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About
Fidelity & ExcellenceThomas Aquinas College is unique among American colleges and universities, offering a faithfully Catholic education comprised entirely of the Great Books and classroom discussions.
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A Liberating Education
Truth MattersTruth, and nothing less, sets men free; and because truth is both natural and supernatural, the College’s curriculum aims at both natural and divine wisdom.
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A Catholic Life
Under the Light of FaithThe intellectual tradition and moral teachings of the Catholic Church infuse the whole life of Thomas Aquinas College, illuminating the curriculum and the community alike.
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Admission & Aid
Is TAC Right for You?Do you enjoy grappling with complex questions? Are you willing to engage in discussions about difficult concepts, with the truth as your ultimate goal?
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Students & Parents
Mind, Body & SpiritThere is always something to do at TAC — something worthwhile, something fulfilling, and something geared toward ever-greater spiritual and intellectual growth.
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Alumni & Careers
What Can You Do with a Liberal Education?Nothing speaks more to the versatility of the College’s academic program than the good that our alumni are doing throughout the Church and the world.
Announcing New England Commencement 2026 Speakers: Dr. Gavin Ashenden, Rev. Andrew M. Beauregard, F.P.C.
“We are pleased to announce Dr. Gavin Ashenden as our Commencement speaker for the New England campus this spring,” says Thomas Aquinas College President Paul J. O’Reilly. “A former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, accomplished author and theologian, and outspoken advocate of Christian values, Dr. Ashenden is an important voice in public life today.”
One of the most prominent members of the Church of England to convert to Catholicism in modern times, Dr. Ashenden originally discerned a vocation to the Anglican priesthood while earning his law degree at Bristol University. He was ordained to the Church of England in 1980 and served as a parish priest in and around London. In the early days of his priesthood, he helped smuggle Bibles, works of theology, and medicine into the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia to aid underground Christians, surviving multiple KGB arrests and interrogations.
Dr. Ashenden studied psychology of religion at the Jesuit Heythrop College and completed a doctorate on Charles Williams’ life and work. Following his education, he served as a senior lecturer and chaplain at the University of Sussex for 23 years. From 2008 to 2012, he presented a weekly “Faith and Ethics” program for the BBC’s radio and podcast shows.
In 2008, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Dr. Ashenden to her College of Chaplains, a station he later resigned from after publicly criticizing a Scottish cathedral for hosting a service featuring a reading from the Quran that denied the divinity of Christ. In time, he came to believe that membership in the Anglican church was incompatible with fundamental tenets of the Christian faith and, in 2017, he surrendered all titles and operations in the Church of England.
For the next two years, he served as a missionary bishop in the Christian Episcopal Church, a traditionalist Anglican offshoot. As he searched for convincing answers to his theological questions, he found them not in Anglican traditions, but in the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, which he formally entered on December 22, 2019.
Dr. Ashenden is well known for his critique of modern culture and defense of orthodox Christianity. He has been published in The London Times, The Daily Telegraph, Jersey Evening Post, and the Catholic Herald. He also appears regularly on the BBC, GC News, and the LBC, and he has lectured many times in the United States and United Kingdom. He is currently associate editor for The Catholic Herald and runs two YouTube channels, Ashenden Scripted and Catholic Unscripted, commenting on aspects of the Catholic faith and the Christian Church.
Accompanying Dr. Ashenden on Commencement Day is Rev. Andrew M. Beauregard, F.P.C., who will serve as the principal celebrant and homilist at the Baccalaureate Mass. Fr. Andrew is a member of the Franciscans of the Poor Christ, founded in 1995 in the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and based in the Archdiocese of Boston. The community observes a strict interpretation of St. Francis’s Rule of 1223 by serving and living like the poor. Its members evangelize by giving retreats and parish missions, as well as through pro-life work.
A “Franciscan at heart” since the age of seven, Fr. Andrew first discerned with the Society of St. John Vianney in the Diocese of Providence and with the Norbertines in Orange County, California, before joining the Franciscans of the Poor Christ in 2001. Seven years later, His Eminence Rev. Sean Cardinal O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., ordained Fr. Andrew to the priesthood upon his graduation from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Since then, Fr. Andrew has served his community as postulant director, vocations director, guardian, and community servant. From 2015 to 2023, he served as the Pure in Heart Boston Chaplain. Fr. Andrew is a good friend of Thomas Aquinas College, having visited and offered Mass at the New England campus several times and having led the campus’s Easter Triduum retreat in 2023. He currently administers to the Holy Rosary Shrine in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with his fellow friars.
“Both men have taken a countercultural stance in the world, as every Thomas Aquinas College alumnus must: Fr. Andrew, in his profound adherence to the Franciscan way of life; Dr. Ashenden, in his valiant devotion to speaking the truths of our Faith to a culture that denies them,” President O’Reilly notes. “They have much wisdom to offer our graduates, who must face their future with Christian strength and zeal to share Christ’s teachings.”