Rice, Charles E.

English

Permit me to explain, with some background, why Edward J. Murphy was an admirable Catholic man and why I and many others are in his debt for his friendship and example

Notre Dame Law School: NDLScholarship

Notre Dame Law SchoolNDLScholarshipJournal Articles Publications1996Edward J. Murphy, Catholic ScholarCharles E. RiceNotre Dame Law School, charles.e.rice.1@nd.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarshipPart of the Legal Education CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles byan authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact lawdr@nd.edu.Recommended CitationCharles E. Rice, Edward J. Murphy, Catholic Scholar, 71 Notre Dame L. Rev. 563 (1995-1996).Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/235Edward J. Murphy, Catholic ScholarCharles E. RicPermit me to explain, with some background, why Edward J. Murphywas an admirable Catholic man and why I and many others are in his debtfor his friendship and example. First, the basics. Ed Murphy, born in1927, was raised in rural Glen Arm, Illinois, where his family owned a gasstation on the old two-lane Route 66. His early education was in a one-room school. He earned his college and law degrees at the University ofIllinois, practiced law for six years and joined the Notre Dame Law Schoolfaculty in 1957. He retired in 1994 when cancer prevented his further full-time work. He and his wife, Mary Ann, had nine children and, at the timeof his death, twenty-two grandchildren.I initially encountered Ed Murphy during the Goldwater presidentialcampaign in 1964. I was at Fordham and had delivered what, in my objec-tive opinion, was a balanced and compassionate radio talk on the issues.Ed heard that program and wrote to say that he thought the presentationwas caring, progressive and (I seem to recall) environmentally sensitive. Asyou know, we narrowly lost that Goldwater campaign. And it was not untilfive years later when I came to Notre Dame that I had the pleasure of actu-ally meeting Ed Murphy. One of the first things he said to me was, "You'retoo liberal." It was a first.Professor Murphy was known in professional circles primarily as theleading academic authority in the nation in the area of Contracts. He wasthe co-author of the most widely used Contracts casebook in the country aswell as numerous other technical legal writings. His students have seenproof of his expertise in their own competence on later bar exams and inpractice. Professor Murphy taught every Notre Dame Law School studentfrom 1957 to 1994. They, and his faculty colleagues, learned much fromhim, including the lesson he taught by example: that we should do ourwork very well but should always keep the family in first place. We alsolearned from him that constructive change in the law and society is bestachieved by organic development rather than by grandiose master plans.Less well known than his Contracts achievements, but more signifi-cant, in my opinion, is the unique contribution Ed Murphy made to NotreDame and to his students in his teaching of Jurisprudence. He saw clearlythat law involves the definition and acceptance of ultimates. He taughtthat it makes no sense to talk about law without affirming its source. EdMurphy reminded us that the ultimate source and measure of all law isGod. He knew that God guides us to our end of eternal happiness throughHis natural law, which is knowable to reason, and through His explicit Rev-elation which provides certain and true answers as communicated by theChurch which is the body of Christ, who is God.* Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame.In his 1993 encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II said that"there can be no freedom apart from or in opposition to the truth....[O]nly by obedience to universal moral norms does man find full confir-mation of his personal uniqueness and the possibility of authentic moralgrowth.... These norms in fact represent the unshakable foundation andsolid guarantee of a just and peaceful human coexistence, and hence ofgenuine democracy."' The destructive separation of freedom from truth,said John Paul, "is the consequence, manifestation and consummation ofanother more serious and destructive dichotomy, that which separates faithfrom morality."2  This is practically a summary of Murphy onJurisprudence.Professor Murphy's teaching of Jurisprudence was a living embodi-ment of those truths. In his 1994 essay, The Sign of the Cross and Jurispru-dence, published in the Notre Dame Law Review, he wrote:Every class I have taught in the Notre Dame Law School has begunwith the same action and the same words. I have made the ancient Signof the Cross, while saying: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son,and of the Holy Spirit."The Trinity is the central fact of all reality. There is nothing more basicthan this. It is a fact of such overriding significance that everything elsemust be seen in relationship to it....By affirming the Trinity as we begin a law class, we make a funda-mental jurisprudential statement. We acknowledge God as sovereign,and we pledge to model our work in the law upon what we know of Hislaw-order.We cannot escape reality. According to God's word, we obey and weare blessed; we disobey and we are cursed. His moral laws are just asobjective as His physical laws. We may, of course, ignore a law of God orpretend that it does not exist. But we must still suffer the consequencesof violation. It is, however, precisely this objective character that providesencouragement and hope. For the judgments are themselves therapeu-tic; they can have a healing effect.In whatever we do, let it be with confidence in the name of the Fa-ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.3In his teaching of