The University of Notre Dame has announced that seven individuals will receive honorary degrees at this year’s commencement ceremony.
Honorary doctor of laws degrees will be awarded to Marguerite Barankitse, Eamon Duffy, Christopher Murphy III, J. Christopher Reyes, Sister Raffaella Petrini and Cardinal Joseph Tobin. Mary Boyce will receive an honorary doctor of engineering degree.
According to the press release announcing the recipients of the degrees, Barankitse is “a humanitarian leader and teacher, is credited with saving more than 50,000 children and providing them with access to health care, education and culture through her organization, Maison Shalom (House of Peace).” Through her work across Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, she has sheltered and supported children affected by war. Since 2015, when she was forced to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo, she has been working in exile in Rwanda.
Duffy is an emeritus professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Cambridge.
“Duffy is a renowned scholar of Christianity in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, the history of the papacy, and Christian material and visual culture. Duffy has written extensively for both scholarly and popular audiences, and two of his books, ‘The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580’ and ‘The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village,’ are widely credited with reshaping the modern understanding of Catholicism in late medieval England as a vibrant and popular faith rather than a dying institution,” the press release stated.
Murphy is an alumnus of Notre Dame, having received his undergraduate degree here before receiving degrees in law and business from the University of Virginia and Harvard University, respectively. In 1972, he joined with his father-in-law and a group of investors to purchase the First Bank and Trust Company of South Bend, now 1st Source Bank. According to the press release, his work, centered on the banking and business industries, has supported “numerous organizations seeking to address some of society’s most critical needs — including health care, economic development, education and support for the arts — at the regional, state and national levels.”
Reyes is the co-founder and chair of Reyes Holdings LLC — a large global food and drink distribution company.
“Reyes founded the company with his father and brother in 1976, beginning as a small beer distributor in South Carolina, and today delivering 1.3 billion cases of food and beverages globally each year,” the press release stated.
He has been a member of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees since 2003.
Tobin was named a cardinal by Pope Francis and serves as the sixth archbishop of Newark — a role he has held since 2017.
“After serving as superior general of the Redemptorists, he was ordained archbishop in 2010 and appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as the Secretary of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. From 2012 to 2017, he led the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. In addition to his responsibilities in the Archdiocese of Newark, he serves on the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Synod of Bishops, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the Council for the Economy, the Dicastery for Bishops, and the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church,” the press release stated.
Cunningham Boyce is a provost emerita and professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University, having worked at MIT for 25 years before Columbia.
“A leading researcher of polymeric materials and soft composites, her groundbreaking contributions include creating new modeling methods for the use of engineers in commercial products, transportation vehicles, and biomedical devices, among others,” the press release stated.
An honorary degree will also be awarded to Sister Raffaella Petrini, the principal speaker of this year’s commencement. She was set to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at commencement last year but deferred her reception of the award following the death of Pope Francis.
