[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 21 (Monday, May 28, 2001)]
[Pages 779-783]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Commencement Address at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, 
Indiana

May 20, 2001

    Thank you, Father Malloy. Thank you all for that warm welcome. 
Chairman McCartan, Father Scully, Dr. Hatch, Notre Dame trustees, 
members of the class of 2001. It is a high privilege to receive this 
degree. I'm particularly pleased that it bears the great name of Notre 
Dame. My brother Jeb may be the Catholic in the family--[laughter]--but 
between us, I'm the only Domer. [Laughter]
    I have spoken on this campus before. It was in 1980, the year my dad 
ran for Vice President with Ronald Reagan. I think I really won over the 
crowd that day. [Laughter] In fact, I'm sure of it, because all six of 
them walked me to my car. [Laughter]
    That was back when Father Hesburgh was the president of this 
university, during a tenure that in many ways defined the reputation and 
values of Notre Dame. It's a real honor to be with Father Hesburgh and 
with Father Joyce. Between them, these two good priests have given 
nearly a century of service to Notre Dame. I'm told that Father Hesburgh 
now holds 146 honorary degrees. That's pretty darn impressive, Father, 
but I'm gaining on you. [Laughter] As of today, I'm only 140 behind. 
[Laughter]
    Let me congratulate all the members of the class of 2001. You made 
it, and we're all proud of you on this big day. I also congratulate the 
parents, who, after these years, are happy, proud--and broke. [Laughter]

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    I commend this fine faculty for the years of work and instruction 
that produced this outstanding class.
    And I'm pleased to join my fellow honorees, as well. I'm in 
incredibly distinguished company with authors, executives, educators, 
church officials, and eminent scientists. We're sharing a memorable day 
and a great honor, and I congratulate you all.
    Notre Dame, as a Catholic university, carries forward a great 
tradition of social teaching. It calls on all of us, Catholic and non-
Catholic, to honor family, to protect life in all its stages, to serve 
and uplift the poor. This university is more than a community of 
scholars; it is a community of conscience and an ideal place to report 
on our Nation's commitment to the poor and how we're keeping it.
    In 1964, the year I started college, another President from Texas 
delivered a commencement address talking about this national commitment. 
In that speech, President Lyndon Johnson issued a challenge. He said, 
``This is the time for decision. You are the generation which must 
decide. Will you decide to leave the future a society where a man is 
condemned to hopelessness because he was born poor, or will you join to 
wipe out poverty in this land?''
    In that speech, Lyndon Johnson advocated a War on Poverty which had 
noble intentions and some enduring successes. Poor families got basic 
health care; disadvantaged children were given a head start in life. 
Yet, there were also some consequences that no one wanted or intended. 
The welfare entitlement became an enemy of personal effort and 
responsibility, turning many recipients into dependents. The War on 
Poverty also turned too many citizens into bystanders, convinced that 
compassion had become the work of Government alone.
    In 1996 welfare reform confronted the first of these problems with a 
5-year time limit on benefits and a work requirement to receive them. 
Instead of a way of life, welfare became an offer of temporary help--not 
an entitlement, but a transition. Thanks in large part to this change, 
welfare rolls have been cut in half; work and self-respect have been 
returned to many lives. This is a tribute to the Republicans and 
Democrats who agreed on reform, and to the President who signed it, 
President Bill Clinton.
    Our Nation has confronted welfare dependency. But our work is only 
half done. Now we must confront the second problem, to revive the spirit 
of citizenship, to marshal the compassion of our people to meet the 
continuing needs of our Nation. This is a challenge to my administration 
and to each one of you. We must meet that challenge because it is right 
and because it is urgent.
    Welfare as we knew it has ended, but poverty has not. When over 12 
million children live below the poverty line, we are not a post-poverty 
America. Most States are seeing the first wave of welfare recipients who 
have reached the law's 5-year time limit. The easy cases have already 
left the welfare rolls. The hardest problems remain, people with far 
fewer skills and greater barriers to work, people with complex human 
problems like illiteracy and addiction, abuse and mental illness. We do 
not yet know what will happen to these men and women or to their 
children, but we cannot sit and watch, leaving them to their own 
struggles and their own fate.
    This is a great deal at stake. In our attitudes and actions, we are 
determining the character of our country. When poverty is considered 
hopeless, America is condemned to permanent social division, becoming a 
nation of caste and class, divided by fences and gates and guards.
    Our task is clear, and it's difficult: We must build our country's 
unity by extending our country's blessings.
    We make that commitment because we are Americans. Aspiration is the 
essence of our country. We believe in social mobility, not social 
Darwinism. We are the country of the second chance, where failure is 
never final, and that dream has sometimes been deferred; it must never 
be abandoned.
    We are committed to compassion for practical reasons. When men and 
women are lost to themselves, they are also lost to our Nation. When 
millions are hopeless, all of us are diminished by the loss of their 
gifts.
    And we're committed to compassion for moral reasons. Jewish prophets 
and Catholic teaching both speak of God's special concern for the poor. 
This is perhaps the most radical teaching of faith, that the value of 
life is not

