Commencement 2002
Cardinal Schonborn tells Thomas Aquinas College Graduates:
"Build Up A Friendship"
 "If
you remember only these two words from my Commencement Address,"
said Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, O.P., "I [will be]
very happy as a teacher: fundari amicitiam – build
up a friendship." The Archbishop of Vienna spoke before
graduates and some 1,200 guests on the campus of Thomas Aquinas
College on June 8. Fifty-nine seniors from 20 states, Canada,
Austria, and Puerto Rico, received bachelor of arts degrees.
A close advisor to Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Schonborn
received the College's Thomas Aquinas Medallion, an award
reserved for those who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication
to God and His Church. Schonborn served as Director of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church which the Holy Father promulgated
in 1994. And since his appointment as Archbishop of Vienna
in 1995, he has brought order and faith to an archdiocese
that was rife with public scandal and controversy from his
predecessor.
In 1996, he preached the Lenten spiritual exercises for the
Pope and the Roman Curia. Since 1998, he has been President
of the Austrian Bishops' Conference.
Concelebrating Baccalaureate Mass with Cardinal Schonborn,
and serving as principal homilist, was Fr. C. John McCloskey
III, Director of the Catholic Information Center in the Archdiocese
of Washington, D.C. Fr. McCloskey also serves as the U.S.
representative for the ecclesiastical faculties of the Pontifical
University of the Holy Cross in Rome and the University of
Navarre in Pamplona, Spain.
Cardinal Schonborn spoke on "Love and Friendship,"
expounding on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas regarding man's
ability to form a friendship with God. "If there is a
phrase that sums up the entire Summa Theologica, it is, in
my opinion, this fundari amicitiam. God wishes to build up
a friendship with His creatures. The whole way of human and
Christian life has its deepest sense in [our] building [a]
friendship with God. And the entire ethics, the entire Christian
morals, are summed up in the idea of building up friendship
with God and among us."
"Man is made in God's image," he explained, "and
he is therefore called upon to realize this image by moving
freely towards this goal." "The whole sense of human
life," he said, "is in realizing this image through
friendship with God."
Senior Luke Reilander from Pembroke, Ontario, Canada, was
elected by his classmates to give the Senior Address. He spoke
on the effects of religious conversion, drawing inspiration
from his own experiences during his four years at the College.
Reilander was awarded a full scholarship to attend Ave Maria
College of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this fall.
For a video tape of the Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement
Ceremonies, contact Amanda
Atkinson.
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