Many in this community have shown what compassion can accomplish. It provides guests with everything from drug treatment to mental health services to classes in the great books to pre-school for young children. Discipline is tough. Faith is encouraged, not required. Student volunteers are committed and consistent and central to its mission.
Compassion often works best on a small and human scale.
It is generally better when a call for help is local, not long distance. Here at this university you've heard that call and responded. It is part of what makes Notre Dame a great university. This is my message today. There is no great society which is not a caring society, and any effective war on poverty must deploy what Dorothy Day called the weapons of spirit.