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THE BEGINNING OF THE END
The Class of 2014 Approaches Graduation
Members of the Class of 2014 have entered the home stretch, and they are enjoying a series of milestones and celebrations in the weeks leading up to Commencement. On the night of Saturday, March 15, they turned in the final versions of what marks the culmination of their four years’ effort — the senior thesis — followed by a late-night hamburger party with the Dean, Assistant Dean, and Registrar.
Members of the Class of 2014 are now facing the next milestone: their thesis defenses. Each senior must defend his or her work before a panel of three faculty members. In these discussions, the tutors probe the thesis carefully and then recess to decide whether the student’s written work and oral defense will pass, fail, or pass with distinction. Given the amount of time students take to prepare their theses, and their advisors’ oversight, failures are rare, as are marks of distinction, which are awarded only in instances of truly superior work.
Meanwhile, various farewell festivities are already under way. At the end of March, the Class of 2014 held an all-day party on the Ventura beach dubbed “Senioration.” The event included volleyball, burritos, a bonfire, and two “special guests”: Head Chaplain Rev. Joseph Illo and tutor Dr. Sean Collins. Then, a few days later, Fr. Illo and his fellow chaplains hosted a wine-and-cheese reception in the Seniors’ honor. Of course, the celebrations are far from complete. Still to come: the thesis draft-burning party, the President’s Dinner, the President’s Reception for Seniors and their Parents, and Commencement itself!
Slideshow: Senior Thesis Turn-in & Party 
Full story: Senior Thesis Defenses
Story and Slideshow: Senioration
Story and Slideshow: Chaplains’ Reception
Commencement Schedule
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thesis turn-in
thesis defense
“Senioration”
Chaplains’ reception
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LECTURES & TALKS
Students Hear Presentations on Atheism,
Role of Government
For April’s installment of the St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series, the College hosted a lecture on the subject, “What We Owe the New Atheists,” by Dr. Edward Feser of Pasadena City College. Author of The Last Superstition, Dr. Feser credited various atheist authors’ assault on Christianity with compelling the Church to find its “Scholastic backbone.” Christians need, he argued, “to re-learn what Catholic philosophers and theologians of earlier generations knew well: that all bodies of knowledge, including apologetics, rest on metaphysical foundations, and cannot be adequately defended without defending those foundations.”
In addition to the Lecture Series, the College hosts periodic, informal talks presented by members of the teaching faculty. At the most recent of these gatherings, Dr. John J. Goyette spoke on the topic of “Aquinas on the Family and the Political Common Good.” Drawing upon the works of Aristotle and St. Thomas, Dr. Goyette warned against a “growing trend” among some Catholics to adopt the view that “government should not be concerned with making its citizens morally virtuous.” Instead, he urged that “the deficiencies of our own political order … not lead us to overlook the transcendence of the political common good, or to withdraw from the civitas in pursuit of a private happiness that will ultimately fail to satisfy our natural inclination to live in society with other men.”
Full text and audio of Dr. Feser’s Lecture
Full text and audio of Dr. Goyette’s Talk
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Dr. Edward Feser
Dr. John J. Goyette
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FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog
• Upcoming Ordinations: On Saturday, May 10, the Most Rev. Gregory Parkes will ordain Deacon Matthew Busch (’04) into the priesthood of Jesus Christ for the Diocese of Pensacola–Tallahassee (Fla.). Deacon Busch will be the College’s 60th alumnus priest! ... Joshua Mayer (’03) will be ordained to the transitional diaconate on Saturday, May 24, for the Diocese of Gallup (N.M.). ... Br. Andrew Marie Norton, O.S.B. (’06), will be ordained to the priesthood on Sunday, October 26, at Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey in Hulbert, Okla. Please pray for these faithful young men and their vocations!
• At its 113th Anniversary Dinner in March, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of the Oranges named Michael D. Byrne (’04) its “Young Irishman of the Year.” The organization recognized Mr. Byrne for his longstanding service as chairman of New Jersey’s largest annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Mr. Byrne, the chairman of the College’s New York City Board of Regents, is president of Pilgrim Strategies, LLC, a government, media, and community-relations consulting firm. He is currently managing the U.S. Senate campaign of Col. Rob Maness (USAF, ret.) in Louisiana.
• Five years after his graduation from Thomas Aquinas College, Robert Mohun (’09) has graduated once again. At a March ceremony in Sacramento, Officer Mohun was ranked second in his class of 95 cadets at the California Highway Patrol Academy, drawn from a group that began the CHP’s rigorous training program with 143 applicants culled from an original pool of 22,000. In receiving his badge, Officer Mohun joins his fellow Thomas Aquinas College graduate and father, Officer Rex Mohun (’90).
Full story: Upcoming Ordinations
Full story: “Young Irishman of the Year”
Full story: The Officers Mohun
The Faith in Action Blog
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 Deacon Matthew Busch (’04)
 Joshua Mayer (’03)
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Br. Andrew Marie Norton (’06)
Michael D. Byrne (’04)
 Robert (’09) and
Rex Mohun (’90)
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IN MEMORIAM
Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton, 1924 – 2014
On March 28, the United States lost one of its heroes; and Thomas Aquinas College, an old, dear friend.
Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton was an Annapolis graduate, a rear admiral, and an aviator in the United States Navy who endured nearly eight years in North Vietnamese POW camps, four of those in solitary confinement. During that time, his captors singled him out for particularly cruel and inhumane treatment, owing to his leadership among fellow prisoners and his refusal to betray his country. Famously, in a 1966 NVA press conference, Admiral Denton blinked the word “torture” in Morse code into the TV cameras, thereby alerting U.S. forces to the abuse of American servicemen.
Through the years Admiral Denton developed a close relationship with Thomas Aquinas College, serving as a member of the Board of Visitors and delivering the keynote address at the 30th anniversary dinner. He was additionally the Commencement Speaker in 2000 and a recipient of the College’s highest honor, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion.
Full story
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Admiral
Jeremiah A. Denton |
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VOCATIONS VISITS
Religious Communities Meet with Students
Throughout the year the College hosts representatives of various religious orders and movements within the Church to speak to students about vocations to the priesthood or religious life. The start of April has been an exceptionally busy time for such events, with three groups visiting campus. On April 2, Sr. Mary Margaret O’Brien, O.P. (’00), of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, met in St. Albert Hall with women from her alma mater who may be contemplating religious vocations. Meanwhile, just upstairs from the women’s meeting, a group of the College’s men met with visiting Norbertine priests and seminarians from St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange, Calif. Finally, two days later Rev. Giuseppe Cordomone and Deacon Paul of the Missionary Servants of the Poor of the Third World gathered with students in the student lounge of St. Joseph Commons.
Historically about 10 percent of the College’s graduates enter the priesthood or religious life. Five members of last year’s 91-member graduating class, for example, have already entered seminaries or religious orders, and Head Chaplain Rev. Joseph Illo anticipates that several current students will follow suit. “Usually we will get about 15-20 students at each one of the vocations presentations, which is a good, healthy number,” he reports. “Vocations directors love to come to the College for that reason.”
Full story
Vocations at Thomas Aquinas College
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Norbertine Fathers
Sr. Mary Margaret O’Brien, O.P. (’00), of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist
Missionary Servants of the Poor of the third World |
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