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CONVOCATION 2015
Bishop Olmsted, President McLean Welcome Class of 2019
On Monday, August 24, 2015, some 103 students from across the country and abroad matriculated as freshmen at Thomas Aquinas College — the Class of 2019.
The morning began with a Mass of the Holy Spirit in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, with the Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix, serving as the principal celebrant and homilist. Following the Mass, students, faculty, and staff convened in St. Joseph Commons for the Matriculation Ceremony. There, each member of the Class of 2019 approached the dais, greeting President Michael F. McLean and Bishop Olmsted, and then signed the College’s registry.
Dr. McLean then proclaimed the start of the new academic year and, per College custom, students responded with a tremendous round of applause.
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Bishop Olmsted’s homily
Dr. McLean’s Matriculation Address
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HHS MANDATE UPDATE
College’s Attorneys Rebut Government’s
Arguments in SCOTUS Filing
As part of their ongoing effort to bring Thomas Aquinas College’s case against the federal HHS Mandate before the U.S. Supreme Court, the College’s attorneys have filed a reply brief refuting the government’s most recent arguments.
In the filing, attorneys from the Jones Day Law Firm have offered a forceful rebuttal to the government’s claim that Catholic organizations’ opposition to the Mandate is “a quibble over a ‘bit of paperwork.’” For Catholic institutions, serious moral issues are at stake:
“As this Court has recognized, the context and consequences of an action are obviously relevant to whether that action is morally objectionable. ... For example, giving a neighbor a ride to the bank may not be morally problematic — unless one knows the neighbor intends to rob that bank. A Jewish school may not object to hiring a vendor to serve lunch to its students — unless the vendor was required to serve non-Kosher food. The same is true here.”
Full story
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FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog
• Four years after his ordination as a priest in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, Rev. Jonathan Perrotta (’95) has been named the pastor of not one, but two parishes. As of July 1, Fr. Perrotta is the pastor of St. Mary Parish in Durand and St. Joseph Parish in Gaines. His new positions come after four years at Holy Family Parish in Grand Blanc, where he began as the parochial vicar before being named the parish’s administrator in 2014.
• Just three years after her graduation from Thomas Aquinas College, Grace Kelly (’12) has been named a parochial-school principal in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Encouraged by her own principal and mentor — fellow alumna Brenna (Scanlon ’06) Chapin — she applied for, and received, the position at St. Sebastian School in Santa Paula. Miss Kelly is now responsible for some 150 students and nine teachers at the k-8 school just blocks from her childhood home.
• On June 20 Cara Buskmiller (’11) made perpetual vows as a diocesan consecrated virgin before the Most Rev. Doug Deshotel, Auxiliary Bishop of Dallas, at the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Shortly thereafter, she began her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the St. Louis University School of Medicine. Her calling to consecrated virginity, she says, is in keeping with her desire “to live radically, completely at the disposal of others, especially my family and patients.”
Read the Faith in Action Blog
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Rev. Jonathan Perrotta (’95)
 Grace Kelly (’12)
 Cara Buskmiller (’11)
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EXCELLENCE, VALUE & FIDELITY
Secular and Catholic Guides Praise College for Academics, Affordability & Faith
• In the newly released 2016 edition of its “Best Colleges” guide, U.S. News & World Report ranks Thomas Aquinas College in the top half of its top tier of all liberal arts colleges in the nation. It also praises the College’s financial aid program, listing the school as No. 30 among the Top 40 national liberal arts colleges on its “Best Values” list. The College is the only Catholic college to appear in the magazine’s rankings for “Least Debt” among graduates, No. 8 among the top 25 national liberal arts colleges
• USA Today and the statistics website College Factual have ranked Thomas Aquinas College as No. 12 of 1,223 schools nationwide on their list of the country’s “Best Colleges for the Money.” The rankings highlight that the student-loan default rate among Thomas Aquinas College alumni is 0.0 percent (compared to the national average of 13.7 percent), and that average total debt after four years is less than half the national average of nearly $35,000.
• The National Catholic Register has selected Thomas Aquinas College as one of only 39 “faithfully Catholic colleges and universities” included in its “Catholic Identity College Guide 2015.” The guide is based on the schools’ responses to 10 questions which, the Register explains, are designed such that “a ‘YES’ answer reflects essential elements of the renewal of Catholic identity called for by Pope St. John Paul II’s 1990 apostolic constitution on higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), its 2000 ‘Application to the United States,’ canon law and other relevant Church documents.”
Other College Guide Reviews
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NOW ONLINE!
College Publishes Complete, Free Archives of The Aquinas Review
For the first time since Thomas Aquinas College Founding President Ronald P. McArthur established The Aquinas Review in 1994, the scholarly journal is fully available online. A complete archive of back issues is now accessible, free of charge, via the College’s website.
An annual publication, The Aquinas Review exists to provide a forum for a deeper consideration of the matters that constitute the College’s curriculum and are central to genuine Catholic liberal education. Consistent with the nature of the College, The Aquinas Review is marked by fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and a respect for the great tradition of liberal learning.
As always, the College will continue to offer free subscriptions to the print edition of The Aquinas Review.
Full story
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