In a speech to a packed room at Villanova University, during the university’s three-day celebration of the legacy and work of St. Thomas of Villanova —a celebration that includes scholarly presentations, community gatherings, this keynote address and a day of service in which thousands fan out across the region to do charitable work—, E.J. Dionne called for a politics rooted in conscience and compassion for our fellow human beings. The acclaimed journalist, scholar and Washington Post columnist rooted his talk in Catholic Social Teaching and spoke of an historical drive, in the US, toward comprehensive social justice.

Dionne asked the problematic question: Is the Catholic political vocation to make everyone feel guilty about something? Villanova’s president, Father Peter Donohue, noted with good humor that his staff were worried about the topic, but seemed not at all worried himself: indeed, the university seemed very much tuned into Dionne’s message. And that message? Guilt, he said, is not a bad thing; in fact, “guilt actually contains the seeds of hope, because it contains the idea that we can do better, that we should do better.”

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