The following comes from an April 26 release from the college.
On Saturday, May 11, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo will serve as commencement speaker at Thomas Aquinas College’s annual graduation exercises. The archbishop of Galveston-Houston will also receive the school’s highest award, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion, in recognition of his life-long fidelity and service to the Catholic Church.
“Cardinal DiNardo has shown great fidelity to Christ in shepherding the faithful of his archdiocese and in his leadership among his brother bishops, particularly with regard to the sacredness of human life,” says Dr. Michael F. McLean, president of the college. “His presence at Commencement will be a great honor for the College and a special joy for our graduates.”
[DiNardo is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ committee on pro-life activities.]
Cardinal DiNardo will address the largest graduating class in the college’s history — 91 men and women who hail from across the United States and abroad. Having successfully completed a rigorous, 4-year curriculum that includes mathematics, natural science, Latin, literature, philosophy, and theology, each graduate will receive a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in liberal arts. These new alumni will go on to a wide variety of pursuits including law, medicine, business, military service, education, and the priesthood and religious life.
Graduates of Thomas Aquinas College are noted by employers as well as professional and graduate school professors for the strong intellectual and interpersonal skills they attain through the college’s unique great books program. Says Brian Kelly, Dean of the College, “Our focus on the original texts of the greatest thinkers — authors like Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Shakespeare, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas — really hones the mind and accustoms it to think in terms of principles; and our small, discussion-based classes ensure that students are actively engaged in their own education, working together with their peers in a constructive and respectful way. As a result, not only do they make a good beginning in a life-long pursuit of wisdom, they also acquire remarkably strong analytic skills and a distinctive ability to collaborate with colleagues.”
Cardinal DiNardo will preside at the 9:00 a.m. Baccalaureate Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. Commencement will follow at 11:30 a.m. on the academic quadrangle. During the commencement program, the college will also award the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion to its head chaplain, Rev. Cornelius M. Buckley, S.J., in recognition of a life-time of faithful service to young people on Catholic campuses in California and Washington.
What a beautiful campus and chapel to behold…Thomas Aquinas College. The students are all model citizens, and many have vocations to religious life and the ministerial priesthood…
This is wonderful.
Too bad we can’t say the same for California Bishops.
Oh I forgot that they are too busy promoting ILLEGAL immigration, because their lack of catechesis is causing their Churches to be empty.
If only all Catholic Colleges graduated Catholics like these we would have a different country!
Until Cardinal Dinardo separates the killing of innocent unborn babies from the issue of the death penalty, he will have limited effect. With the death penalty issue, the bishops have alligned themselves politically with the ACLU, one of the most militant promoters of the Culture of Death.
I am Catholic…I support the death penalty ( as unpleasant as it is)…I find nothing incongruent…
Agreed. The proponents of abortion are also entirely consistent when they oppose the death penalty. At the end of the day, these people simply support murder, both by absolving the abortionist as well as the homicidal maniacs on death row. The right to life position has to focus on innocent life. The death penalty by itself is a neutral agent subject to its correct application. Christ Himself endorsed the existence of the death penalty by telling Pilate that he would have no power (of life or death) over Him unless it were given Pilate from above.
Good comments Rambler!
What I find unpleasant about the death penalty is the sneaking, covered up, lethal injection way they do it. It should be done at high noon on Saturdays, in the town square ie national TV, and by hanging.
The “death penalty” is a supreme punishment, applied for only the most heinous of crimes…it’s administration, should not be applied in the “seeking” of vengeance, but as morally justified retribution…pure, simple and just…
Could we be just a tad off topic here, folks?
I’m sure something from this article or someone from this article made them bring up that topic….
Yes. We’re off-subject, but I’ll add my 2-cent-only belief that end of life issues certainly involves the support of life in prison as opposed to the killing of life that always should wait for grace, mercy and forgiveness of hard killers & rapists.
I think this is worth much more than the 2-cent opinions of some hard-lined readers.
By “hard-lined readers”, do you mean people who use fact, dogma and reason?
And, why not vengeance, Rhodesian?
Sounds great…can anyone tell me now about another College…John Paul the Great? How is their business school? Do they have a great record in that career path for their students? Just wondering if there is a site or somewhere that can give us more solid info….
abeca, it is fairly new. It is not even accredited yet. The alumni page has a list of graduates and where they got jobs. Most are in Communications. Their Business degree emphasizes Entrprenuership. Seniors make a business plan for a company to start after graduation. It is an interesting school, and faithfully Catholic. Would love to hear from some graduates.
I am always impressed with the wide variety of scientists the catholic Church has produced, many who are clerics…astronomer’s, zoologists, noted behavioral scientist’s…et al