Santa Paula college celebrates new campus centerpiece
Archbishop, alumni help to dedicate chapel
By Sue Davis
Ventura County Star
(March 8, 2009)
 The
campus of Thomas Aquinas College shone with a new crown jewel Saturday
as the Chapel of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity was dedicated
in a three-hour ceremony.
The 15,000-square-foot, $23 million building features a 135-foot
bell tower and elements of both classical and Spanish-style architecture.
“We were asked to embody all of Catholic architecture in one
building,” quipped architect Duncan Stroik, adding that the
chapel’s cruciform shape, dome and interior with columns are
all traditional, but that very few buildings have all three.
Saturday’s event, which included a Mass celebrated by Cardinal
Roger Mahony, capped more than 10 years of planning and fundraising
and 3 1/2 years of construction.
The chapel, which seats up to 650, is at the west end of the academic
quadrangle of the campus and is its most prominent feature, a fact
those present saw as significant.
“Our whole college is centered around our Catholicism,”
said Liam Ryan, 22, a senior from Shaver Lake. “The chapel
symbolizes that, and it is a good sort of symbolism.”
Thomas Aquinas College, a Catholic liberal arts school north of
Santa Paula, has a student body of about 300. Students study the
great works of literature through the Socratic method, by reading,
discussing and challenging one another.
“It’s the only college like this in the United States
and I dearly love it,” said alumna Erika Gray Klemmer, who
came from Michigan to attend the celebration. “It gives students
a foundation so that they can go anywhere and do anything.”
Klemmer said alumni visit the college on a regular basis and that
she and her husband even stopped by on their honeymoon for a few
days.
A crowd of about 350 gathered in the warm sunshine in front of
the chapel to hear speeches by college officials and donors on Saturday.
“This is the largest and most ornate of all the buildings
on campus,” said college President Thomas Dillon. “This
signifies that Christ and his church are at the center of all we
do and that we intend to give our best to God.”
Dozens of priests and monks in the robes of their orders gathered
near Mahony, their garments fluttering in the breeze.
The college is noted for its contribution to the Catholic priesthood,
counting 42 alumni who have become ordained.
“This kind of education is conducive to a life spent serving
others,” said the Rev. Charbel Grbavac, a priest from St. Michael’s
Abbey in Orange County. “People say a liberal arts education
is not practical, but when you study God, you are studying the greatest
thing there is.”
The ceremony ended with the keys to the new building being presented
to Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, who asked the campus chaplain,
the Rev. Cornelius Buckley, to open the doors so those assembled
could enter for the celebration of Mass.
“Go within his gates giving thanks,” said Mahony.
This article originally appeared in the Ventura County Star
on March 8, 2009. Reprinted from venturacountystar.com with
express permission.
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