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January 18, 2012
10,000 Ojai Road
Santa Paula CA 93060
Contact: Anne Forsyth, Director of College Relations
(805) 525-4417      
His-res photos

Thomas Aquinas College Students Attend
Mass for the Unborn and the West Coast Walk for Life

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SANTA PAULA—January 18 — On Sunday, January 15, 2012, in advance of the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize abortion in the United States, students at Thomas Aquinas College attended a Mass for the Unborn in the campus chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity.  College chaplain Rev. Cornelius M. Buckley was the principal celebrant of the Mass.  Deacon Chris Sandner, Respect Life coordinator for the Santa Barbara region of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, preached the homily, noting that the following weekend, scores of Thomas Aquinas College students would make the 7-hour trek to San Francisco for the annual Walk for Life West Coast. 

“Barely 120 days after Thomas Aquinas College opened its doors to welcome its first students,” said Deacon Sandner, “the U.S. Supreme Court heard legal arguments in the case of Roe v. Wade. The decision of that court and the harm that has been done since is what we are here to acknowledge and pray will come to an end. It is no accident that this school has flourished during this same period, in large part because it so clearly, openly, and consistently opposed the direction the nation has taken.”

On Friday, January 20, classes will be held as usual at the college.  Students will depart late in the day by chartered bus and private cars for San Francisco, where they will stay at a number of locations in the city and take part in all-night adoration vigils at various churches.  They will attend Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Saturday morning, January 21, and then make their way to the Civic Center for the march to Justin Herman Plaza.  As in years past, Thomas Aquinas College students have been asked to assist event organizers with security during the Walk for Life.  Students will make the trip back to campus the following day to prepare for a new week of classes.

To read Deacon Sandner’s entire homily, please visit http://thomasaquinas.edu/news/homily-deacon-chris-sandner-mass-unborn 

About Thomas Aquinas College

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year, Catholic liberal arts college with a fully-integrated curriculum composed of the Great Books, the seminal works in the major disciplines by the great thinkers who have helped shape Western civilization.  There are no textbooks, no lectures and no electives.  Instead, under the guidance of faculty members and using only the Discussion Method of dialogue in classes of no more than 20, students read and discuss the original works of authors such as Euclid, Dante, Galileo, Descartes, the American Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, and of course, St. Thomas Aquinas.  Graduates consistently excel in the many world-class institutions at which they pursue graduate degrees in fields such as law, medicine, business, theology and education. They have distinguished themselves serving as lawyers, doctors, business owners, priests, military service men and women, educators, journalists and college presidents. 

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