Trevor Lipscomb: ‘A Small Campus Reflecting a Large Church’
My lasting impression of our special day has little to do Pope Francis or even Saint Junípero Serra. My corner of the lawn housed an enclave of people intimately connected to CUA Press, and I realized profoundly that we truly are—both the Press and the University of which it is part – a family, a community, a church. United in prayer, praise, and the Eucharist were a cluster of wonderful people who keep the Press going, whether my friends and colleagues on staff, professors who are our authors or serve as editors for our journals, or faculty members of our editorial committee. I appreciated more fully, and was humbled by, how at the Press we rejoice in each other and attempt, in the words of Saint Junípero, to “keep moving forward.”
Close by was a group from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, taking delight in the canonization of a saint to whom they have special ties. They joyfully punctuated the afternoon with shouts of “¡Viva el Papa!” and, movingly, the last words of the saintly martyred Jesuit Miguel Pro – “¡Viva el Cristo Rey!” These welcome guests to our campus energized the day with their passion and fervor for Christ the King and their love of Pope Francis, serving for me as a reminder that our church consists of people from far and wide, from many different countries, and who speak many different languages.
We were a small campus reflecting a large church—May it always be so!
– Trevor Lipscomb is the director of The Catholic University of America Press.
