NEW RECORD — Franciscan University held commencement exercises Saturday, celebrating the graduation of what officials say is the largest class in the school’s history. -- Contributed

STEUBENVILLE — Another record-breaking class crossed the stage in Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Finnegan Fieldhouse Saturday, as the university celebrated the graduation of the 907 students in the Class of 2025.

The celebration began on Friday with the Baccalaureate Mass. Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, Minn., presided, also receiving an honorary doctorate in catechetics and evangelization for his leadership of the National Eucharistic Revival and his many years leading catechetics and evangelization efforts.

“Let yourself be overwhelmed by Jesus in his love for you, so you can surrender everything to him,” Cozzens said.

He emphasized the centrality of the Eucharist in sustaining a faithful Christian life, saying, “There is only one place in the world where you can consistently receive the life of God … only here at the altar can you eat and drink the flesh and blood of God.”

Cozzens also warned graduates against holding anything back from the Lord, calling such resistance a barrier to grace.

“Whatever you don’t surrender to him will become an area of death in your life,” he said.

Encouraging graduates to become eucharistic people, Cozzens invoked the legacy of St. Francis of Assisi, the University’s patron, and the passionate love that drove him to give everything to Christ. He urged the students to follow that example as they enter a world confused about so many truths of God.

“If you want to live your life strong in the world, in the midst of great evil, then you have to be committed to the fire. You have to be committed to the heart.”

During commencement, Mary Rice Hasson, JD, the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and director of the Person and Identity Project, and her husband Kevin “Seamus” Hasson, JD, founder and president emeritus of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, were awarded honorary doctorates in humane letters for their work defending and promoting religious liberty and the dignity of the human person. Mary Hasson accepted the degrees on behalf of the couple and delivered the commencement speech.

Addressing the graduates, Hasson called on young Catholics to confront a cultural crisis and live out their identity as sons and daughters of God.

“You are talented, faith-filled, gifted young women and men,” she said. “You’ve shown resilience, creativity, and perseverance during your time here at Franciscan.”

Framing her message around what she called an “anthropological revolution,” Hasson described a profound cultural confusion about the human person — what it means to be male and female, and what it means to be human. She warned graduates that the ideology driving this confusion is no longer fringe but dominant across institutions and social platforms.

“There are no sidelines in a revolution, no bleacher seats to occupy, far above the fray. You are in it,” she told the graduates. “The world in which you will work, live, and raise your own families has been profoundly marked by this anthropological shift.”

In his closing remarks University President, the Rev. Dave Pivonka, TOR, exhorted graduates to take what they received at Franciscan — a community of faith and truth — and bring it boldly into the world.

“Take it to a world that desperately needs it. Speak, be seen, and live the faith that you’ve learned here,” Pivonka said. “The world needs to be able to see what it is to be a young man or woman of faith, integrity, truth, honesty, goodness, and beauty.”