Archbishop José Gomez encouraged Loyola Marymount University to live out its Gospel mission as the “salt of the earth” and “light of the new world” at a special Mass officially welcoming new President Thomas Poon.
The Dec. 9 missioning Mass inside a packed Sacred Heart Chapel on LMU’s Westchester campus marked the start of a full day of events to mark Poon’s inauguration as the university’s 17th president. The Loyola Marymount Board of Trustees named Poon as president earlier this year in April, and he officially took over on June 1, replacing Timothy Law Snyder, who had served for a decade.
“Why salt and light? Because neither one exists for its own sake,” Archbishop Gomez said in his homily. “Jesus is telling us today that our lives are not our own. We are not here for our own sake. We are here for the sake of others.
“This is why a truly Catholic education is so important, and the mission of Catholic universities and colleges is so important.”
As part of LMU being a Catholic university, Archbishop Gomez stressed the strong interlacing of academics with accompanying students to a renewed relationship with Christ.
“We cannot love someone whom we do not know. So education and evangelization can never be separated,” Archbishop Gomez said. “Pope Leo says that education is about ‘drawing new maps of hope.’ I think it’s a beautiful image, drawing new maps of hope. It’s about helping our young people to navigate and find the pathway to the living God who comes to reveal himself to us in Jesus. It’s a beautiful mission.”
Poon had previously served as LMU’s executive vice president and provost. A tenured professor of chemistry, he has been hailed for expanding the university’s profile in research, promoting a more diverse faculty, and increasing students’ access to LMU.
About 1,200 attended the event, which included the Mass, a celebratory lunch, an inauguration ceremony, and a Spirit of the Season reception.
The theme of the day was “Hope, Made Here,” and the topic was invoked several times throughout the day, from a prayer blessing during the Mass, to a video shown during the inauguration ceremony, to Poon’s speech itself.
“Colleges and universities are navigating demographic shifts, technological transformation, political polarization, and questions about the value of a college degree,” Poon said during a ceremony inside Gersten Pavilion. “The world around us is changing at a breathtaking pace, and yet the need for institutions like ours has never been greater. Honoring our legacy begins with hope. Hope isn’t passive. It is, as the Jesuits say, contemplatives in action. Hope rolls up its sleeves and asks, ‘What’s the work we need to do to make things happen?’ ”
Later in his speech, Poon outlined three “hopes” he believed would be accomplished at LMU.
The first was to make a Loyola Marymount education attainable “for every talented student called to our mission.” The second was to “build bridges” to nearby communities, including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, LAX, and other important sectors such as aerospace, biotech, sports, and more. The third hope was to mold student leaders using “Ignatian excellence,” using LMU’s namesake, St. Ignatius of Loyola, as a model.
“LMU’s next chapter is not for any one leader to write alone,” Poon said. “I ask each of you to claim a share of that work, boldly, generously, and with the confidence that our moment demands, because this next chapter will be written by all of us. Each of you holds the pen. Each of you is part of the story, and together we will write the next chapter of Loyola Marymount University, one filled with purpose, possibility, and hope made here.”
From Angelus News
LMU is a fraud of a Catholic school. I graduated in the 90s with a degree in theology. No way would I ever go back. No way would I recommend it to anyone today. No way do I give them any money.
The Campus Ministry Office is staffed with gays and lesbians, except the Jewish and the Muslim staff members. The Theology Department is staffed with leftist dissidents.
LMU now stands for Lucifer’s Modernist University.
I do not know if the LMU is full of sodomites and lesbians, but the prophet Mohammed was not a paragon of virtue.by any stretch of the imagination either. He married and consummated his “marriage” to Aisha when she was only nine or ten years old, and that is probably why she never had any children.. He also took more wives than he allowed for his own followers — even married one of his own first cousins. Pedophile anyone? Bigamist anyone? Incestuous marriage anyone? You might admire that, I do not, and many of the Jewish people are profiting from abortion, so their slate is not clean either.
