Seton Hill University will celebrate its inaugural Founders’ Day with a public lecture by Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 19 in the Seton Hill University Performing Arts Center.

Tickets to the event are free, but reservations are required. Visit www.setonhill.edu/tickets to reserve seats.

Cardinal McElroy, who took part in the Vatican Synod on Synodality in October 2023, will speak on the topic, "The Synodal Challenge for the Church in the United States.”

McElroy will be on campus all day participating in a number of events open to the Seton Hill community, including student and faculty presentations, a Eucharistic Celebration and an interfaith panel on the topic, “Religion and Violence: A Catalyst for Destruction, A Means for Peace.”

McElroy will be joined on the Interfaith Panel by Dr. Abdu Dardery, Muslim Chaplain at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn., and Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Myers, Rabbi at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The panel discussion is also open to the public and will be held at 2 p.m. in Cecilian Hall on the Second Floor of Seton Hill’s Administration Building. Tickets are not required for the panel discussion.

All of the events are part of Seton Hill’s first Founders’ Day that serves as a way to celebrate the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, who, under the leadership of Mother Aloysia Lowe, came to Greensburg in 1882 to establish a new community, new ministries and new schools that would eventually lead to the founding of a four-year college for women in 1918.

Seton Hill has since grown into a co-educational university serving 2,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs.

“We are honored to have Cardinal McElroy with us to celebrate Seton Hill’s first Founders’ Day,” said Mary Finger, Seton Hill President. “Seton Hill’s Catholic, Setonian identity defines who we are as an institution and as a campus community. The four pillars of Seton Hill’s mission – welcoming, learning, celebrating and serving – are aligned with the charism of the Sisters of Charity and are instilled in Seton Hill’s students, faculty, staff and alumni regardless of their personal faith journeys. Founders’ Day is an effort to continue to engage the campus community in activities and events that celebrate the history of Seton Hill and the Sisters of Charity and ensure the legacy of the Sisters remains vibrant and vital.”

Added Sister Maureen O’Brien, SC, Vice President for Mission and Identity, “Founders’ Day will appropriately be held on the Feast of Saint Joseph – the Patron Saint of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The theme of the inaugural Founders’ Day, ‘Honoring our Founders, Embracing our Future,’ speaks to the need for Seton Hill to remember its history but also look forward.”

About Cardinal Robert W. McElroy

Robert W. McElroy was born in San Francisco on February 5, 1954. He received his undergraduate education at Harvard and received a master’s degree in American history from Stanford in 1976. Entering the seminary for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, he was ordained a priest in 1980.

In 1985 Archbishop Quinn asked him to pursue studies in the field of Catholic Social Teaching. He received a doctorate in moral theology from the Gregorian University in Rome and a doctorate in political science from Stanford in l989. In the following years he served the Archdiocese of San Francisco as vicar general and for 15 years as pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in San Mateo. In 2010 Pope Benedict appointed him auxiliary bishop of San Francisco. In 2015 Pope Francis appointed him bishop of San Diego and elevated him to Cardinal in August 27, 2022.

Bishop McElroy has written two books: “The Search for an American Public Theology and Morality” and “American Foreign Policy.” In addition, he has written a series of articles on theology and public policy for a variety of journals. 

Bishop McElroy is a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.