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Event Recap

The Boisi Center鈥檚 second CIT event brought to campus John DiIulio, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and current professor of politics, religion and civil society at the University of Pennsylvania. On April 17 DiIulio presented a provocative and moving exhortation to service under the title: 鈥溾�橸es, God is Real鈥�: A Born-Again Public Intellectual Reflects on Catholic Faith in Reason and Community.鈥� He began by recounting how he had lived most of his adult life as if the Catholicism he was born into had little relevance to his scholarly work. Tenured at Princeton just two years after receiving his Ph.D. at Harvard, he was renowned for his hard-hitting policy analysis of crime.

In the midst of a research project on the influence of churches on crime statistics in blighted neighborhoods, DiIulio met inner-city pastors whose churches provided an array of social services to all who needed them, regardless of race or religion. He was particularly moved by Benjamin 鈥淧ops鈥� Smith, a Pentecostal pastor whose vast outreach efforts were motivated, Smith said, by the simple fact that God is real. When you know that God is real, said DiIulio, you act on behalf of the poor and hungry. At this point in his talk, DiIulio invited Rev. Eugene Rivers, prominent pastor of Boston鈥檚 Azusa Christian Community, to come forward. At DiIulio鈥檚 urging, Rivers sang the gospel hymn 鈥淵es, God is Real鈥� and commented about Rev. Smith鈥檚 importance in his own life. Rev. Smith and others demonstrated, said DiIlulio, that 鈥渇aith without works is dead鈥� (James 2:20). In that spirit, DiIulio called the Catholic community at Boston College to 鈥淒o something for real鈥�: help low-income residents decipher tax or food stamps documents; mobilize graduating seniors to teach鈥攑ermanently鈥攊n inner-city schools; do 鈥渨hatever else you feel like doing, deep down in your souls, for God鈥檚 family.鈥� 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why God gave us faith in reason, and reason for faith,鈥� he concluded.