Rev. Michael Dillon McCafferty, C.S.C.

Rev. Michael Dillon McCafferty, C.S.C., a true Notre Dame man, earned three degrees from the University, a bachelor's degree in 1968, a juris doctor degree in 1973, and a master of divinity degree in 1974. After his ordination as a priest in the order of the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1974, he worked as a trial attorney at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and as an associate at Winston and Strawn. He earned his master of laws degree in 1978 at the Harvard Law School and returned to Notre Dame to begin his teaching career. From 1976 until his early death from cancer in 1987, he taught Torts, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Law to hundreds of Notre Dame law students; and from 1979 to 1982, he also served as assistant dean of students at the Law School., His contributions to the Law School community went beyond his teaching and administrative responsibilities, however. Father Mike was responsible for establishing certain religious traditions that are so wholly suited to the idea of what a Catholic law school should be that they seem always to have existed in the Law School, Sunday Mass in the Law School lounge; the sending ceremony and prayer service in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Graduation Day; and the creation of the original Law School chapel. These are the personal touches that so perfectly bear his signature and remind us of his impact, not only on these students who were fortunate to have known him, but also on those students who have come here since. , , The original St. Thomas More Chapel in the Notre Dame Law School, the only chapel then in an academic building on the Notre Dame campus, was dedicated to Father Mike's history, and contained significant mementos of his life and presence including: the stole shaped over the pulpit that Father Mike used when having mass; the rug in the sanctuary room from his room in Dillon Hall; and the stained glass window that his family and friends donated in his memory. , The original chapel was a gift of the Thomas A. Reynolds Jr. Family., To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist. , -Cardinal Emmanuel Célestin Suhard , This quote appeared on the prayer card at Father Mike's funeral.