Share:

This past Saturday members of the Ventura Chapter of the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (CALL) came to campus for the group’s annual Thomas Aquinas College seminar. A national organization dedicated to the growth and spiritual formation of the country’s Latino leaders, CALL has deep connections in Southern California and with the College. The Most Rev. José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles, is the group’s episcopal moderator, and a graduate of the College, attorney Justin Alvarez (’97), leads its Ventura Chapter.

Attendees at the CALL seminar
Saturday’s event began with Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, offered by College Chaplain Rev. Cornelius M. Buckley, S.J. Attendees then met for a 90-minute seminar in St. Bernardine of Siena Library. A member of the faculty who is also a graduate of the College, Dr. Marco Emerson Hernandez (’97), led the discussion, which focused on the second encyclical of His Holiness Pope Francis, Laudato Si’.

“Dr. Emerson led a very reflective journey through the hills and valleys of a Papal document that many talk about, but few have ever read,” says Mr. Alvarez. “The familiarity with the cultures of Central and South America brought by Dr. Emerson and the other members of CALL was informative of the likely perspectives and experiences that informed Pope Francis as he wrote this document. It was remarkably helpful to understand that Laudato Si’ is not a rant against capitalism, as some would say, nor a call to take up environmental arms, as others would have it. It is a call to a closer journey through Christ by challenging our own personal way of life and asking ourselves whether we place things and a throwaway culture above God and those God whom places in our midst and lives. This was a call to personal conversion.”

Robert Bagdazian, the College’s assistant director of gift planning, described the seminar as “a wonderful time to seriously discuss and consider” the Holy Father’s encyclical. “We enjoyed a stimulating and thoughtful conversation about the importance of being good stewards of the earth and of man’s place as the focal point of creation.”

After the seminar, attendees continued the conversation over a buffet lunch in St. Joseph Commons, followed by a tour of the campus.