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HHS MANDATE UPDate
President Michael F. McLean’s Analysis of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby Rulings
The decision in the Hobby Lobby case, while providing immediate relief to Hobby Lobby and the other plaintiffs, contains language which leaves the implications of this decision for Thomas Aquinas College unclear.
While part of the ruling suggests the Court’s approval of the HHS accommodation being challenged by the College, the Court also said that plaintiffs’ beliefs in the Hobby Lobby case “implicate a difficult and important question of religion and moral philosophy, namely, the circumstances under which it is wrong for a person to perform an act that is innocent in itself but that has the effect of enabling or facilitating the commission of an immoral act by another.” This question, of course, goes right to the heart of the College’s, and others’, religious objection to the HHS accommodation.
Full analysis
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VOCATIONS BOOM
60th Alumni Priest, Plus New Alumni Deacons, Sisters & Seminarian
This summer brings more news of graduates answering God’s call to the priesthood and the religious life:
Rev. Matthew Busch (’04) is the College’s 60th alumnus priest, having received the Sacrament of Holy Orders at the hands of the Most Rev. Gregory Parkes, Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, on May 10.
Two alumni have recently been ordained to the transitional diaconate. On May 24 the Most Rev. James Wall, Bishop of Gallup (N.M.), ordained the Rev. Mr. Joshua Mayer (’03), a seminarian at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado. And on June 21 the Most Rev. Kevin William Vann, Bishop of Orange, ordained Frater Jacob (Joseph Hsieh ’06), O.Praem., a seminarian with the Norbertine Canons in Silverado, California.
Two alumnae religious, Sr. Mary Thomas, O.Praem. (Alison Bright ’09), and Sr. Mary Andre, O.Praem. (Annie Huguelet ’11), recently made their first profession of vows as cloistered Norbertine Canonesses, receiving their black veils. The Rite of First Profession took place during Mass on the morning of June 6 in Tehachapi, California.
This month Justin Lefevre (’00) is entering the Sacred Heart of Jesus Monastery in Portland, Oregon — the first Maronite monastery in the Western United States. He will be a postulant with the Monks of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and he will soon begin preparing for the priesthood. “The College and its intentions will be in the monastery’s prayers continually,” he promises.
Please pray for these faithful young men and women!
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Rev. Matthew Busch (’04)
Rev. Mr. Joshua Mayer (’03)
Frater Jacob (Joseph Hsieh ’06)
Sr. Mary Thomas, O.Praem. (’09) and Sr. Mary Andre, O.Praem. (’11)
Justin Lefevre (’00)
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RECALLING OUR PRINCIPLES
Faculty Participates in Seminars on College’s Mission
Twice this summer members of the Thomas Aquinas College faculty — tutors and senior administrators alike — have participated in seminars about a topic of utmost importance to their work: the mission of the College.
“Many strong Catholic institutions of higher learning have collapsed, or lost their way, in part because they were not explicit enough about what they stood for,” says Dean Brian T. Kelly. Careful to avoid this fate, the Thomas Aquinas College faculty meets each summer to discuss texts that deepen members’ understanding of and commitment to the College’s mission and its unique program of Catholic liberal education.
The first of this summer’s seminars focused on a report that Dr. Glen Coughlin, a senior tutor, presented in 2001, when he was serving as the College’s dean. For the second seminar, the faculty read Pope St. John Paul’s 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio.
Full story
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LOVE FOR WISDOM ...
Alumni to Host Catholic Classical Education Conference
Next week educators will gather in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for “Love for Wisdom, Passion for Truth,” the 2014 conference of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. Among the speakers will be four graduates of the College: Laura (Steichen ’75) Berquist, the founder and director of Mother of Divine Grace School; Dr. Andrew Seeley (’87), a tutor at Thomas Aquinas College and the executive director of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education; Jessie (Ellis ’86) Van Hecke, a kindergarten and first grade teacher at St. Augustine Academy in Ventura, California; and Michael Van Hecke (’86), Headmaster of St. Augustine Academy and the president of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education.
Full story
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Dr. Andrew Seeley (’87) |
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