Thomas Aquinas College Celebrates Feast Day of Angelic Doctor
(February 11, 2005)
SANTA PAULA, CALIF — On Friday, January 28, 2005, Thomas
Aquinas College hosted a lecture by Rev. Romanus Cessario,
O.P., on Aquinas on New Law Sacrifice as part of the college’s
traditional celebration of the feast day of its patron saint.
On the vigil of the feast day, the college’s faculty
enjoyed a private dinner with Fr. Cessario, and on the holiday
itself, students were free from classes; they instead attended
the lecture, a votive Mass in honor of St. Thomas, and a formal
dinner.
Noting that Fr. Cessario is a lecturer much in demand throughout
the United States and Europe as well as in Australia, the
Bahamas, and at the Vatican, college president Dr. Thomas
Dillon said, “We are indeed grateful and honored that
this great disciple of the Angelic Doctor made the long trek
from Massachusetts to our campus to celebrate the feast of
St. Thomas with us.”
Dr. Michael McLean, dean of the college, later remarked that
Fr. Cessario “gave an excellent lecture explaining the
sacrificial nature of the Mass as a re-presentation of Our
Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary. He stressed the necessity
of the Mass for the forgiveness of sins, the important differences
between sacrifice and gift, and the contribution of St. Thomas
Aquinas to the Church’s teaching on these matters.”
Popes throughout the centuries have exhorted theologians
and philosophers alike to study the writings of St. Thomas.
In his encyclical, Aeterni Patris, Pope St. Leo XIII declared
him “the prince and master of all Scholastic doctors”
and designated him patron of all Catholic academic institutions
throughout the world. Pope John Paul II refers to St. Thomas
as “the guide and model for theological studies.”
The updated Code of Canon Law, written in 1983, urges seminarians
to study theology “with St. Thomas in particular as their
teacher.” (Can. 252 §3)
Today, Thomas Aquinas College is at the forefront of American
academic institutions that keep the rich theological tradition
of St. Thomas alive. Indeed, the College was founded on the
primacy of his thought, and the faculty, themselves disciples
of the Angelic Doctor, nurtures the intellectual formation
of the students under the guidance of the teaching Church.
During the Q & A session that followed the St. Thomas
Day lecture, students asked Fr. Cessario to elaborate on topics
such as how the Mass is the same sacrifice as Christ’s
sacrifice on Calvary, and the nature of the relationship between
“sacrifice” and “communion.”
Fr. Cessario, who holds advanced degrees in philosophy from
St. Stephen’s College in Massachusetts, the Dominican
House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and the Université
de Fribourg in Switzerland, is highly esteemed as a theologian
in academic circles throughout the world.
Currently he is professor of systematic theology at St. John’s
Seminary School of Theology in Massachusetts and visiting
professor at the American and Australian campuses of the John
Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. Fr.
Cessario is also associate editor of The Thomist, editor of
Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology Series, and senior editor
of Magnificat. A prolific writer, his contributions to academic
journals are manifold; his most recently published book is
John Capreolus: Treatise on the Virtues (CUA Press, 2001).
About Thomas Aquinas College: Thomas Aquinas College offers
a unique, four-year program of Catholic liberal education
that begins in wonder and aims at wisdom. The curriculum consists
exclusively of the Great Books, and the college uses only
the Socratic method of dialogue in all of its classes. There
are no textbooks, no lectures and no electives. Instead the
college offers an entirely integrated curriculum using only
the original texts of the greatest thinkers who have helped
shape Western Civilization. These authors include St. Thomas
Aquinas, St. Augustine, Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Euclid,
Dante, our American Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Copernicus,
Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton and Einstein, to name a
few.
Thomas Aquinas College graduates consistently excel in the
many world-class institutions where they pursue graduate degrees
such as law, medicine, business, theology and education. They
distinguish themselves in these professions, serving as headmasters,
business owners, lawyers, priests, doctors, military service
men and women, professors and college presidents.
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