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THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE E-LETTER
JULY 2019
 
 
 
 
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CAMPUS LIFE
MULTIMEDIA
 
   
Real to Reel video thumbnail Video: TV
Program Features
TAC New England!
 
     
Student praying the Rosary Slideshow:
Global Rosary Relay for Priests
 
     
Alumni approach Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel Photos from
the West Coast Alumni Dinner
 
     
President Michael F. McLean Dr. McLean’s Remarks at the Alumni Dinner  
     
Students on New England campus Video: Dr. Matthew Peterson (’01) Address at PCC   
     
5 female students Slideshow: Arrival at California Summer Program   
     
Students at BBQ Slideshow: BBQ at the California Summer Program  
     
Prefects prepare ice cream sundaes Slideshow:
First Night at the Summer Program
 
     
Fr. Illo distributes Holy Communion Slideshow:
First Morning at the Summer Program
 
     
Students receive t-shirts Slideshow:
Summer Program T-Shirts & Photos
 
     
Students depart class Slideshow:
After Program's First Class
 
     
President's Day Novena ad  
   
  UPCOMING EVENTS  
   
Summer Great Books Program for High School Students — California
July 14 – 27
 
   
Musical Oratory
London Oratory Schola
July 24
 
   
Napa Institute Discussion Seminar:
On the Sacraments and Their Ministers

July 25
 
   
Summer Great Books Program for High School Students — New England
July 28 – August 10
 
   
Feast of the Assumption
Office Holiday
August 15
 
   
California Residence Halls Open for Freshmen
August 21
 
   
New England Residence Halls Open
August 22
 
   
Convocation Day 2019 — New England
August 24
 
   
California Residence Halls Open for Returning Students
August 24
 
   
Convocation Day 2019 — California
August 26
 
   
Opening Lecture — California
Dr. Joseph P. Hattrup
Tutor, Thomas Aquinas College
August 30
 
   
Opening Lecture — New England
Dr. Thomas Kaiser
Associate Dean, Thomas Aquinas College

August 30
 
   
Feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta 
September 5
 
   
 IMEMORIAM  
   
Cdr. Joseph Bauernfeind
September 10, 2018
Legacy Society Member


Dr. Thomas Sheridan
April 13, 2019
Legacy Society Member

James C. Barr
May 27, 2019
Father of Noreen (McCann ’79); grandfather of Jack (’09), Molly (’11), Maggie (’13), Martin (’16), Patrick (’17) and Bridget (’20)

Philip Crotty 
June 8, 2019
Legacy Society member

Jim Newman
June 9, 2019
Legacy Society member

John Kaiser (’07)
June 20, 2019
Son of Patti (Grimm ’79) and Ken (’78) and brother of Will (’03)

Mary Walker 
July 8, 2019
Mother of Karen (’76) and
Maureen (Alley ’79)
   
Legacy Society ad  
 
CONVOCATION 2019
Bishop Rozanski, Fr. Illo to Preside at
Convocation Ceremonies on Both Coasts


For the first time, Thomas Aquinas College will hold two Convocation ceremonies this August.

On August 24, freshmen and sophomores from across the United States and abroad will commence their studies at Thomas Aquinas College, New England. Welcoming the students for this, the inaugural academic year on the East Coast campus, will be the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, Bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts, who will offer the Convocation Mass of the Holy Spirit and preside over the matriculation ceremony.

Two days later, the academic year will formally begin at Thomas Aquinas College, California, on August 26. Presiding will be Rev. Joseph Illo, the pastor of San Francisco’s Star of the Sea Church and a chaplain at the College from 2012 to 2014.

“We are honored and grateful to have two good friends of Thomas Aquinas College, one new and one old, joining us for our Convocation ceremonies,” says President Michael F. McLean. “Bishop Rozanski has been tremendously gracious in welcoming the College to his diocese, and Fr. Illo has been a faithful champion of the College and a confidant for many years now. Together, they will help us launch what promises to be a historic year on both coasts.”
 
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The Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski
The Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski

Rev. Joseph Illo
Rev. Joseph Illo
 

NEW ENGLAND UPDATE 
Chapel Gets New Name, New Chaplain

When Thomas Aquinas College, New England, hosts its first-ever Convocation on August 24, the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, Bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts, will consecrate the campus’ century-old chapel in honor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

“Thanks to the great generosity of an anonymous couple, for several months now workers have been preparing the New England chapel for Catholic worship,” says Vice President Paul J. O’Reilly. “Our tradition at the College is to name buildings for saints, and our benefactors requested that we name this one for Our Mother of Perpetual Help — a fitting choice, given how Our Lady has continually aided the College, first in obtaining, and now in launching, this second campus.”

