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As part of the ceremony, outgoing University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg awarded McCarrick the President's Medal, the highest honor the University President can bestow on another individual. The service also included vocal performances and five personal testimonies from graduating seniors about religion and its role in their lives.
Trachtenberg described McCarrick as a man who has been "elevated to the heights of the Catholic faith, but who still remains a man of the people." The two have known each other for 20 years, about as long as Trachtenberg's tenure at GW.
"My reception of this prestigious medal means more than I can say," said McCarrick, who also has a personal relationship with Father William Gurnee, chaplain at GW's Newman Center.
McCarrick said Pope John Paul II exemplifies a devout individual with a healthy balance of mystery and reason.
"John Paul II was an eminent philosopher and a fine poet; he wrote plays and even acted in them," McCarrick said. "(But) he really loved God and really loved his neighbor. I am lucky to have had an opportunity to know him."
McCarrick further discussed the concept of mystery by describing a woman he met in the streets of Rome after Pope John Paul II's death. The woman, he said, traveled to Rome from Mexico to pay homage to the Pope because she felt personally connected to him, a connection fostered by a moment of eye contact she had with the Pope as a little girl.
"It is this kind of encounter, this kind of a mystery that all students should find during their time at university," McCarrick said. "University is a place to know the deepest truth and to answer the deepest questions, (but it) takes courage within reason to be open to mystery."
