“When I look at Edwards Parade, I see it very differently than the way that you do,” he said, speaking from the Terrace of the Presidents during the videocast 175th Commencement ceremony. “As I gaze out on it, it is packed to overflowing, with you, the members of the Class of 2020, and the throngs of fans who gathered to hail and to toast you. So my dear friends, welcome home.”

Though the coronavirus pandemic made it necessary to postpone the traditional pomp and circumstance, Fordham’s video webcast of the 175th Commencement recognized more than 5,500 graduates, many of whom celebrated in their own homes while tuning in. The University plans to hold an in-person Commencement on campus when public health officials and the governor deem it safe to do so.

During the ceremony, the deans of each of Fordham’s schools and colleges, dressed in their traditional academic robes and participating from their own homes, presented their candidates for graduation to Father McShane, who officially conferred their degrees. Each school also set up a recognition page with audio slides for all of the graduates—some of which contained photos and personal messages. Fordham Law held a virtual diploma ceremony on Monday; the graduate division of the Gabelli School of Business will hold one on Tuesday.

A Longing to Be Together

The Class of 2020 was always a unique class, Father McShane said, but what they’ve had to face in the last three months truly sets them apart.

“You are a class that has been tried and tested as no other class in our history has been,” he said. “Three months ago, your final semester Fordham, a semester that should have been a joyous and carefree victory lap, was disrupted. Your world was turned completely upside down. Innocent pleasures vanished overnight. You experienced the loss of sacred memories with your friends, and understandably, you mourned.”

At the Baccalaureate Mass on Friday night—also presented via videocast—James Martin, S.J., editor-at-large of America magazine, said that these feelings of mourning were natural. Participating from his home, Martin received an honorary doctorate of humane letters and served as homilist at the Mass, which was celebrated in the University Church and featured a Zoom choir performance with students singing from their respective locations.

In thinking about the Class of 2020, Father Martin said, he was reminded of the Gospel passage about the Road to Emmaus. Two disciples were walking along the road, and before the resurrected Jesus joined them, they uttered what Martin called the saddest words in the New Testament—“we had hoped.”

“And I bet I know that you may have been thinking some version of those words in the last few weeks—we had hoped,” Martin said. “We had hoped that we’d be able to say a real goodbye to some of our classmates. We had hoped that we would have an amazing and fun last semester. We had hoped that things would have been different for graduation. And it’s okay to feel those feelings—they’re natural, human, and real.”

Still, Martin urged the graduates to remember that they were not on this journey alone.

“Even amidst the sadness, confusion, and fear, God is on your side,” Martin said. “When you think about your future right now—figuring out what to do, looking for a job, mapping out your life, remembering that it’s not just you struggling on your own, know God is with you.”

Fordham College at Rose Hill valedictorian Rosemarie McCormack, FCRH ’20, said that the day was full of ironies for her, particularly since she had worked at previous commencement ceremonies as a student.

“But the bittersweet ceremonies today are a testament to something special about Fordham,” said McCormack, speaking from her home in Missoula, Montana. “We are a community. We only miss each other because there is something to miss.”

The Resilient Class

It’s that ability to try and find the bright side that gives the Class of 2020, dubbed both the dodransbicentennial class and the visionary class by Father McShane, another attribute to their names, according to Kaylee Wong, GABELLI ’20.

“When we arrived on campus back in 2016, Father McShane called us, the Class of 2020, ‘the visionary class,’ but in the past few months we have learned we are more than that,” she said in a video to her classmates. “We are the resilient class.”

Father McShane echoed that sentiment and said the class, which had to move back home and finish their semester online, had learned a new set of lessons.

“In the process, you learned to see things in entirely new ways,” he said. “You learned to see things with the eyes of the heart. You became men and women of wisdom and character. You became women and men who became, as your class here calls you to be, truly visionary.”

Michele Kalt, a new graduate of the Graduate School of Social Service, said that the Class of 2020 was uniquely prepared to handle this challenge.

“I find great comfort knowing that you, my fellow classmates, will be dispatched as torchbearers of hope and beacons of light in a world that needs us now more than ever,” she said in a video speech to her classmates.

Hayley Williams, FCLC ’20, said in a video message just after the Baccalaureate Mass that she had been trying over the last few weeks in quarantine to handle feeling helpless and apathetic.

“My actions seem to impact little outside of my own home,” she said.

This left her thinking, “after four years at Fordham, what did I gain? Where is my purpose in this?”

Williams said that a sentence from Father McShane kept coming back to her—“Fordham students will leave being bothered.”

“Simple, yes, but this is the most valuable lesson I learned in college,” she said. “Fordham asked me to be a woman for others. I could not be a Fordham student and be numb to the needs of my city, my community … With all the hurt and disappointment and loss plaguing our world, I cannot let myself be unbothered by it. We cannot let ourselves be unbothered.”

‘Bold and Infectious Love’

It’s these lessons learned by graduates, both over the course of their time at Fordham, but in particular, over the last three months, that can help shape them into men and women for others, Father McShane said.

“Never forget the hard, necessary, and saving lessons that you have learned in the course of the past three difficult months,” he said. “Shape the world’s future with and through them. Teach these lessons to others, not by preaching about them, but by living by them and living them. Live heroically. Live with bold and infectious love. For this, my dear friends, this is your special burden, your mission, and your pride.”

In their reflections before the Baccalaureate Mass, students Joseph Papeo, FCRH ’20, and Emma Quinn, FCLC ’20, said that although the Class of 2020 is separated right now, they will always be connected by their Fordham roots.

“This celebration reminds us that no matter where life may find us, we are united by our memories and our experiences as Fordham students,” Papeo said.

