Cardinal Ouellet to Preside at
Thomas Aquinas College's 2009 Commencement
(May 5, 2009)
 SANTA
PAULA, Calif. - His Eminence Marc Cardinal Ouellet will preside
over commencement ceremonies at Thomas Aquinas College on Saturday
May 16, 2009. The Archbishop of Quebec, Canada, Cardinal Ouellet
will serve as principal celebrant and homilist of the Baccalaureate
Mass, and he will deliver the commencement address.
By resolution of Thomas Aquinas College's Board of Governors, Cardinal
Ouellet will also be awarded the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion,
the college's highest honor, established by its Board of Governors
in 1975. The resolution is given in recognition that "His Eminence
Marc Cardinal Ouellet has shown an exemplary loyalty and devotion
to the Holy Father and the magisterium of the Church and has worked
tirelessly to proclaim, support, and defend the teachings of the
Church, and to advance the mission of Christ on earth."
The college has a newly appointed interim president following the
tragic death of Dr. Thomas E. Dillon in an automobile accident in
Ireland last month. Says President Peter DeLuca, "We very much
look forward to welcoming His Eminence Cardinal Ouellet to our campus
for this joyful occasion. Our graduating seniors, their families,
and all our guests will be blessed by his priestly presence and
edified by the words of wisdom he will share with us. We will also
be greatly honored to have His Eminence offer, on the morning of
commencement, what will be the first Baccalaureate Mass on the new
altar of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel." The Chapel
was dedicated by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony,
on March 7, 2009.
Thomas Aquinas College expects each of its 71 seniors, who hail
from 22 states and three foreign countries, to receive a bachelor
of arts degree in liberal arts this year. The Baccalaureate Mass
will begin at 9:00 a.m., and will be followed by commencement exercises
at 11:00 a.m.
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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