As I sit and reflect on how my time at DSPT shaped the person that I have become, I cannot help but think that many of the lessons I learned were outside of the classroom. That is not to say that the lessons were not connected to the classes I took, but it was often in the discussions outside of class that I was most challenged. The search for Truth that drew many of us to the DSPT often impassioned our discussions and led us to challenge one another to live these truths beyond the classroom; we were forced to consider the practical application that studying philosophy and theology had in our daily existence as part of a much bigger reality than the confines of North Berkeley.
Now, in coordinating the Respect Life Ministry Office for the Diocese of Oakland, I have many occasions to put this great lesson into practice as I engage my fellow East Bay inhabitants in critical dialogue that considers the very tenets of our existence. In looking at the question of when human life begins, what it means to be human, and why the dignity of the human person deserves -- demands really -- to be respected, I find myself drawing not only on the principles of philosophy and theology that I studied at DSPT, but equally on the way I learned to engage these critical questions. My time at DSPT gave me both the knowledge and the wisdom to engage the culture in which I live and to cultivate a fruitful dialogue that converts our hearts as well as our minds to the Truth we so earnestly sought in our studies.
