A special Mass will be celebrated to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., the University’s president from 1952 to 1987 and one of the most influential figures of the 20th century in higher education, the Catholic Church and national and international affairs.
University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., will preside at the Mass. Rev. Austin Collins, C.S.C., religious superior of Holy Cross Priests and Brothers at Notre Dame and professor of sculpture, will deliver the homily.
All members of the campus and local communities are invited. (Father Hesburgh died Feb. 26, 2015, at age 97.)
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In addition to his 35-year tenure as Notre Dame’s president, Father Hesburgh’s other notable achievements and accolades included:
- 16 presidential appointments – from Presidents Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush, including the Commission on Civil Rights, Presidential Clemency Board, National Science Board, Commission on the Holocaust and Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy.
- Service to four popes, three as permanent Vatican City representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna from 1956 to 1970
- Service as chair of the International Federation of Catholic Universities
- Election to the Board of Overseers at Harvard University, including two years as board president, the first priest in either position
- Service as co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
- The honor of being the first person from higher education to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, presented in 2000, and receipt in 1964 of the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor
- Reception of 150 honorary degrees, the most ever awarded to one person