Audio: Dean Brian T. Kelly on EWTN’s “Celtic Connections”

Audio:

[audio=Brian Kelly on Celtic Connections 05-28-2016]

Thomas Aquinas College Dean Brian T. Kelly appeared last week on EWTN’s Celtic Connections, a Catholic radio program that addresses current events in Great Britain and Ireland. The host of the interview was none other than one of Dr. Kelly’s sisters, Kathy Sinnott, who represented Ireland’s South constituency in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009. Mrs. Sinnott recently visited the campus for Commencement 2016. Inspired by what she saw, she decided to interview her brother about the nature of Catholic education, particularly in light of a nascent renewal of Catholic higher education that is taking place in Britain and Ireland.

“Thomas Aquinas College was founded by a small group of laymen in the late 1960s at a  time when Catholic liberal education was falling apart,” said Dr. Kelly. “It was groundbreaking, what they did, because they started a small Catholic college de novo, and that was the sort of thing that didn’t happen at that time. They opened their doors at a time when it was unthinkable to start a small Catholic college from scratch, and you can see the fruits of this effort in a host of other small, faithful, orthodox Catholic colleges like Christendom College, Ave Maria University, Wyoming Catholic, and a fairly new effort in Ireland called Newman College.”

The key to the success of a Catholic college, he insisted, was for the institution to embrace the teaching church. Indeed, what doomed so many Catholic schools in the latter part of the 20^th century is precisely that they jettisoned the magisterium under a misguided notion of academic freedom.

“Thomas Aquinas College is an institution that takes education very seriously, and it takes the Catholic faith very seriously. We understand that there is finally no conflict between faith and reason. Jesus Christ is the Way and the Truth and the Life, and every serious education is ultimately aiming at learning something about Him and embracing Him in some way,” said Dr. Kelly. “And so at the College, unlike at most Catholic colleges and institutions in the late 1960s, we do not fear the authority of the Church. We embrace the authority of the Church. We think that is a very important guide toward reaching the truth with some certitude.”