The newly consecrated chapel will also have its first Catholic chaplain: Rev. Greg Markey, parochial vicar of St. Lawrence Parish in Shelton, Connecticut. “I think to be there on the ground level, when the new campus is just starting, is very exciting, and I look forward to it,” Fr. Markey says. “I want to help the students deepen their relationship with the Lord and prepare them, with all the spiritual and intellectual tools that they can get their hands on, for the highly secular world they will face upon graduation.”

 


New England chapel

Rev. George Rutler
Our Mother of Perpetual Help

George Weigel
Rev. Greg Markey
 

SIGN OF HOPE
Furniture, Equipment from Shuttered College Find New Home at TAC, New England

On a recent rainy day in Brookline, Massachusetts, officials of Thomas Aquinas College were on the campus of the recently shuttered Newbury College, retrieving a wide array of furniture and other items, ranging from desks and chairs to a kitchen stove, gym equipment, and a grand piano.

“Literally all the furniture and everything that is not bolted to the floor is ours,” reported Isaac Cross, a member of Thomas Aquinas College’s newest graduating class who has relocated to Massachusetts to serve as a resident assistant on the soon-to-be-opened New England campus. “We have two large moving trucks and some professional movers to help us out.”

Newbury College is the latest entry in a long, unfortunate list of closures and consolidations that have afflicted small liberal arts institutions throughout the country, especially in the northeast, where competition is the most severe, and demographic trends the most ominous. Yet amid the heartache over beloved institutions lost, as well as the frustration of displaced students and faculty, is a sign of hope: In this time of contraction, one small liberal arts college is expanding …

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Retrieving furniture from the erstwhile campus of Newbury College
 

FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog

• On Saturday, May 25, His Eminence Joseph W. Cardinal Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark (New Jersey), conferred Holy Orders upon Rev. Andrew J. De Silva (’03), making him Thomas Aquinas College’s 73rd alumnus priest. Fr. De Silva is the son of Dr. Norman P. De Silva (’75), a member of the College’s first graduating class who went on to become a tutor before passing away in 1985. In addition to serving as a priest for the Archdiocese of Newark, Fr. De Silva is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves Chaplain Corps.
 
• After 12 years as a Surface Warfare Officer for the United States Navy, Lieutenant Commander Josh Bergen (’05) recently transitioned to a Foreign Area Officer (FAO), becoming a Latin America regional specialist. His first FAO posting is to Madrid, Spain, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in defense and security studies at Escuela Superior de las Fuerzas Armadas. (ESFAS), the Spanish military’s staff college. “Transitioning to Foreign Area Officer allows me to combine my Naval career with my passion for Latin America and the Spanish language,” he says.
 
Dr. Matthew Peterson (’01), vice president of education at the Claremont Institute and editor of The American Mind, recently served as the commencement speaker at Providence Christian College in Pasadena, California. In his address, “Who is the Elite?”, he discussed the vital role that education should play — yet all too often does not — in uniting the leaders of society with the public at large through shared values, a common ethos, and a unified sense of the common good. “A college’s curriculum is a central source of student and national and theological unity,” he said. “But this unity, above all else, is what is broken down in many colleges today.”
 

Siobhan Heekin-Canedy (’18)Rev. Andrew J.
De Silva (’03)


Brandon Ristoff (’17)
Josh Bergen (’05)

Jane Forsyth (’11)
Dr. Matthew Peterson (’01)
 

OVERWHELMING GENEROSITY 
Friends Give More Than $500,000 for
2019 Week of Giving!


For Thomas Aquinas College’s 2019 Week of Giving, which ended on June 30, friends of the College rallied to give $285,993 — which, when combined with three matching gifts, amounted to $510,993. 

“We are overwhelmed by the generosity that so many friends of the College have exhibited this year, contributing nearly double the amount from last year’s inaugural Week of Giving,” says Vice President Paul J. O’Reilly. “There seems to be real enthusiasm for our plans to open a second campus in New England this fall. Those who love Catholic liberal education are delighted to see that this college is thriving, and they are giving, often sacrificially, to ensure our success.”

This year’s Week of Giving began with two benefactors’ matching gifts of $175,000. By midweek, however, friends of the College had already eclipsed that amount in their giving, so a member of the Board of Governors stepped forward with an additional matching gift of $50,000, increasing the available matching funds to $225,000. Incredibly, the College’s many benefactors surpassed that goal as well.

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Parents Day of Giving
     
 
 
 
 
  Thomas Aquinas College