Inside the Core

Inside the Core this week, we begin a new semester, and a thematic thread going through texts and events is legacy, and we will look at several significant legacies in this short reflection. Click here for more information. First, we begin with Martin Luther King Day. This year, we have two events. Overall, Martin Luther, Jr. has left a legacy of social justice rooted in faith and Biblical truths that lives on long after his assassination in 1968.  

King’s legacy links to one of our first readings in Core II, Plato’s Crito, which is covered in many Core II classes this week.  Plato recounts Socrates’ conversation with his student Crito, who is trying to convince Socrates to escape death by fleeing to Thessaly. Socrates’ refusal is rooted in principles that virtue, truth and integrity are more important than physical life.  He stays and is executed.  In the questions linked to this reading, there is a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. -- “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.”  This idea is clearly one that challenges all of us, perhaps especially in difficult times.  The concept that there are things – truths, virtues, ideals – which truly are worth dying for, as they are worth living for – is a legacy handed down to us by Dr. King as well as Socrates and his student Plato. 

Another legacy that the Core is focusing on this semester is that of Pope Francis, specifically his ground-breaking encyclical Laudato Si (2015).  In light of that, the Center for Catholic Studies, partnering with the Core, has been funded for a Laudato Si’ project, “The Laudato Si Hackathon,” in which students will be invited to create group projects to implement the ideas and vision of Pope Francis’ groundbreaking document, now in its tenth anniversary.  Students (working in small groups of 2-5) will develop practical solutions to different aspects of the environmental crisis based on the principles of Laudato Si’.  Working in teams of 2-5, students who want to participate will be able to present their projects on one of two days: Tuesday, April 21, from 11-1:45 p.m. and Wednesday, April 22, from 12:30-3:15 p.m. They will be judged by a panel of faculty, and cash prizes will be awarded to the winning groups. Registration will be from March 20 to April 8.  Though the Core is supporting this important initiative, all students from any class are welcome to participate. This hackathon is part of Pope Francis’ legacy to the world. 

Finally, as mentioned in an earlier Inside the Core, on March 18, 2026, we are honored to host Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, who will be speaking on the topic, “Pope Leo and the Legacy of Pope Francis” at 3:30 p.m. in the Main Event Lounge in the University Center.  His talk will be followed by his celebration of Mass in the main chapel (Immaculate Conception Chapel) at 5 p.m.  Our new Holy Father has spoken of the important legacy of the person he calls “my beloved predecessor.”  Come here our own Cardinal Tobin giving his insights into the legacy of our former pope as passed down to the current Holy Father.  In the apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, which Leo inherited unfinished from Francis, continued to develop, and promulgated on October 4, the feast of St. Francis, 2025, he says:

 I am happy to make this document my own — adding some reflections — and to issue it at the beginning of my own pontificate, since I share the desire of my beloved predecessor that all Christians come to appreciate the close connection between Christ’s love and his summons to care for the poor. I, too, consider it essential to insist on this path to holiness, for “in this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices, which every saint seeks to imitate.” 

Legacies are important. At Seton Hall, even amid changing and challenging times, we are happy in the Core to celebrate the legacies of our forebears, from Plato to Martin Luther King, Jr., to Pope Francis and to be glad there are truths and commitments that never change. 

Categories: Education