What a tragic farce. The Jesuits completely lost their mission for Christ after Vatican II. Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker just signed an assisted suicide bill into law. He had previously mentioned the bill during a recent meeting with Pope Leo, also noting that the Pope might not agree with it– but the two did not discuss the issue. Another tragic farce. Although Pope Leo invoked Our Lady of Guadalupe on her Feast Day for those suffering from wars and violence, the Pope did not mention either the crimes of abortion nor assisted suicide– he never seems to preach about either of those issues. Tragic.
It’s difficult to tell where Dr. Poon stands on important moral issues. That said, he departs from the progressives in that he is a Union-buster.
Or, maybe he’s for other places organizing workers, just not the institution he’s responsible for.
https://edsource.org/updates/faculty-union-lmu-dispute
Keep it all vague and nice-sounding, like James Martin. But, rule with an iron fist. That’s the Jesuit way. Well, at least most Jesuits of the past half century.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
Long ago, right after Vatican II, I asked several Jesuits why they were becoming dissident and deviant with their schools and universities– they had always been so “iron-fisted” and faithful, orthodox, true to the Pope and Magisteriun! What happened? Each of them told me a long, sad story, about how orthodox Catholic teaching and practice of the Faith could not be adapted very well to Vatican II. (All true!) And some were uncertain about the rivalries in modern, secular psychology and science. Then came the shocker. Each one told me they feared losing all of their schools, so they adapted them to the “zeitgeist” of the day– to attract students, and keep all their schools from total financial collapse! A bunch of Godless, faithless snakes made that decision! And all the good, faithful Jesuits got stuck with it.
One of the big problems with Vatican II and religious leaders like Pope Francis, and now, Pope Leo– is an immature attitude towards proper adult Fatherhood authority and leadership, and seriousness with religious faith. This problem needs to be fully faced and dealt with– or our Church and society will collapse. No, the Catholic Faith is not a mindless, directionless, teenage “forever World Youth Day” event for hedonism, emotionalism, “jumping for kiddie-style joy-joy-joy” at Jesus’ Gospel, and other nonsense. Catholicism is a very serious religious faith. No– “Father So-and-So,” and the local bishop, and the Holy Father– the Pope– are NOT “my brothers.” They are our religious leaders. Do your jobs right, please! Laymen are NOT in a “competition for power in the Church” with the clergy. Each has a different role.
Jesuit schools used to be all-male. In some of them, women could take night classes. But the campuses were all-male. Religious orders of nuns ran Catholic colleges and universities for young women. In the early 1960s, all-male Jesuit Catholic colleges and universities started to become co-ed. Loyola University of Los Angeles (an all-male Jesuit school) and Marymount College (a college for young women run by nuns) merged in 1973 to form LMU. When Catholic all-male colleges and universities became co-ed, many male students and professors objected. Young men have traditionally done much better, being formed in an all-male environment. There are a great many reasons for this. It also helps in the formation of future Catholic priests. In today’s disastrous era, many boys are not being formed into mature men with good Christian character, an adult moral conscience, a strong sense of responsibility, and good leadership skills– ready for adulthood and maturity.
Our Lord tells us to be the light of the world, not “light of the new world.” What does that even mean? What is this “new world” about which he speaks?
This seems like more Jesuitical, studiously ambiguous double-speak.
As our fellow Catholic Matt Walsh might ask, “Dr. Poon, what is a woman?”
Dr. Poon is a science professor. If he cannot or will not answer that, it indicates how deeply into deception we’ve fallen.
Maybe he could bring the Jesuit James Martin in to take his place in the pseudoscience department.
Sure, maybe he is a transformative educator and visionary leader, but is he Catholic? That seems difficult to find out. Or, doesn’t that matter at most Catholic universities anymore?
At $62,000 per year for tuition (only), maybe things like religion don’t matter to the elites there.
My point was that there seems to be a lot of people working there that should not be as they do not adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Church.