Jurisprudence Professor Murphy uniquely inte-grated faith and morality with the law. What he taught is sorely needed bylaw students today, including those at Notre Dame. Professor Murphy waspreeminently a gifted teacher. For ten years, Ed and I team-taught a seniorapologetics course, on a volunteer basis, at Marian High School in Misha-waka, Indiana. His book, Life to the Full, was the basic text. I still encounterstudents from that course whose spontaneous comments evidence the im-1 JOHN PAUL II, VERITATAS SPLENDOR para. 96 (1993).2 Id. at para. 88.3 EdwardJ. Murphy, The Sign of the Cross and Jurispuence, 69 NOTRE DAME L. Rxv. 1285,1285-1300 (1994).EDWARD J. MURPHYpact his teaching had on their lives. Our high school teaching careers ab-ruptly ended when a new bishop (not the present one) discovered whatsort of papalist teachers had infiltrated his school.As a parenthetical note, let me say that the most effective lesson I eversaw Ed Murphy teach was not in a classroom but rather on a night when hedemonstrated that witness to one's faith is more important than politicalcorrectness. On a September night in 1989, he led a handful of others inreciting the Rosary outside Notre Dame's Snite Museum of Art in protestof, and in reparation for, Notre Dame's sponsorship of a public showing ofThe Last Temptation of Christ. Professor Murphy accurately described thatfilm as "a blasphemy of Christ" and its sponsorship by the University as an"outrage." His witness, though quiet and dignified, was politically very in-correct. Very few joined him in it. Yet I am sure he would have gone outthere all by himself, even if no one had followed his lead. He knew it wasthe right thing to do. That night he was a great teacher at his best, forthose who were there and for those who would later reflect upon hiswitness.After his retirement and while fighting cancer, Professor Murphy em-barked on one of his most intriguing enterprises. He wrote and published,as a family project, a card collection of Catholic saints. "When I noticed,"he said, "that a trading card series was being issued featuring prominentcriminals, I knew it was time to act."4 The cards include a picture and ashort biography meticulously researched and written by Professor Murphyhimself. They range from the Apostles to St. Maximilian Kolbe. "Most ofthe saints are kind of stereotyped, a little bit syrupy. We wanted a morerealistic picture," Murphy said. "I researched mainly in the area of master-works and found good ones. Most of them were copies of classic paint-ings."5 Some of the paintings are by Leonardo de Vinci, Botticelli orRaphael; some cards are reproduced from photographs of more modemsaints. The second set of fifty cards was published the day before ProfessorMurphy's funeral.6 Incidentally, numbers 1 through 50 in the series werereserved for cards relating to the Blessed Mother. "She comes first," saidMurphy, who was preparing to start work on those cards when he died.The thought occurs that Mary said to this good man, 'Well done. Nowcome on home and let me take care of the rest."Let me recount what came to mind when I learned the circumstancesof Ed's death. My father, when he had come over as a young man fromIreland, used to read from a little book of maxims and counsels of St. Vin-cent de Paul. One of those maxims is pertinent here. St. Vincent wrote:"The most glorious and desirable death is that which surprises us with armsin our hands for the service of the Lord."7 That describes in detail thedeath of Ed Murphy. His death was not immediately expected. He hadjust picked up a very large number of orders for the saint cards he had4 Gene Stowe, Ex-Professor Inspires with Saintly Trading Cards, SOUTH BEND TRIB., Oct. 9, 1994at Fl.5 Id6 They are available from Michael Murphy Design, Box 895, South Bend, IN 46624.7 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL, MAXIMS AND COUNSELS OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL 99 (Msgr. Walsh ed.,1906).1996]NOTRE DAME LAW REVIEWwritten and published. Ed would agree that those cards and his writings onGod's law and jurisprudence, including his books, Life to the Full and InYour Justice, are far more important than all his excellent technical legalworks. The saint cards are a novel idea, they are popular and they aretimeless. Their impact will go on for generations, especially with theyoung. In a real sense, those cards were the arms, the weapons, in Ed'shands for the service of the Lord, when he died.In a larger sense, Ed Murphy spent his entire life in service to Christ.He was more effective, and frustrating to the opposition, because of hisunfailing kindness and fairness. Some might disagree with him, but no onecould resent him or accord him anything but the highest respect. He wasinformed and uncompromising in his support of all the moral and socialteachings of the Catholic Church, in his insistence that a Catholic univer-sity ought to be unequivocally Catholic, and in his defense of the right tolife of the innocent, including first of all the unborn child.Ed Murphy's commitment to Christ was total, especially through hisdedication to Mary and the Rosary, which he prayed, with his wife, MaryAnn, in the car, minutes before he died. It is altogether fitting that EdMurphy died a death which was, in the words of St. Vincent de Paul, "themost glorious and desirable" because he died in "the service of the Lord."8Please pray for him. Eternal rest grant unto him, 0 Lord, and let perpet-ual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithfuldeparted, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.8 Id.[Vol. 71:4

Edward J. Murphy, Catholic Scholar

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Edward J. Murphy, Catholic Scholar

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