On Thursday evening (March 26), , president of the University of Notre Dame, presided and preached at a at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The Mass was held in light of ongoing global conflicts and in the spirit of Pope Leo XIV’s prayer for disarmament and peace earlier this month.
Father Dowd began his homily by encouraging those in attendance to consider the immense suffering caused by the wars that rage in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere — particularly as the Church approaches Holy Week and prepares to commemorate the Lord’s Passion.
“In a sense, the Lord’s Passion is being played out on a daily basis as people are killed, disfigured, orphaned, widowed, rendered homeless or displaced,” Father Dowd said. “We all know that the suffering is immense.”
Father Dowd stated that as Christians and members of the Notre Dame community, “we are compelled to ask ourselves what God is calling us to do in the face of all this pain.”
“We are so privileged here on this campus to have the opportunities we have to conduct research, to study and to learn together. However, this Catholic university must never exist in a bubble,” he said. “And we must make sure that we are never indifferent to the suffering that goes on in the world around us.”
Referencing the Mass’s readings from the Gospel of Matthew 5:1-12, Father Dowd noted that Jesus calls on his disciples to be peacemakers.
“Let me propose that all of us, regardless of our discipline, our major or minor, regardless of our research agenda or our career goals, all of us in one way or another are called to be peacemakers and peacebuilders,” Father Dowd said.
Being a peacemaker or peacebuilder, he continued, does not mean being naive to the dangers in the world, being oblivious to the affronts to human rights and human dignity, or giving way to bullies or aggressors who seek to dominate, exploit or destroy.
Rather, Father Dowd said that in order to be peacemakers in the pattern of Jesus, “we must deepen our understanding of these realities and take them seriously.”
“Jesus immersed himself in the violence that afflicted the people of his day, especially those on the margins of society, who are so often those who pay the highest price for war,” Father Dowd said. “In fact, his redemptive mission demanded such immersion, and he himself was a victim of such violence.
“Being a peacemaker means, among other things, doing everything we can to seek nonviolent solutions. Being a peacebuilder means doing everything we can to create conditions that make war less likely in the future. Both peacemaking and peacebuilding require hard work — the hard work of building bridges.”
Father Dowd concluded his homily by noting that Pope Leo has been clear and persistent in calling for a ceasefire and for renewed dialogue as the war with Iran and in the Middle East “intensifies, causing immense suffering and possibly making us all less secure.”
He exhorted those present to join their prayers to the prayers of Pope Leo, to pray for peace, that every person might become the peacemaker that our society and world need.
Father Dowd also prayed for governmental leaders, that they might be guided by wisdom in decisions that bring an immediate end to bloodshed, for the safety of the men and women in the armed forces and their families, and for all victims of war.
“Even as we take the violence and threats of violence in our world seriously, let us never grow cynical or fatalistic,” he said. “Let us not lose heart and instead cultivate hope through all that we say and all that we do. As we commemorate the Lord’s Passion soon, let us not forget the end of the story: The Lord Jesus, who was put to death in a most humiliating way, was raised from the dead.
“There is no killing the power of love. There is no killing the Prince of Peace, in whom a new day always dawns. Let us pray that we might cooperate with the crucified and risen Lord, who is mysteriously in our midst, to be the peacemakers and peacebuilders the world needs.”
Father Dowd’s full homily is available at .
Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220