Chief Justice Roberts urges Holy Cross graduates to "be brave"

WORCESTER, Mass. --U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. on Friday urged graduates of New England's oldest Catholic college to look to the principles set forth by the nation's founding fathers as they meet life's challenges.

Roberts, in a commencement address at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, told 640 graduates that Friday was the 220th anniversary of the convening of the Constitutional Convention, where the nation's guiding principles were cemented.

"You as a generation face great challenges, but I don't feel sorry for you," Roberts told the crowd at Fitton Field. "The generation that convened in Philadelphia 220 years ago has given you a marvelous framework to resolve those challenges. Unlike the case in so much of the world, you as free men and women have the right to decide for yourselves how you shall live."

The court's 17th chief justice, a conservative Catholic, was given an honorary degree. He did not mention his own role as the chief justice of the nation's highest court in his 14-minute speech. His wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, is a 1976 graduate of Holy Cross and a member of the board of trustees and his colleague on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, is a 1971 graduate.

Roberts, 52, said the principles and restraints set forth in the Constitution provide a guide for personal endeavors.

"May I submit it's not a bad model when considering the question, 'How then shall we live' on a more personal level," he said.

Roberts, a Harvard graduate, said the past four years should have taught graduates that "to be free you must be brave, whether in public life, in academic pursuits ... or in charting your own course."

Holy Cross was founded in 1843 by Jesuits, a Catholic order, and promotes itself as a liberal arts school that fosters spiritual and moral growth, as well as intellectual development. There are about 2,700 undergraduates.