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COMMENCEMENT 2018
Bishop Morlino to Serve as College’s Commencement Speaker
The Most. Rev. Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, has accepted President Michael F. McLean’s invitation to serve as Thomas Aquinas College’s 2018 Commencement Speaker.
“We are grateful that our longtime friend Bishop Morlino has agreed to come to California to join us for Commencement,” says Dr. McLean. “We are honored that he will be part of this important day in the life of the College and its newest graduates.”
Commencement 2018 will mark the Bishop’s second visit to Thomas Aquinas College. In 2007 he helped to inaugurate the new academic year by serving as the College’s Convocation Speaker. “You are being formed into exactly the kind of lay Christian faithful who will take up the job of being the instrument by which the Lord saves the world,” he told that year’s freshmen. “You are exactly who we want; you are exactly the people we need.”
“As a priest, an educator, a pastor, and a bishop, as well as in his work in the field of bioethics, Bishop Morlino has been an unfailing champion of the Church’s teachings, particularly those concerning the intrinsic dignity of the human person,” says President McLean. “We very much look forward to hearing his address.”
Full story 
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 The Most. Rev. Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin
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SENIOR REFLECTIONS
Members of the Class of 2018 Look Back … and Forward
• “The fruits of this school have been so profound, it’s hard for me to fit them all into a single talk,” says Matthew Dugan (’18). “But I can tell you, I have made friends that I know I never would have made if I had gone to any other school. I have become more deeply interested in truth than I would have ever become at a regular school. I have become more deeply invested in my faith than I ever would have become otherwise. And I feel so strongly about the impact that it has had on me that I am planning to enter a seminary this fall.”
• “I was accepted, and found Freshman Year to be extremely challenging,” recalls Barbara O’Brien (’18). “But I quickly realized that applying myself fully to the program — both in the community and in the academics — was the only way I was going to make the most of what TAC had to offer. So I dug in my heels and studied. I made as many friends as I could, and I have tried to do that for every year since. Some years are better than others, but overall I have come to realize that this education has formed me as a person — both intellectually and in my character as well.”
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Matthew Dugan (’18)
Barbara O’Brien (’18)
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FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog
• Two alumni attorneys — David A. Shaneyfelt (’81) and Raymond Tittmann (’94) — have been named to the 2018 edition of “Super Lawyers,” an annual roster of top attorneys within various regions of the United States. “Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement,” the guide notes. Only 5 percent of lawyers are named to the list, following a rigorous nomination and peer-review process that considers such factors as verdicts, settlements, professional honors, experience, pro-bono work, and community service.
• “Anna’s Cider had only just begun making ground when the Thomas Fire hit, sparing nothing,” begins a recent story in the Ventura County Reporter. The cider house, based in Santa Paula, California, and owned by alumni Anna (Dunlap) and Dominic O’Reilly (both ’12), had begun bottling its initial run of dry and semi-dry ciders when the fire wiped out $15,000 in product alone. “The future, however, is bright, as the couple aims to rebuild and take their shared experience on to bigger and better goals,” the story continues.
• Thomas Aquinas College graduate and tutor Dr. Michael Augros (’92) is one of four “excellent authors” whose work is considered in a new book review on CatholicCulture.org, “Four Ways to Grasp Natural Meaning from the God Who Is,” by Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, president and founder of Trinity Communications. Dr. Augros’ latest book, The Immortal in You: How Human Nature Is More Than Science Can Say, is “a deeply philosophical book which proves … that the hollowness of human life without God is not only completely unnecessary but also irrational,” writes Dr. Mirus. Moreover, Dr. Augros presents his case “not from Revelation but from reason,” so as to reach modern audiences “who live in a state of conflict between their inner experiences and the scientistic denials of meaning imposed upon them by our educational and other formational institutions.”
Faith in Action blog
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David A. Shaneyfelt (’81)
Raymond Tittmann (’94)
Anna (Dunlap) and Dominic O’Reilly (both ’12),
Dr. Michael Augros (’92) |
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CULTURE OF LIFE
Students Lead the Way at West Coast
Walk for Life 2018
After the close of classes on Friday, January 26, more than 200 Thomas Aquinas College students departed for San Francisco and the 14th annual Walk for Life West Coast. They arrived late in the night at North Beach’s Saints Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco, where the Salesian fathers graciously offered them places to sleep. The next morning, they attended Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral offered by the Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, before heading over to the Civic Center Plaza for the Walk.
At the request of the Walk’s organizers, the College’s students once again took on volunteer positions, directing traffic and crowds, as they helped lead the way through the streets of San Francisco. Clad in their red sweatshirts, all prayed, sang, and peacefully called for an end to abortion alongside more than 50,000 fellow walkers.
Joining members of the Board of Governors, faculty, and staff, a group of students also participated in this year’s OneLife LA — the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual event to promote the beauty and dignity of all human life. And in Washington, D.C., members of the Board of Regents, alumni, and friends of the College participated in the March of Life, where there was even a reunion of sorts between two members of last year’s High School Summer Program!
Walk for Life coverage and photos
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