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contingent on wealth or strength or skill, that value is a reflection of 
God's image.
    Much of today's poverty has more to do with troubled lives than a 
troubled economy. And often when a life is broken, it can only be 
restored by another caring, concerned human being. The answer for an 
abandoned child is not a job requirement; it is the loving presence of a 
mentor. The answer to addiction is not a demand for self-sufficiency; it 
is a personal support on the hard road to recovery.
    The hope we seek is found in safe havens for battered women and 
children, in homeless shelters, in crisis pregnancy centers, in programs 
that tutor and conduct job training and help young people who may happen 
to be on parole. All these efforts provide not just a benefit but 
attention and kindness, a touch of courtesy, a dose of grace.
    Mother Teresa said that what the poor often need, even more than 
shelter and food--though these are desperately needed, as well--is to be 
wanted. And that sense of belonging is within the power of each of us to 
provide. Many in this community have shown what compassion can 
accomplish.
    Notre Dame's own Lou Nanni is the former director of South Bend's 
Center for the Homeless, an institution founded by two Notre Dame 
professors. It provides guests with everything from drug treatment to 
mental health service to classes in the Great Books to preschool for 
young children. Discipline is tough. Faith is encouraged, not required. 
Student volunteers are committed and consistent and central to its 
mission. Lou Nanni describes this mission as repairing the fabric of 
society by letting people see the inherent worth and dignity and God-
given potential of every human being.
    Compassion often works best on a small and human scale. It is 
generally better when a call for help is local, not long distance. Here 
at this university, you've heard that call and responded. It is part of 
what makes Notre Dame a great university.
    This is my message today: There is no great society which is not a 
caring society. And any effective War on Poverty must deploy what 
Dorothy Day called ``the weapons of spirit.''
    There is only one problem with groups like South Bend's Center for 
the Homeless; there are not enough of them. It's not sufficient to 
praise charities and community groups; we must support them. And this is 
both a public obligation and a personal responsibility.
    The War on Poverty established a Federal commitment to the poor. The 
welfare reform legislation of 1996 made that commitment more effective. 
For the task ahead, we must move to the third stage of combating poverty 
in America. Our society must enlist, equip, and empower idealistic 
Americans in the works of compassion that only they can provide.
    Government has an important role. We will never be replaced by 
charities. My administration increases funding for major social welfare 
and poverty programs by 8 percent. Yet, Government must also do more to 
take the side of charities and community healers and support their work. 
We've had enough of the stale debate between big Government and 
indifferent Government. Government must be active enough to fund 
services for the poor and humble enough to let good people in local 
communities provide those services.
    So I have created a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community 
Initiatives. Through that office we are working to ensure that local 
community helpers and healers receive more Federal dollars, greater 
private support, and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. We have proposed 
a compassion capital fund that will match private giving with Federal 
dollars.
    We have proposed allowing all taxpayers to deduct their charitable 
contributions, including non-itemizers. This could encourage almost 15 
billion a year in new charitable giving. My attitude is, everyone in 
America, whether they are well-off or not, should have the same 
incentive and reward for giving.
    And we're in the process of implementing and expanding charitable 
choice, the principle, already established in Federal law, that faith-
based organizations should not suffer discrimination when they compete 
for contracts to provide social services. Government should never fund 
the teaching of faith, but it should support the good works of the 
faithful.

