 25, 2018.

Bishop Taylor

Earlier this year Pope Francis issued a powerful message for World Communications Day based on Jesus’ teaching in John 8:32 — “The truth will set you free.” You graduates are preparing to go out into a world in which falsehood has a great deal of influence.

People refuse to accept truths about the human person as God created us because these truths are sometimes difficult and run contrary to what some people want us to accept, including the sacredness of human life from the first moment of conception to natural death and every stage in between.

There is also much falsehood in public life — including in politics — but only the truth can provide us a solid foundation on which to build a better future.

Fake news generates fear and manipulates our resulting insecurity for purposes that have everything to do with the pursuit of power and self-interest, while inflicting great harm on the common good.

You graduates can choose to root your lives in the truth or allow yourself to be enslaved to falsehood and end up frustrated, unhappy and hopeless because “only the truth will set you free.”

I would like to end with this prayer that Pope Francis composed about how to speak truth courageously and yet also charitably, based on the famous Prayer of St. Francis: 

“Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Help us to recognize the evil latent in a communication that does not build communion. Help us to remove the venom from our judgments. Help us to speak about others as our brothers and sisters. You are faithful and trustworthy; may our words be seeds of goodness for the world: where there is shouting, let us practice listening; where there is confusion, let us inspire harmony; where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity; where there is exclusion, let us offer solidarity; where there is sensationalism, let us use sobriety; where there is superficiality, let us raise real questions; where there is prejudice, let us awaken trust; where there is hostility, let us bring respect; where there is falsehood, let us bring truth. Amen.”