College Hosts “Laudato Si’” Seminar at Legatus Summit

Last week some 25 Catholic executives and their spouses gathered for “Laudato Si’: Pope Francis’s Letter on Care for Our Common Home,” a seminar hosted by Thomas Aquinas College. The event, which took place at the 2016 Legatus Summit in Orlando, Florida, included Legatus members from across the United States.

The discussion was the latest in a series of seminars that the College has conducted in recent years as a means of introducing Catholic leaders to its unique program of liberal education. Participants met around a table at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Lakes, using the same Discussion Method that students at Thomas Aquinas College employ each day to derive the meaning and implications of the great books of Western civilization.

At the Summit, members of Legatus, the international organization of Catholic business executives, considered questions of environmental stewardship — and their related themes of cultural and ethical decline — in His Holiness Pope Francis’s second encyclical, Laudato Si’. Leading the conversation were the College’s president, Dr. Michael F. McLean, and its vice president for development, Dr. Paul J. O’Reilly, who are both senior members of the teaching faculty.

“Laudato Si’ makes what are, for many, uncomfortable claims regarding our relationship with nature and the environment,” says Dr. O’Reilly. “It was great to be able to explore these uncomfortable truths with so many of my fellow Legates, and at the same time introduce new friends to what we do at Thomas Aquinas College. We could not have asked for a better discussion, and we look forward to many more like it in the years to come.”