Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback

Ave Maria School of Law Honors Keating

<p>NAPLES, FLORIDA — <span>Ave Maria School of Law&nbsp;<span>awarded an honorary degree to&nbsp;</span></span>Karl Keating, founder and senior fellow at Catholic Answers, at the school's commencement ceremony Saturday, May 14. One of four individuals to receive the honor this year, Keating now holds the degree of doctor of law, honoris causa.</p><p>Keating, whom journalist Tom Hoopes recently dubbed “<a href="http://aleteia.org/2016/05/16/how-far-have-we-come-remembering-the-cath… granddaddy</a>,” is widely acknowledged as a key figure in the late-twentieth-century renaissance of Catholic apologetics. But at the time he founded Catholic Answers, Keating was an attorney practicing civil law, having earned his degree at the University of San Diego School of Law.</p><p>“Studying and practicing law forces a discipline of the mind,” Keating said. “You learn to reason things out and to separate the essential from the inessential. Those skills are needed also in apologetics. I think of my legal training as remote preparation for the work to which I've devoted most of my working life.”</p><p>Keating is the author of seven books, including two national best sellers,&nbsp;<em>Catholicism and Fundamentalism</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>What Catholics Really Believe</em>. In 1990 he founded&nbsp;<em>Catholic Answers Magazine</em>&nbsp;(originally titled&nbsp;<em>This Rock</em>, a reference to Matthew 16:18), which for more than a quarter century has been the leading U.S. journal of Catholic apologetics. Keating has also written for&nbsp;<em>The Wanderer</em>,&nbsp;<em>National Catholic Register</em>, and&nbsp;<em>Canadian Catholic Review</em>.</p><p class="p1">“We live in an age wrought with a kind of moral confusion that derives in large part from a cultural absence of intellectual clarity,” Catholic Answers president Christopher Check said. “Karl Keating and Ave Maria are beacons in this troubled time. It seems especially fitting that Karl, one of the great defenders of the Catholic Faith, is so honored by an institution that is itself so devoted to spreading the truth.”</p><p>The philosophy of Ave Maria School of Law seeks to place a strong emphasis on “the moral foundations of the law, present insights from the Catholic intellectual tradition, and encourage a broader perspective of the law and its role in society,” according to its <a href="http://www.avemarialaw.edu/">website</a>.</p><p>The other 2016 honorees were legendary college football coach Lou Holtz, who gave the commencement speech, and two longtime patrons of the school, Vincent and Connie Von Zwehl.</p><p><span>“I consider the conferral not so much an affirmation of anything that I have done but of the success of the Catholic apologetics movement over the last several decades," Keating said.</span></p><p><em>— Richaél Smith</em>&nbsp;</p>

Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free
Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donatewww.catholic.com/support-us