Chaplains

The 350 students of Thomas Aquinas College are blessed by the ministry of three full-time chaplains who reside on campus, Rev. Cornelius Buckley, S.J.; Rev. Paul K. Raftery, O.P.; and Rev. Hildebrand Garceau, O. Praem. Between them, Fr. Buckley, Fr. Paul, and Fr. Hildebrand offer four Masses daily and are available for confession or spiritual direction whenever needed. Because of their diligence and sacrifice, the College’s students always have ready access to the sacraments as well as to the friendship and advice both have to offer.

Rev. Cornelius Buckley, S.J.

A  California native, Fr. Buckley, joined the United States Navy when he was 18 years old. After serving for two years, he left to attend the University of Santa Clara in northern California. He received a B.A. in 1950, after which he entered the Society of Jesus. He went on to receive two master’s degrees — one in history and the other in philosophy — from Gonzaga University. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1962 and completed a Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, in 1967.

In his many years of working with young adults, Fr. Buckley has taught at the University of Santa Clara, Gonzaga University, and the St. Ignatius Institute at the University of San Francisco. He also served as president of St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School in San Francisco, and later as acting dean of the University of San Francisco. From 1994-2000 he was director of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and has been a trustee on the boards of the University of San Francisco and St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif.

Fr. Buckley is widely published, having authored his own works and collaborated on others as co-author or translator. His publications include Your Word, O Lord … Meditations for College Students and Anyone Else and When Jesuits Were Giants, both published by Ignatius Press, and a translation of Simon Decloux’ The Ignatian Way, published by Loyola University Press.

In recent years, Fr. Buckley has turned his focus to spiritual direction. He enjoys working with college students, helping them develop their relationship with Christ and grow in their love for God. Fr. Buckley joined the College in August 2004.

Rev. Paul K. Raftery, O.P.

Born and raised in the small Northern California town of Dixon, just outside the state’s capital of Sacramento, young Paul Raftery attended public schools through the twelfth grade. During those years, the Faith was always foremost in his heart and mind. After attending the University of California, Davis, for two years, he began to consider a vocation to the priesthood and religious life. He investigated a number of orders, but in talking with and receiving encouragement from his uncle, a Dominican priest, he decided to enter the Order of Preachers.

Fr. Paul earned a Masters of Divinity degree at St. Albert’s College in Oakland, commonly known as the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1984. Having had his first two assignments at Newman Centers on the campuses of the University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of Oregon in Eugene, Fr. Paul is no stranger to campus ministry. In 1998 he earned a licentiate degree in the history of liturgy at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. Most recently, he served as an associate at St. Dominic’s parish in Eagle Rock, California.

Early in his priesthood, Fr. Paul heard about Thomas Aquinas College. “When I was a student at St. Albert’s,” he explained, “I read about the College in Christopher Derrick’s book, Escape from Scepticism [1] . I also read the Blue Book [2]” (the College’s founding document). In 2004, while assigned to a parish somewhat near the campus, Fr. Paul was asked to serve as chaplain for the College’s Chapter of Third Order Dominicans. His association with faculty members in that Chapter occurred at just the time the College was seeking a new chaplain.

“Since coming here,” he says, “I find it a wonderful environment for getting to know God at the level of His natural revelation through the great books curriculum. The program is all so wonderfully ordered to and in harmony with the study of the Faith.”

Having a keen interest in Gregorian chant, Fr. Paul is delighted with the College’s Chant Schola that enhances the liturgical life on campus. An avid hiker, he also enjoys the trails and the natural beauty of the Los Padres National Forest above the campus. “I like to get together with some students,” Fr. Paul explains, “and walk down a trail so I can just be in their presence and share in their lives.”

Rev. Hildebrand Garceau, O. Praem. (’78)

“My best memories of the College were being in the tutorials, learning through the great books, and the spiritual life,” recalls Rev. Hildebrand Garceau, O. Praem. (’78).  “Our chaplains were very fine spiritual guides. It was through their example and through the prayer life we had at the College that I really developed my vocation.”

Having returned to the College 33 years later as a chaplain, Fr. Hildebrand now has the opportunity to be the same sort of mentor and influence that the late Rev. Thomas McGovern, S.J., and Msgr. John Gallagher were when he was a student at Thomas Aquinas College.

A native of Connecticut, Fr. Hildebrand came to the College as a student in 1974. After graduating in 1978, he spent one year teaching before joining the religious community of the Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception. He attended Mt. Angel Seminary in Oregon and was ordained to the priesthood in 1984 by Timothy Cardinal Manning, then the Archbishop of Los Angeles. After two decades with the Canons, however, Fr. Hildebrand discerned a calling to a more monastic vocation, and in 2003 received permission to transfer to the religious order of the Norbertine Fathers at St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange, Calif.

In 2004 Fr. Hildebrand was appointed pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Costa Mesa, a 3,000-family parish where Mass is offered in four languages — English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Latin. Under his leadership, St. John’s placed a special emphasis on the Sacrament of Penance, offering not just the usual one hour for confession on Saturdays, but also two hour-long opportunities every Sunday. The church also operated a Eucharistic chapel for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Fr. Hildebrand admits he was surprised when his superiors asked him to return to the College as a chaplain, but he is delighted by the prospect. “I have always considered the College to be a milestone in my human development because it really helped me to form my way of thinking and strengthen my faith,” he says. “I hope to give back to the College at least a little bit of what it has given to me.”