College Announces St. Vincent de Paul Lecture & Concert Series for 2024-25

On Friday nights throughout the 2024-25 academic year, the students of Thomas Aquinas College will have the privilege of attending lectures from some of the nation’s most distinguished scholars — covering a wide range of topics — through the St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series.

The Series, endowed by Barbara and Paul Henkels, complements the College’s classroom Discussion Method and academic program. It also provides for several concerts of classical, operatic, or sacred music, as well as the twice-annual All-College Seminars, in which tutors and students of all classes gather in small groups of 20 to discuss a reading that is not part of the regular curriculum.

“The process for choosing lecturers begins with suggestions from the faculty,” explains Dr. Daniel Gutschke, who heads the lecture committee for the New England campus. “My colleagues have been helpful in putting forward some very excellent speakers for this year.”

The lecture committee takes all the suggestions put forward and creates a list of potential speakers. “In California, we meet in the late spring as a committee to decide whom we would like to invite for the upcoming Lecture and Concert Series,” says Dr. Drew Rosato, head of the lecture committee in Santa Paula. “Usually, by the end of one meeting, we have agreed upon a list of people to invite along with some alternate names in case one or more of the originally chosen lecturers cannot accept the invitation.”

Reasons for choosing certain lecturers vary. Some are experts in the sciences and help to explore the relationship between natural science and theology, such as Dr. Stephen Barr, an acclaimed theoretical physicist whose writings have appeared in First Things, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and many other publications. “Dr. Barr, who has done groundbreaking work in contemporary theoretical physics, is well positioned to discuss what contemporary physics contributes to our understanding of the natural world and how it harmonizes with the teachings of the Church,” says Dr. Gutschke.

Others come to the College to deliver lectures born from years of study, as Dr. Zena Hitz will do in the spring. A tutor at St. John’s College and founder of the Catherine Project, a seminar introduction to the Great Books, Dr. Hitz will speak on what motivates the intellectual life and how to practice it. “We thought it would be nice to have someone reflect on the contours of the intellectual life and how to live it out,” Dr. Rosato says. “Dr. Hitz is excellent at laying out how an intellectual life may be pursued in many different walks of life, not just the educational setting.”

Still others tackle the foundational disciplines studied at Thomas Aquinas College: theology and her handmaid, philosophy. One of many notable speakers addressing these topics this year is Rev. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., assistant professor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies, who has written extensively on the works of the Angelic Doctor. “We were seeking a scholar with a deep knowledge of St. Thomas’s philosophy and theology, and Fr. Cuddy was an obvious choice,” says Dr. Gutschke. “We are especially delighted to be hosting a member of the Order of Preachers, which has done outstanding work in making St. Thomas’s thought known both in the academic world and the culture at large.”

This year, the lecture series sees an alumnus return to the College to lecture after years of continued education and contemplation. Rev. Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem. (’84), who often comes to California as the High School Summer Program chaplain, will present the campus’s St. Thomas Day Lecture. “It’s always great to have the Norbertines visit the College,” says Dr. Rosato. “Fr. Walshe, in particular, has been involved in the life of the California campus, so we are very excited to hear his first lecture in the spring.”

Below is the schedule for the upcoming year. All concerts and events are open to alumni and friends of the College: