Advancing Peace in a Fractured World

Experience the Event

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Tuesday, November 12, 2024 12:00 pm

Admiral Christopher W. Grady, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ambassador Joe Donnelly, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican and Former U.S. Senator, speak on Advancing Peace in a Fractured World in conversation with John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at the University of Notre Dame.

This September 12, 2024 conversation was part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum that answers the question “What Do We Owe Each Other?” For more information on the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum Inauguration Series, please click here.

Since its establishment in 2005, each year the Notre Dame Forum invites campus-wide dialogue about issues of importance to the University, the nation, and the larger world. This year’s theme, chosen by Father Dowd, invites reflection on our responsibilities to one another. In a world where ideological and cultural divisions seem to have deepened, the Forum aims to bring people together across differences to face the most pressing challenges of our time.

Meet the Speaker: Ambassador Joe Donnelly '77, '81 J.D.

From January 2022 until July 2024, Joe Donnelly ’77, ’81 J.D. served as Ambassador to the Holy See after his confirmation with broad bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate. Upon his confirmation, then University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., described him as “a person of deep Catholic faith and commitment to public service … (who) has proven throughout his career that he is committed to building relationships and working across divisions.”

Donnelly, born in New York City and raised on Long Island, was a first-generation college student, graduating from Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in government in 1977 and a law degree in 1981. After working for a law firm in South Bend, he opened a printing business in Mishawaka in 1996. Donnelly served one year on a state election board (1988-89) and then four years on a local school board (1997-2001).

Donnelly represented Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Notre Dame, in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013 before his election to the U.S. Senate from 2013 to 2019. In a state long divided between Democratic urban areas and suburban and rural Republican districts, he earned the reputation of a respected moderate, winning endorsements from business organizations and media outlets throughout Indiana. His 2012 Senate victory made him the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Indiana in more than 10 years.

From 2019 to 2021, Donnelly was a professor of the practice in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and Department of Political Science, where he taught courses on American politics, public policy and leadership.

Donnelly met his wife, Jill, a 1976 Notre Dame graduate, at Notre Dame and the two married in 1979. They have two children: Molly, a 2004 Notre Dame graduate, and Joseph Jr., a 2006 Notre Dame graduate.

Meet the Speaker: Admiral Christopher W. Grady '84

A native of Newport, Rhode Island, Admiral Christopher W. Grady graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1984 and received his commission through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program.  Grady is also a distinguished graduate of both Georgetown University, where he participated as a fellow in Foreign Service at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and the National War College.

A career Surface Warfare Officer, Grady served aboard USS Moosbrugger (DD 980) as combat information center officer and antisubmarine warfare officer.  As a department head, he served as weapons control officer and combat systems officer aboard USS Princeton (CG 59).  He then commanded Mine Countermeasures Rotational Crew Echo aboard USS Chief (MCM 14), and later deployed to the Arabian Gulf in command of USS Ardent (MCM 12).  Grady subsequently commanded USS Cole (DDG 67), deploying as part of NATO’s Standing Naval Forces Mediterranean.  In command of Destroyer Squadron 22, he deployed to the Arabian Gulf as sea combat commander for the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group in support of Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM.

Ashore, Grady served in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then as naval aide to the Chief of Naval Operations, as the assistant branch head of the Europe and Eurasia Politico-Military Affairs Branch (OPNAV N524), as executive assistant to the Navy’s Chief of Legislative Affairs, as the deputy executive secretary of the National Security Council in the White House, and as the executive assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations.

As a flag officer, he first served as Director of Maritime Operations, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (N2/3/5/7), then subsequently commanded Carrier Strike Group 1/Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, where he deployed for nearly 10 months to the Western Pacific and the Arabian Gulf conducting combat operations in support of Operation INHERENT RESOLVE. He later served as Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic; Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet/Commander, Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO/Deputy Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa. From May 2018 until December 2021, he served as the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, and the Naval Component Commander to both U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Strategic Command, as the Joint Force Maritime Component Commander for U.S. Strategic Command and executed Task Force Atlantic in coordination with U.S. Naval Forces Europe.

Admiral Grady was sworn-in as the twelfth Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s second highest-ranking military officer, on 20 December 2021.  The admiral represents the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council and chairs the Joint Requirement Oversight Council (JROC) which is responsible for reviewing and establishing acquisition priorities for major weapon systems amongst the military branches.  He also co-chairs the Deputy’s Management Action Group (DMAG) and the Deputy’s Workforce Council (DWC) with the deputy secretary of defense to address departmental budgetary priorities and serves as the senior member of the Nuclear Weapons Council, responsible for managing the atomic stockpile and coordinating nuclear weapon-related programs and budgets.

The admiral is currently the Navy’s “Old Salt”, its longest-serving surface warfare officer on active duty.

Meet the Faculty: John McGreevy '86

John T. McGreevy ’86 began his tenure as the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University of Notre Dame on July 1, 2022, the sixth provost at Notre Dame since the position was established in 1970. The University’s second-ranking officer, the provost is elected by the Board of Trustees and, at the direction of the president, exercises overall responsibility for the academic enterprise.

A graduate of Notre Dame, McGreevy is an acclaimed historian, with a focus on both American and global religion and politics. He is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University and recently taught courses on U.S. political history and global Catholicism. He served as the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters from 2008 to 2018.

“Notre Dame’s aspiration to become one of the world’s leading research universities while sustaining and deepening its Catholic identity is one of the most exciting projects in global higher education,” McGreevy said when his appointment was announced. “Given the many challenges we face in our nation, the Church, and the world, this project has never been more important. I am honored to assist in this effort and look forward to working with faculty, staff, and students to advance the work of Notre Dame.”

He has authored four books that explore the people and the impact of the Catholic Church—the most recent of which, Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis, was published by W.W. Norton and released in September 2022. His essays have been translated into Italian, French, and Spanish, and his articles and reviews have appeared in the Journal of American History, New York Review of Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Commonweal, The New Republic, Chicago Tribune, and other publications. He is also one of 12 historians to participate in God in America, an award-winning, six-part PBS documentary on American religious history that first aired in October 2010.

During his two terms as dean of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters, McGreevy advanced the college in multiple ways, including significantly strengthening the Department of Economics and other areas of the social sciences; increasing the number of Arts and Letters majors writing a senior thesis by more than 30 percent, which in turn has led to more undergraduate research; introducing the nationally recognized 5+1 Postdoctoral Fellowship Program giving students who finish their doctoral degree in five years one year of postdoctoral funding; starting new doctoral degree programs in Spanish, Italian, anthropology, and sacred music; expanding programs and departments in the arts; enhancing existing elite programs in the humanities; growing the Institute for Latino Studies; and creating more interdisciplinary curricula across the University, including a major in neuroscience and minors in computing and digital technologies and business economics. In addition, he served as co-chair of the University’s most recent core curriculum review.

McGreevy has received major fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Louisville Institute, and the Erasmus Institute. He served on the 2010 jury for the Pulitzer Prize for History and was co-chair of the Commonweal Foundation board from 2018–2023. He has received several awards for his teaching and research, including the 2015 George E. Ganss, S.J., Award for scholarly work in Jesuit studies from the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College and Notre Dame’s Kaneb Teaching Award for his influence on the undergraduate learning experience. In 2004, he was honored as a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians.

A Phi Beta Kappa member and magna cum laude graduate from Notre Dame in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in history, McGreevy earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Stanford University. He also taught at Hales Franciscan High School in Chicago. Following his doctoral degree, he completed a Lilly Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in humanities at Valparaiso University before joining the faculty at Harvard University. At Harvard, he was the Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History and History and Literature. He returned to Notre Dame in 1997.

He is married to Jean McManus, a librarian in Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Libraries. They are the parents of four children.