Deceased President and
Primate of Canada Receive Awards at
Thomas Aquinas College Commencement
(June 8, 2009)
 SANTA
PAULA, Calif.-On Saturday, May 16, 2009, 69 young men and women
received the degree of bachelor of arts in liberal arts at Thomas
Aquinas College's annual commencement ceremonies. Also during that
event, the college's Governors took the unusual step of awarding
the school's highest honor, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion,
to two recipients-to the commencement speaker, Marc Cardinal Ouellet,
metropolitan archbishop of Quebec and primate of Canada, as well
as to Dr. Thomas E. Dillon, the school's recently deceased president.
The Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion was established in 1975 as a
means of specially recognizing those Catholics who have demonstrated
by their lives and work an extraordinary dedication to God and His
Holy Catholic Church, unfailing adherence to the Magisterium, and
influential leadership in advancing the teachings of the Church.
The award is customarily given at commencement each year to the
presiding prelate.
The day began at 9:00 a.m. with a baccalaureate Mass of the Holy
Spirit in the newly dedicated chapel of Our Lady of the Most Holy
Trinity, where Cardinal Ouellet delivered the homily. Addressing
the faculty and students assembled, he said, "You are one body
in one spirit. Unity of faith and commitment to the truth are distinguishing
marks of this young but very promising educational institution.
May the spirit of the living heart of Jesus overflow into your heart
though sincere faith. May your whole life be a river of living water
flowing from your union with the heart of Jesus and the immaculate
heart of Mary, Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity."
Commencement itself began shortly after 11:00 a.m. on the academic
quadrangle, across from the new chapel. Class speaker, Simon Noster
of Alberta, Canada, commented on the appreciation he and his classmates
had developed of the importance of service to a well-ordered community
life such as the one they had experienced during the past four years.
Referring to "the loss of our beloved president, Dr. Thomas
Dillon," he noted that "it would be impossible to speak
about servants of the community without remembering this great man."
Newly elected chairman of the board of governors, Mr. R. James Wensley,
then took the podium. He recalled the tragic car accident in Ireland
one month earlier that claimed the life of Dr. Thomas E. Dillon,
who had been a member of the teaching faculty for the past 38 years,
and president of the college the past 18 years. Noting Dr. Dillon's
steadfast fidelity to the magisterium of the Church and his tireless
self-sacrifice in advancing Thomas Aquinas College, Mr. Wensley
awarded him posthumously the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion. Before
asking Dr. Dillon's wife, Terri, to come forward to receive the
medallion, Mr. Wensley explained, "There is only one person
who knows all the countless sacrifices that Dr. Dillon made for
Thomas Aquinas College in the years that he served it. She knows
them because she made them with him. And so it seems to me most
fitting that Tom's wife, Terri, receive this medallion now on behalf
of her beloved husband."
Mr. Wensley next introduced Cardinal Ouellet to the assembled graduates,
their families and friends, and faculty members, speaking of the
courage this prince of the Church has exhibited in defense of both
the natural law and Church teaching concerning pivotal issues like
traditional marriage and the sacredness of human life at all its
stages. He also cited the cardinal's leadership in hosting the recent
International Eucharistic Congress and in heading up the meeting
of the Synod of Bishops in Rome last fall, at the request of His
Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. In recognition of Cardinal Ouellet's
"exemplary loyalty and devotion to the Holy Father and the
magisterium of the Church" and his tireless work "to proclaim,
support, and defend the teachings of the Church, and to advance
the mission of Christ on earth," Mr. Wensley announced that
the board of governors had resolved to award His Eminence the Saint
Thomas Aquinas Medallion.
Following sustained applause for the visiting prelate, Cardinal
Ouellet then delivered a deeply thoughtful reflection on the Blessed
Mother. Explaining that the name of the college's chapel - Our Lady
of the Most Holy Trinity - had inspired his opening remarks "to
the whole Church" at last fall's Synod of Bishops in Rome,
His Eminence went on "to highlight some basic characteristics
of our relationship to God in the light of the Marian paradigm."
Earlier during the commencement exercises, Mr. Wensley inducted
Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Smeed of Bakersfield, California, into the school's
Order of St. Albert. The order was established some years ago to
honor those benefactors who support the college to an outstanding
degree. Mr. Wensley presented the Smeeds with a cast bronze bust
modeled on the statue of St. Albert that stands before the college's
science hall, saying this is "a sign of our deep gratitude
to the Smeeds for their outstanding generosity and for their partnership
in the noble enterprise of providing young people with a genuine,
Catholic liberal education."
ABOUT CARDINAL OUELLET: His Eminence Cardinal Marc
Ouellet holds a bachelor of arts in education from Université
Laval, a licence in theology from the Université de Montréal,
a licence in philosophy at St. Thomas Aquinas Pontifical University,
and a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Gregorian University.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1968, and in 2001 His Holiness
Pope John Paul II ordained him a bishop and appointed him secretary
to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
Cardinal Ouellet has served as consultor to the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith and to the Congregation for the Clergy.
He is currently consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship
and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a member of the Pontifical
Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, and an advisor
to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He is also a member
of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, the Congregation for Catholic
Education, and the Pontifical Council of Cardinals for the study
of the organizational and economic affairs of the Holy See.
Cardinal Ouellet was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Quebec
in 2002, and Pope John Paul II elevated him to the Sacred College
of Cardinals in 2003. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as
General Relator to the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod
of Bishops on the word of God in the life and mission of the Church.
ABOUT THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE:
Ranked the #5 "Best Value" in the country for 2008 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.
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