Focolare, Opus Dei, Lawrence Cunningham, Jean Porter, Richard McBrien, Michael Buckley, Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Waldstein, the Thomas More society, Crisis, NCR, the National Catholic Register, Commonweal, Lefebvrists, Marianists, millennialists, Lonerganians, Thomists, Balthasarians, the theology of the body, Feminists for Life, Comunione e Liberazione, Community of Sant'Egidio, Holy Cross Associates, high mass in the Basilica, Wednesday night masses in the chapel of Farley Hall. On or near or passing through campus was a dizzying array of personalities and schools of thought and service groups and periodicals. At Notre Dame I came across more permutations of Catholicity than I had ever imagined existed. As a student there I had my world expanded exponentially, albeit still within the Catholic bubble. Wanting to attend a Catholic college or university, as had three of my four older siblings, I set my sights on the University of Notre Dame, applying there and only there.Īt Notre Dame I majored in theology and held an office in the campus pro-life group.
In our home, Reagan, Buckley, and Falwell enjoyed a kind of trinitarian status. I attended a Reagan campaign rally on the picturesque green of my New England hometown. At home, I scanned the reading material at hand – the National Review, the Moral Majority newsletter, and the Hillsdale College newsletter – and watched Firing Line with my father. I n Catholic high school I aced all my classes, as had my brothers and sisters before me.