For only the third time in the past 70 years, the University of Notre Dame inaugurated a new president Friday (Sept. 13) during the formal investiture of Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., as the University’s 18th president. The Convocation and Inauguration Ceremony, held in Purcell Pavilion, was the culmination of a series of celebratory events that spanned three days.

A Catholic university, according to my predecessor and brother in Holy Cross, Father Ted Hesburgh, “should be a bridge across all chasms that separate modern people from each other.”

Now, when I reflect on those words, I see a problem and an opportunity.

The problem is clear: Those chasms…