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ALUMNI VOCATIONS
Four Ordinations & One Solemn Profession!
In the last few months four Thomas Aquinas College alumni have been ordained to the transitional diaconate, and one alumna sister has made her perpetual vows!
• On April 9, Sr. Mary Josefa of the Eucharist, OSB (Kathleen Holcomb ’07), made her Solemn Profession of Vows as a member of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles. The vows took place during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at St. James Catholic Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, with the Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, the Most Rev. James Vann Johnston, Jr., presiding.
• Rev. Mr. Deneys Williamson (’10) was ordained to the transitional diaconate on May 1, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, at the Basilica of Saint Apollinaire in Rome. A seminarian for the Archdiocese of Johannesburg, South Africa, Rev. Mr. Williamson has studied at Rome’s Sedes Sapientiae seminary since 2011.
• On June 25, the Most Rev. Paul J. Bradley, Bishop of Kalamazoo, Michigan, ordained two members of the Class of 2013 to the transitional diaconate: Jeffrey Hanley and Maximilian Nightingale. Kalamazoo natives, Deacons Hanley and Nightingale both entered the seminary shortly after their graduation from the College and have studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
• That same day, the Most Rev. Kevin William Vann, J.C.D., Bishop of Orange, California, ordained Rev. Mr. Miguel Gaspar Batres, O.Praem (’08) to the transitional diaconate. Frater Miguel is a Norbertine monk at St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California.
All told, that makes four new deacons in two months — and, by God’s grace, four new priests within the next year. There are now 41 professed religious among the College’s alumni, and 65 ordained priests. Thanks be to God!
More: The Faith in Action blog 
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Sr. Mary Josefa
of the Eucharist,
OSB (’07)
Rev. Mr. Deneys Williamson (’10)
Rev. Mr. Jeffrey Hanley (’13)
Rev. Mr. Maximilian Nightingale (’13)
Rev. Mr. Miguel Gaspar Batres, O.Praem (’08)
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rELIGIOUS LIBERTY UPDATE
Catholic Media Examine Latest Threat to Thomas Aquinas College
Thomas Aquinas College has received many mentions in the news recently, due to pending California legislation that threatens the College’s religious liberty:
• “Catholic and other Christian educational institutions in California face the loss of existing protections that allow them to carry out their educational mission in line with their religious principles, due to a new bill working its way through the California Legislature,” reports Peter Jesserer Smith in the National Catholic Register. Under State Senate Bill 1146, Thomas Aquinas College students would no longer be eligible for Cal Grants — tuition subsidies available to all state residents that are worth, on average, $9,000 per student — unless the College implements housing policies based on “gender identity” or “gender expression.”
• “In many ways [this bill is] an existential threat to religious colleges that want to live according to the principles of their faith in their community,” says the College’s general counsel, Quincy Masteller, in a Catholic News Agency story by Kevin J. Jones. “The College has no discriminatory intent towards any person,” Mr. Masteller explains. “What we do discriminate against is conduct or activity that violates our Catholic character.” The College would never, for example, allow a man to live in a women’s residence hall or host a same-sex “marriage” ceremony in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. “We’re not going to sacrifice our Catholic character at all.”
• In a column for the National Catholic Register, Patrick Reilly calls SB 1146 a “nightmare scenario threatening to severely harm Catholic colleges,” brought about by ...legislators in pursuit of “a radical ‘gender ideology’ and the dismantling of religious freedom.” He observes that the bill would punish religious colleges that are legally exempt from federal Title IX restrictions by requiring them “to publicly declare their exemption in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences,” amounting to “a modern ‘Scarlet Letter.’” Mr. Reilly further notes that only two Catholic colleges — Thomas Aquinas and John Paul the Great University — have opposed the legislation.
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TAKING FLIGHT
Tutor Dr. Tom Kaiser Rehabilitates, Releases Peregrine Falcon
In June, Thomas Aquinas College tutor Dr. Thomas J. Kaiser had the joy of releasing a year-old, male peregrine falcon back into the wild after it had recovered from an injury to its wing. An ornithologist and licensed falconer with a Ph.D. in biology, Dr. Kaiser regularly lends his expertise to the Ojai Raptor Center for various wildlife-rehabilitation efforts. “They wanted to make sure it could fly well enough to hunt and thrive before letting it go,” he explains.
His first duty was to train the bird to stay near. “It’s a friendship of utility,” Dr. Kaiser jokes. “I feed the birds off of my glove, so they see me as a source of food.” When he was confident that the falcon would come back, he allowed it to take test flights, so as to monitor its progress. Upon determining that it could function on its own, he gave the falcon one last meal, and then set it loose.
“They integrate into the wild quite naturally,” Dr. Kaiser says. “If they are not hungry, and looking to me as their source of food, they will simply fly off and never return” — as did this young peregrine, who eagerly soared into the sky, free from the jesses that had once bound him to Dr. Kaiser’s glove. “I went back to the same site twice the next day,” Dr. Kaiser adds, “and the falcon was gone.”
Full story
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