Most of all, Papeo urged his classmates to be prepared to embrace the values Fordham taught them as they approach the next phase of their journey.

“As we’ve heard so many times before, but need to hear now more than ever, let us all go out, when it’s safe, and set the world on fire,” he said.

To view the full commencement ceremony and class videos, visit fordham.edu/commencement.

Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, a robust Catholic voice for addressing global poverty and social injustice, will be awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters during the commencement ceremonies.

Seven other people who have distinguished themselves in the fields of business, law, diplomacy, or public service, will be awarded honorary doctorates.

(See full details on Fordham’s commencement and diploma ceremonies.)

The cardinal has earned a reputation as an advocate for the poor throughout his career, which began in 1970 with his ordination as a priest in the Salesian order. He holds a diploma in clinical psychology and psychotherapy from Leopold Franz University, Innsbruck, and a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

Appointed archbishop of Tegucigalpa in 1993, he served as president of the Conference of Latin American Bishops from 1995 to 1999, and in 2001 he was elevated to cardinal, becoming the first from Honduras.

Since then, he has held many high-level roles in the church. In 2013, at the request of Pope Francis, he became coordinator of a new council of cardinals advising the pontiff on economic and organizational reforms in the Holy See. From 2007 to 2015, he served as president of Caritas Internationalis, a Vatican-based confederation of aid groups devoted to international development, humanitarian assistance, health care, and human rights around the world. He served as Vatican spokesman to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank regarding developing-world debt, and pressed the world’s rich nations to provide more aid to their poorer neighbors. This and other efforts were cited when the University of Dayton awarded Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga its Oscar Romero Human Rights Award in 2015.

The cardinal has repeatedly called attention to climate change and its disproportionate impact on the world’s poor, who do little to cause it. He addressed this problem during a 2015 appearance at Fordham and he continues to promote his vision of a world in which, he said, “political and economic decisions are guided by a broadened sense of responsibility and concern for the common good.”

Honorary doctorates of humane letters will also be awarded to Anne Anderson, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States; longtime faculty member Joseph Cammarosano, FCRH ’47, GSAS ’56; Anthony P. Carter, former vice president for global diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for Johnson & Johnson; Michael Dowling, the president and CEO of Northwell Health; Sr. Jane Iannucelli, S.C., president of the order of the Sisters of Charity, and; Gregory Long, CEO and the William C. Steere Sr. President of the New York Botanical Garden.

An honorary doctorate of laws will be awarded to Eric T. Schneiderman, attorney general of New York State.

Dowling will be the speaker at the May 21 diploma ceremony for the Graduate School of Social Service, while Schneiderman will speak at Fordham Law School’s diploma ceremony on May 22. Carter will speak at the May 22 graduate diploma ceremony for the Gabelli School of Business.

Anne Anderson is Ireland’s 17th Ambassador to the United States, and the first woman to hold the position. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in history and politics from University College, Dublin, and a diploma in legal stud-ies from Kings Inns, Dublin. She entered the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1972. Prior to her present assignment, she served as Ireland’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York (2009–2013); Ambassador to France (2005–2009); Ambassador to the European Union, Brussels (2001–2005); and Ambassador to the United Nations, Geneva (1995–2001).

Joseph Cammarosano, the proud son of Bronx Italian immigrants, came to Fordham College as a freshman in 1941, when, he said, the squirrels were more numerous on the campus than the students. He served in World War II, and, after earning a doctorate in economics, worked in the Kennedy administration as a public policy specialist. He joined the Fordham faculty in 1955, and is now, at age 94, is in his 62nd year of teaching.

Anthony P. Carter grew up in the South Bronx in a family of 10 children whose parents died when he was young. After graduating from Fordham in 1976, he worked in public relations, including as assistant press secretary for former New York City Mayor David Dinkins. He served as vice president for global diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for Johnson & Johnson. Under his leadership, the company was repeatedly named one of the top 10 of the 50 best American companies for diversity by DiversityInc magazine.

Michael Dowling got his start in a poor, rural village in Ireland, with a father whose rheumatoid arthritis forced him to stop working at the age of 40, and a mother who was deaf. After graduating from University College Cork, he completed a master’s degree in social work at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service and served as an assistant dean of the school and director of the Westchester campus. Since 1983, he has held leadership positions in state government, health insurance, and health care industries.

Sister Jane Iannucelli has for the last six years served as president of the order of the Sisters of Charity, to which she committed her life to 60 years ago. The order, which is celebrating its bicentennial this year, is deeply involved in providing both material and spiritual relief for the poor through programs in schools, hospitals, and childcare facilities. In 1982 she co-founded the area Bronx soup kitchen and social services center POTS, which helps sustain more than 25,000 people, 8,000 of them children, every year.

Gregory Long has shown visionary leadership in helping expand the New York Botanical Garden, a world-renowned research, educational, and conservation organization. Since joining the garden in 1989, he has applied innovative approaches and public-private partnerships to help build or renovate a dozen buildings, expand its collections, strengthen its science-based conservation programs, and add educational offerings for learners at all levels. Today, the garden serves more than 1 million visitors annually.

Eric T. Schneiderman has made a made a career out of fighting to protect all New Yorkers. Since his election in 2010, Schneiderman, has spearheaded programs such as the Homeownership Protection Program, which has helped 43,000 New Yorkers avoid home foreclosure, and led the national effort that secured a $16.7 billion settlement with Bank of America and a $13 billion settlement with JP Morgan Chase for their roles in the housing crisis. He has also secured more than $20 million in restitution for more than 17,000 workers across New York who had been denied decent wages.