Thomas Aquinas College's Chapel Cornerstone to be Blessed by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome
(August 4, 2008)
 SANTA
PAULA, Calif.-On Wednesday, September 3, 2008, the cornerstone of
Thomas Aquinas College's newest building, Our Lady of the Most Holy
Trinity Chapel, will be blessed by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.
In attendance will be chairman of the board of governors, Maria
Grant; her husband and the executive director of the Dan Murphy
Foundation, Richard Grant; members of the board of governors and
their spouses; and president of the college Dr. Thomas Dillon. The
blessing will occur just after the Holy Father's Wednesday audience
at St. Peter's Basilica.
Says Dr. Dillon, "It will be a singular honor to present our
chapel's cornerstone to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, and we will
be most grateful for his blessing. To have had Pope John Paul II's
blessing on this chapel project as it began, and now our present
Holy Father's blessing as it nears completion, is a special grace."
Transportation and handling of the approximately 700-pound limestone
cornerstone will be under the direction of Excel, a division of
DHL; a generous donation from one of the college's benefactors will
cover related charges.
In the evening following the blessing of the cornerstone, a dinner
celebration with members of the board of governors will be held
at Residenzia Paulo VI with His Eminence Cardinal Francis
Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline
of the Sacraments, and Cardinal Francis Stafford, Apostolic Peniteniary,
as the guests of honor.
Set inside the cornerstone will be a capsule containing a list
with the names of all the benefactors to Our Lady of the Most Holy
Trinity Chapel-more than 2,300 to date. The cost of this unique
building-traditional in design, but modern in materials and techniques-is
$22 million. Please visit the college's website to view design drawings,
current photos, and an 8-minute "virtual tour" DVD, by clicking here.
ABOUT THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE:
Ranked the #5 "Best Value"
in the country for 2008 and 2009 among all private institutions
in the United States by The Princeton Review, Thomas Aquinas College
is a four-year Catholic liberal arts college with a fully-integrated
curriculum composed exclusively 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 Socratic 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.
|
