Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the United States, celebrates Mass marking Detroit Mercy's 150th anniversary
DETROIT — Pope Leo XIV’s ambassador to the United States — Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the United States — celebrated the Mass of the Holy Spirit with the University of Detroit Mercy community Sept. 17 as the school celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Archbishop Caccia, who was appointed nuncio in March, was in town for a brief visit as the Italian archbishop gets to know the churches and dioceses of the United States. On Wednesday, he accompanied Detroit Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger on a tour of Sacred Heart Major Seminary and the Solanus Casey Center.
At Detroit Mercy, Archbishop Caccia commended the Society of Jesus and Sisters of Mercy for their long service to the university, which was founded as Detroit College in 1877 and was renamed the University of Detroit Mercy in 1990 when the Jesuit-sponsored University of Detroit merged with the Sisters of Mercy-sponsored Mercy College.
Archbishop Caccia celebrated the Mass in the Michael & Gail Whitty Student Fitness Center on the university's McNichols campus, asking the Holy Spirit to intercede for the students this academic year.
In his homily, Archbishop Caccia reflected on the root meaning of a university — universitas — meaning a community coming together in pursuit of truth.
“I want to start this celebration with the fact that you are a university,” Archbishop Caccia said. “What does it mean, the word 'university'? From the Latin, universitas, it has two meanings. In the Middle Ages, this Latin word meant that there was a unity, a coming together, a community of teachers living with students, teaching a craft or occupation.”
In order to create a university community, students and teachers of various backgrounds and intellectual traditions needed to come together, Archbishop Caccia explained, to work past their differences in order to pursue truth, much in the same way as Christ's apostles did descending from the Upper Room.
“We heard in the first reading the apostles were in the room, and when the Holy Spirit comes, they go out and start preaching,” Archbishop Caccia said, reflecting on the readings from the liturgy. “They went out without fear. If we want to be a real university, a community living together, we must ask the Holy Spirit to give us courage — not to fight, but to open our lives to an encounter with the other person. And when we do that, you will discover the other person is a gift.”
Archbishop Caccia said the second meaning of "university" is a coming together of different dimensions of knowledge, joining pieces of wisdom from different disciplines to be instilled in students formed as sons and daughters of God with a more complete understanding of His creation.
This aspect of university studies is especially important in a world of specialization increasingly divided amongst various academic fields, he said.
“What this means is we have to always be open to the entire truth,” Archbishop Caccia said. “We have to invoke the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to combine all these different aspects and dimensions in a life of organic understanding.
“Even if now in our society, everything becomes very much specialized — each one should be an expert of a field. But an expert is somebody who knows more and more about less and less, until they know everything about nothing,” Archbishop Caccia added. “This is the risk when we are so specialized: When we know everything in one field, we lose the bigger picture. As a university, we must keep this balance with every aspect of our knowledge.”
University of Detroit Mercy president Donald B. Taylor, Ph.D., thanked Archbishop Caccia for his presence on campus as the school begins its 150th year.
“Thank you for being with us today, for bringing to our community the presence and greeting of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV,” Taylor said. “It has been an honor to welcome you as the principal celebrant of this sesquicentennial Mass of the Holy Spirit.”
Taylor then gifted Archbishop Caccia with a framed tile of the University of Detroit Mercy's logo made by Pewabic Pottery.
Archbishop Caccia spoke with Detroit Catholic after Mass on his impression of the University of Detroit Mercy and Catholic colleges’ prophetic witness in the U.S. today.
“I was struck to see so many different kinds of people in their different customs and the different attire, representing a little bit of all the world. It’s a beautiful sign, a sign there is hope when we come together,” Archbishop Caccia said.
“Colleges and universities have an essential role because truth is part of our belief, and educational formation is the most challenging, but most important field, where a person is really formed to do well in all endeavors and in all aspects of society,” Archbishop Caccia said.
The Mass of the Holy Spirit, the annual liturgical tradition celebrating the beginning of a new academic year at Catholic colleges and universities worldwide, is always a big occasion. In celebrating its 150th anniversary, the University of Detroit Mercy is especially blessed to have the pope’s ambassador grace its campus, leaders said.
“One hundred and fifty years is a big number,” said Anita Klueg, director of university mission at the University of Detroit Mercy. “It’s very exciting to bring in someone as special as the papal nuncio for the U.S., and to celebrate here at our university with our students and all of the students from different campuses.”
Campus ministry organizes daily Mass on campus, retreats throughout the year and a service immersion trip, helping students tap into their spiritual wellbeing as they are being formed intellectually.
“This is what we are as a Catholic, Jesuit, and Mercy university,” Klueg said. “When we can bring God's blessings and prayer into our lives, I think it makes us have a more holistic education.”
Archbishop Caccia finished his homily by asking the University of Detroit Mercy students, faculty and staff to become “unified persons” who can take the various aspects of knowledge from different fields and use it to build a community based on the pursuit of truth and identity as sons and daughters of God.
To do this, Archbishop Caccia challenged the community to look to the university's very name.
“It’s beautiful that your university is called the University of Detroit Mercy, because what unifies everything is mercy,” Archbishop Caccia said. “As Jesus said, he came to accomplish the deeds of the Father. For those who are in need, for those who are oppressed, for those who are prisoners, he came to bring mercy.
“A merciful person is always someone who has the courage to open up to others, to follow the truth, who brings joy and peace, and is unified in the goal of becoming a complete person, a merciful person,” Archbishop Caccia continued. “That is my hope for you today, for your university: that the gift of the Holy Spirit continues to work with you to make you a witness of mercy to the world.”