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    Some critics of this approach object to the idea of Government 
funding going to any group motivated by faith. But they should take a 
look around them. Public money already goes to groups like the Center 
for the Homeless and, on a larger scale, to Catholic Charities. Do the 
critics really want to cut them off? Medicaid and Medicare money 
currently goes to religious hospitals. Should this practice be ended? 
Childcare vouchers for low income families are redeemed every day at 
houses of worship across America. Should this be prevented? Government 
loans send countless students to religious colleges. Should this be 
banned? Of course not.
    America has a long tradition of accommodating and encouraging 
religious institutions when they pursue public goals. My administration 
did not create that tradition, but we will expand it to confront some 
urgent problems.
    Today I am adding two initiatives to our agenda, in the areas of 
housing and drug treatment. Owning a home is a source of dignity for 
families and stability for communities, and organizations like Habitat 
for Humanity make that dream possible for many low income Americans. 
Groups of this type currently receive some funding from the Department 
of Housing and Urban Development. The budget I submit to Congress next 
year will propose a threefold increase in this funding which will expand 
homeownership and the hope and pride that come with it.
    And nothing is more likely to perpetuate poverty than a life 
enslaved to drugs. So we've proposed 1.6 billion in new funds to close 
what I call the treatment gap--the gap between 5 million Americans who 
need drug treatment and the 2 million who currently receive it. We will 
also propose that all these funds--all of them--be opened to equal 
competition from faith-based and community groups.
    The Federal Government should do all these things, but others have 
responsibilities, as well, including corporate America. Many 
corporations in America do good work in good causes. But if we hope to 
substantially reduce poverty and suffering in our country, corporate 
America needs to give more and to give better. Faith-based organizations 
receive only a tiny percentage of overall corporate giving. Currently, 6 
of the 10 largest corporate givers in America explicitly rule out or 
restrict donations to faith-based groups, regardless of their 
effectiveness. The Federal Government will not discriminate against 
faith-based organizations and neither should corporate America.
    In the same spirit, I hope America's foundations consider ways they 
may devote more of their money to our Nation's neighborhood and their 
helpers and their healers. I will convene a summit this fall, asking 
corporate and philanthropic leaders throughout America to join me at the 
White House to discuss ways they can provide more support to community 
organizations, both secular and religious.
    Ultimately, your country is counting on each of you. Knute Rockne 
once said, ``I have found that prayers work best when you have big 
players.'' [Laughter] We can pray for the justice of our country, but 
you're the big players we need to achieve it. Government can promote 
compassion; corporations and foundations can fund it; but the citizens--
it's the citizens who provide it. A determined assault on poverty will 
require both an active Government and active citizens.
    There is more to citizenship than voting--though I urge you to do 
it. [Laughter] There is more to citizenship than paying your taxes--
though I'd strongly advise you to pay them. [Laughter] Citizenship is 
empty without concern for our fellow citizens, without the ties that 
bind us to one another and build a common good.
    If you already realize this and you're acting on it, I thank you. If 
you haven't thought about it, I leave you with this challenge: Serve a 
neighbor in need, because a life of service is a life of significance, 
because materialism, ultimately, is boring, and consumerism can build a 
prison of wants, because a person who is not responsible for others is a 
person who is truly alone, because there are few better ways to express 
our love for America than to care for other Americans, and because the 
same God who endows us with individual rights also calls us to social 
obligations.
    So let me return to Lyndon Johnson's charge. You're the generation 
that must decide. Will you ratify poverty and division with

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your apathy, or will you build a common good with your idealism? Will 
you be the spectator in the renewal of your country or a citizen?
    The methods of the past may have been flawed, but the idealism of 
the past was not an illusion. Your calling is not easy, because you must 
do the acting and the caring. But there is fulfillment in that 
sacrifice, which creates hope for the rest of us. Every life you help 
proves that every life might be helped. The actual proves the possible. 
And hope is always the beginning of change.
    Thank you for having me, and God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 2:48 p.m. in the Joyce Center. In his 
remarks, he referred to Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president, 
Patrick F. McCartan, chairman, board of trustees, Rev. Timothy R. 
Scully, C.S.C., executive vice president, Nathan O. Hatch, provost, Rev. 
Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus, and Rev. Edward P. 
Joyce, C.S.C., executive vice president emeritus, University of Notre 
Dame; and Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.