Msgr. James D. Watkins, the pastor of St. Ann Parish in Washington, D.C., has also been teaching undergraduates as a lecturer in philosophy at The Catholic University of America since 1990. After 35 years of teaching at his alma mater where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy, he decided it was time to retire from that part-time service.
“It has been a wonderful experience to teach so many students and to help to open their minds to good, critical thinking,” he said. “I also learned a good deal about effective teaching from the students themselves.”
At the May 2025 CUA commencement ceremony, Professor Watkins expressed his appreciation to the School of Philosophy: “These 35 years of teaching have been my way of giving back to CUA in profound gratitude to the outstanding professors who formed my thinking skills when I was a student [1979-1984], especially Professors (Msgr. Robert) Sokolowski, (Msgr. John) Wipple, (Thomas) Prufer, and (Jude) Dougherty.”
Msgr. Watkins often reminded students that philosophy is essentially about making good distinctions.
“I am convinced that making good and clear distinctions is a key function in critical thinking – for any vocation, career or job,” he said, adding, “I often tell my students that by the end of the semester’s mid-term exam, they will begin to distinguish between truth and opinion, the absolute and the relative, the natural and the artificial, substance and accidents,, potentiality and actuality, good and evil, necessity and possibility, the one and the many, sameness and difference, real analogy of being, as well as other classic distinctions which are keys to knowing objectively being vs. non-being.”
He also noted his own excitement about teaching: “What is always rewarding as a teacher is to see students go from feverishly trying to write lecture notes to watching them listen intently and to wonder about the subject matter – to wonder clearly and not wander aimlessly. That’s when I could tell that they were beginning to really think – to move from the world of opinion to reality of truth.”
On the function of teaching in the art of preaching, Msgr. Watkins noted, “Lecturing in philosophy has greatly enhanced my ability to preach and to celebrate the sacraments. The challenge to effective preaching is to know essentially what you want to say and then to develop that theme with vivid metaphors and analogies which illustrate a key point … and always try to make a good distinction which people can remember. A lot of well-meaning preaching gets muddled and loses people’s focused attention. State the thesis, develop it clearly around a distinction, and know when to land! More can be said in 10 minutes and much less in 25 minutes.”
Regarding the relationship between faith and reason, he said, “Curious to know, we all have a natural desire to know God and His real existence in our lives. We also desire to know why we believe what we believe as Catholic Christians: reasons for the faith and faith-filled reasoning. A clear grasp of classical philosophy helps to achieve that purpose. Such clear thinking is essential to effective evangelization. There is no way that Grace can elevate our nature unless we take the natural very seriously; this is critical to good theology and good Catholic faith. That’s why good philosophy is required to safe-guard authentic Catholic theology, morality, spirituality, and pastoral ministry. Without it, things become blurred, strange, and confusing.”
(Msgr. Watkins is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington and has served as the pastor of St. Ann Church in Washington, D.C., since 2016. He attended St. Anselm’s Abbey School in Washington. As a Basselin Scholar at the Catholic University of America, he earned his bachelor of arts (‘83) and master of arts (‘84) degrees in philosophy from CUA. He attended the Pontifical North American College in Rome and received his bachelor of sacred theology degree (’87) from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and his licentiate in sacred theology (’89) from the Pontifical Gregorian University before being ordained to the priesthood in 1989. He received his doctorate in philosophy from the Angelicum in 1997. He also serves as the Chief Chaplain in the Order of Malta.)s
