Priest, Pastor and Philanthropist
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
1981
Citation:
As a spiritual leader and co-founder and Executive Director of Focus: HOPE, you have exemplified the highest Christian ideals, working to uplift the quality of life on a variety of levels. You have contributed to the spiritual growth and enrichment of thousands of Detroit area Catholics through your ministry and as a columnist for the Michigan Catholic. In you, the City's poor, the hungry, those out of work, and those without hope have found a helping hand and a loving heart. By giving so generously of yourself you have motivated others to care, not only bringing the plight of the needy to the attention of those able to help, but also joining these groups together to share in personal and very meaningful ways. Families feeding families and the educated tutoring the culturally deprived are but two examples of the many solutions you have found to ease the critical problems facing this urban area. Your concern for those in need has extended beyond any racial, religious or ethnic boundaries. In fact, you have been a fierce opponent of discrimination, often providing legal assistance to those who were denied their civil rights, and always working to bring diverse persons together to experience their common humanity. Throughout your career, you have truly done the work of the Good Shepherd, demonstrating the kind of values this Catholic Jesuit University hopes to instill in its students, and for this it is a great privilege to confer upon you this Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Commencement, University of Detroit, May 16, 1981.