One thing that Mr. Steinfels forgot to say in his remarks was that, despite the popular belief that I lead Sacred Heart University, I actually work for Rabbi Ehrenkranz. Recently, we were at a meeting where I had spent over two and one-half hours with Rabbi Ehrenkranz and Dr. David Coppola of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding. I had to move on to some other business of the university and Rabbi Ehrenkranz said, "You're leaving already?"  

Why are we here tonight? Tonight continues to be the fulfillment of a promise that I had made to myself 33 years ago. When I was a sophomore in high school, growing up in the Bronx-which was an education in itself-I was required in my religion class to read Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl is an Austrian, Jewish psychiatrist who survived the concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland. And that book, perhaps more than any other book, except for the Bible, has left a very deep impression on me. As a young Catholic boy who went to 14 bar mitzvahs when I was 13, I was loyal to my friends. But when I read Frankl's book, I made a promise to myself that someday, if I had the ability, I would try to do something to make a difference so that no one would ever again have to go through what Viktor Frankl endured. 

When I became the president of Sacred Heart University in 1988, I believed that there was an opportunity for me to fulfill that promise that I had made as a kid. After a few years, Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz and I met, and we began to dream the dream of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding. That Center, this Center, has more than exceeded my best expectations. It represents the best of what Catholic universities ought to be about in today's world. If a Catholic university is faithful to its mission, it is always looking for ways to foster greater understanding among peoples and to bring people together in the search for truth. In its work, the CCJU influences and challenges the whole of what Sacred Heart University does, so that we can bring all of our students and all those whom we touch, to a greater sense of the truth. 

For me, the crowning achievement may very well be a discussion that is going on within our faculty today at the university. All colleges with undergraduate programs think carefully about their core curriculum: what it is that they want every undergraduate student to know. This past summer, a committee of faculty members and Dr. Thomas Forget, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, began to work on a revision of the core curriculum. In their proposal, which is now being reviewed by the faculty at large, one of the suggestions made by the committee members was that every one of our undergraduate students should have to learn something about Christian-Jewish understanding. If our Board of Trustees accepts this proposal next June, then I believe that Sacred Heart University will be the first Catholic university in the United States to require every full-time undergraduate student, as part of his or her academic studies-whether he or she is studying accounting, computer science, philosophy, biology, education, chemistry or history-to learn about the wonderful things that have happened in the last 35 years since the promulgation of Nostra Aetate at the Second Vatican Council. 

Jews and Christians have a long history of ignorance and misunderstanding to overcome. But the work of our Center, and now my hope and expectation about what Sacred Heart University's core curriculum will reflect, will help to make amends, build bridges, and create the kind of world that God wants, where we all can live together in shalom. 
I am very happy that you are here tonight to be with us to celebrate these two extraordinary religious leaders, Rabbi Greenberg and Cardinal Cassidy, who have done so much to bring us together.

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