Loyola University Maryland honors Archbishop Lori with Andrew White Medal

Archbishop William E. Lori arrived at Loyola University Maryland March 17 with little green to show for St. Patrick’s Day other than a pair of cufflinks he rarely wears. 

The archbishop also doesn’t typically wear a medal, but he just might now as the Baltimore university presented him with its highest honor, the Andrew White Medal.

Loyola President Terrence M. Sawyer conferred the medal following a performance by the school’s Irish dance team.

“In a tumultuous world with ongoing threats to justice, Archbishop Lori has been a voice of inspiration, a voice of faith and a voice of action,” Sawyer said. “As a writer, as a speaker and a homilist, he reminds us again and again that Catholics are called to be, and achieve more, because of the Gospels.”

Sawyer cited the archbishop’s leadership during the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Seek the City to Come pastoral planning initiative, which resulted in 61 former parishes merging into 30 worship and ministry sites in Baltimore City and nearby suburbs. The archbishop made “hard decisions, often unpopular decisions” for “the good of our church and the good of our city,” Sawyer said.

“Higher education is under tremendous stress. Our job is to make sure that this university endures, like it was your job to make sure that the church endures,” Sawyer told the archbishop. “We take inspiration and we take motivation from the example you set for us.”

Named for the Jesuit priest who celebrated the first Mass on Maryland soil March 25, 1634 – now observed as Maryland Day – the Andrew White Medal was first awarded by Loyola in 1961. It recognizes individuals who have made an impact on Maryland through “contributions to the general welfare of the community, dedicating time and energy unselfishly through public service, to serving as an example of personal, domestic and civic virtue and making an effort to assist those who are less fortunate,” Sawyer said.

The award is rarely given. 

“We have only probably given this medal twice in the last five years, maybe even longer,” Sawyer said afterward. “We were reflecting on all that the archbishop has done. We just felt it was appropriate to give him this honor as he was with us during Mission Week.”

In his Mission Week address, Archbishop Lori diagnosed what he called a “wounded political culture” – one marked by anger, eroding trust and “a growing inability to disagree without despising.” 

The remedy, he argued, lies not primarily in politics but in moral and spiritual renewal, rooted in charity and truth.

“Charity without truth becomes sentimentality,” Archbishop Lori said, evoking themes from his recent pastoral letter. “Truth without charity becomes cruelty.”

With the nation approaching its 250th anniversary, he called on Loyola to help lead a civic examination of conscience – forming students in discernment, defending human dignity without exception and modeling the civic friendship that has largely vanished from American public life. He also addressed the Church’s own need for humility, acknowledging that Catholic institutions have sometimes been “complicit” in historical injustices and praising the Jesuits for confronting “difficult chapters in their own history, including their historical involvement in slavery and other injustices.”

He challenged the Loyola community to “always be known as a place where freedom is ordered to truth, where truth is expressed in charity – where disagreement does not destroy communion (and) where education forms not only minds but consciences.”

“If that is so, and I truly believe it is, then this university will not simply observe America at 250, you will help shape America at 300,” he said. 

The evening also included a question-and-answer session with students. Shannon McGee, a freshman from Pennsylvania involved with campus ministry, said the lecture was “a great way to kind of hear about a lot of the political and the global environment in the context of my faith.”

There was one small hitch: the medal Sawyer presented wasn’t the real Andrew White Medal. The original was stranded in a FedEx terminal due to the previous day’s severe weather. Sawyer promised it would be delivered to the archbishop’s home with “velvet gloves.”

Archbishop Lori took it in stride. 

“Father Andrew White was a great pioneer by bringing the faith to Maryland and I was deeply honored to receive this award,” he said, adding with a chuckle: “I guess I got two medals instead of just one.”

Mission Week, always held during the week of Maryland Day, recognizes “the proud history of the Jesuits in the state of Maryland,” said Jesuit Father Stephen Spahn, assistant to the director of mission integration at Loyola. This year’s events included a Laudato Si’ Mass – a Mass for the Care of Creation – on Sunday, along with a forum about St. Ignatius and Islam, a retreat for employees and author talks.

“It is an ongoing aspiration to continue to build traditions and events that are meaningful to the entire community,” Father Spahn said. “It’s a lot of work. Every year we’re brainstorming what we can do this year to get more people engaged.”

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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