Seton Hill presents lecture by San Diego cardinal during inaugural Founders' Day

The Seton Hill community will honor its past and look toward its future during its inaugural Founders’ Day celebration Tuesday.

Founders’ Day — which will feature a lecture by Cardinal Robert McElroy and a panel discussion about religion and violence — was created by the university’s office of Mission and Identity through its Mission Formation program, said Sister Maureen O’Brien.

O’Brien is the vice president of Mission and Identity and a member of the Sisters of Charity at Seton Hill, the group that founded the university in 1918. Founders’ Day is meant to honor the group — led by Mother Aloysia Lowe — that came to Greensburg in 1882 to establish a new community, ministries and schools.

Seton Hill became a four-year college for women 36 years later. The now co-ed university is home to about 2,000 students.

Founders’ Day is one of Mission and Identity’s programs supported by an anonymous six-figure donation the office received about two years ago, O’Brien said.

“We have been given a sizable donation to begin to form our community — beginning with leadership, faculty, staff — around the mission of the sisters and the mission of Seton Hill,” she said.

The title for the event, “Honoring Our Founders, Embracing Our Future,” summarizes the purpose of the celebration, O’Brien said.

“Not just that we are looking to the past, but as we look toward the past, we embrace our future,” she said.

McElroy’s lecture, slated for 7 p.m. at the university’s Performing Arts Center, will unpack “The Synodal Challenge for the Church in the United States.” Admission to all Founders’ Day events are free, but seats must be reserved for the lecture at setonhill.edu/tickets.

McElroy earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard and a master’s in American history from Stanford. He entered seminary for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and was ordained as a priest in 1980. Pope Francis appointed him bishop of the Diocese of San Diego in 2015 and elevated him to cardinal in 2022.

There will be a variety of student and faculty presentations taking place throughout the day, O’Brien said. The interfaith panel discussion, titled “Religion and Violence: A Catalyst for Destruction, a Means for Peace,” will include McElroy, Rabbi Jeffrey Meyers from Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and Abdu Dardery, a Muslim chaplain at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn.

“A lot of the programs (we have done this year) have been around the issue of violence and peacemaking,” O’Brien said, highlighting the importance of the topic.

The panel will take place at 2 p.m. in Cecillian Hall on the second floor of the administration building.

A full Founders’ Day schedule can be found on Seton Hill’s website.