California's "Thomas" Fire

If you've been following the news out of California, you have no doubt heard of the "Thomas" fire, which had its point of origin just a mile or so from Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) in Santa Paula, California. So far it has burned well over 100,000 acres, all the way to the coast near Ventura.

The "Thomas" fire -- from downtown Santa Paula

To ensure the safety of the college's faculty and students, the college was evacuated several days ago. But remarkably, even though the fire began at the edge of TAC's property, and almost surrounded the school, TAC has been spared. I am convinced this is the result of the prayers of thousands who have stormed heaven on behalf of the college, its faculty and its student body.

The fire: from TAC campus, before evacuation

TAC is an exceptional school, a solidly orthodox, Catholic college where the students study the works of the world's greatest thinkers and writers, from Aristotle to Aquinas to Descartes, from Euclid to Newton to Einstein, from Shakespeare to Austen to Joyce. The TAC classroom is not a lecture hall; rather it offers a venue in which the students learn from and share each other's thoughts and ideas as they study the works of the great minds of the past. Our elder daughter, Erin, graduated from TAC in 1993, and I can think of no better college for a young person who wants a solid education that will prepare him for life and further education.

Thomas Aquinas College Campus

As I recall, the school was once threatened by a fire during my daughter's time there. I remember her telling me that, as the fire approached, faculty and students took part in a Eucharistic procession around the college's property, praying that God would protect the college from the ravages of the fire. He did.

The fire: in the hills above TAC

Please pray that TAC remains unscathed; and pray for all those now threatened by the many fires raging through Southern California. 

Our "New" Catholic Colleges and Universities

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Sean Cardinal O'Malley, the Archbishop of Boston and a man for whom I have much love and respect, visited Florida last week and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Ave Maria University during their commencement ceremony. Ave Maria is a relatively new Catholic university located in Ave Maria, Florida, near Naples. If you would like to read Cardinal Sean's comments on his visit, you can do so by visiting his blog: Cardinal Sean's Blog. (In the spirit of full disclosure, let me add that Cardinal Sean -- then the Bishop of Fall River -- ordained me and my class of brother deacons back in 1997.)

Ave Maria University has grown rapidly since it first opened its doors in 2003, thanks to the vision and generosity of Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza. Like so many of the new Catholic colleges and universities that have sprung up around the country, Ave Maria is faithful to the magisterial teaching of the Church and committed to providing its students a solid liberal arts education guided by Catholic principles. The school now has nearly 800 students on its Florida campus, plus another 500 in Nicaragua. It also has a law school located in nearby Naples. One of our parishioners, a bright young man who is graduating from Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala, Florida, will attend Ave Maria University in the fall. I know he and his family are thrilled that he has been accepted and will become a part of this thriving Catholic educational community.

As I mentioned above, Ave Maria University is just one of a number of relatively new Catholic colleges that were formed to fill the void created when so many of our ostensibly "Catholic" colleges and universities decided to sever their Catholic roots and become instead secular institutions with Catholic-sounding names. This decision to separate themselves from the Church and repudiate their duty of obedience to her was a conscious decision made in 1967 when the major Catholic universities declared their autonomy from the Catholic Church in the Land O’Lakes Declaration.  The declaration was the brainchild of Notre Dame's Fr. Theodore Hesburgh who believed that Catholic colleges and universities, to be "effective," should no longer submit to the Church's teaching authority. This was clearly stated by the declaration:

To perform its teaching and research functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself.

As a result, these schools, acting like rebellious teenagers, quickly began to dismantle their core curricula and separate themselves from the teachings of Mother Church. Within a few short years they became indistinguishable from most secular institutions. This left the believing Catholic with few choices when it came to higher education...until Ave Maria University and other similar schools arrived on the scene.

In addition to Ave Maria, this new crop of colleges and universities includes: Franciscan University of Steubenville -- (1946) Steubenville, OH; Thomas Aquinas College -- (1971) Santa Paula, CA (from which our elder daughter graduated in 1993); Christendom College -- (1977) Front Royal, VA; Magdalen College -- (1974) Warner, NH; Thomas More College -- (1978) Merrimack, NH; Wyoming Catholic College -- (2007) Lander, WY...and many others whose names escape me right now. If you're unfamiliar with these schools, just visit their websites and you'll quickly recognize how different and how Catholic they truly are.

Over the past 30 years or more I've watched these schools, and others like them, grow and flourish, supported by those who realize there is a great, unmet need for rigorous Catholic higher education that still maintains a strong Catholic identity. This, of course, is exactly what Pope John Paul II demanded in his apostolic constitution, Ex Corde Ecclesiae ("Out of the Heart of the Church"), which he issued twenty years ago in August 1990. It's a wonderful document that places the Catholic institution of higher learning in its proper context where the search for the truth and its transmission are the institution's primary responsibility. This is a responsibility that makes little sense to many of those who lead and teach in our secular institutions where relativistic thinking has made the search for truth meaningless.

I encourage all faithful Catholics not only to support these institutions and others like them, but also to encourage our young Catholic students to consider them as they make their plans for higher education.

Blessings...

Thomas Aquinas College - Chapel Virtual Tour

Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California is among the very best of Catholic colleges. Founded in 1971 it has kept its Catholic identity and provided undergraduates with a remarkable education based on the "great books" of Western civilization. I have a personal connection with the college because our elder daughter graduated from T.A.C. in 1993. Click here to visit the college's website: Thomas Aquinas College.

T.A.C. has grown steadily over the past forty years and one of the most beautiful additions to the campus is Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, dedicated last year (see the photo below).

 

The video I've embedded below was made as a fund-raising vehicle prior to the construction of the chapel.  Obviously it was successful. But equally important, the video's interesting computer-generated tour gives us a glimpse into the very best of church architecture. It's well worth viewing.

Good News...and Only Good News

I thought it might be worthwhile to spread some good news and let you know that all is not bad in the world. Indeed, despite all the religious, ethnic and ideological hatred that seems to motivate so many folks these days, there are lots of good things happening. Here are a few...

Thomas Aquinas College. Our elder daughter graduated from TAC in 1993, so it's a school about which I am personally familiar. Located in beautiful Santa Paula, California, TAC is truly one of the most remarkable institutions of higher education in the country. Unlike so many nominally Catholic colleges and universities that have pretty much abandoned the Faith, TAC is unashamedly and wholeheartedly Catholic. If you want your child to receive a true liberal education and graduate as a civilized human being who understands the world and the Catholic Faith, you should consider TAC. The demanding curriculum is based on the world's "great books" so the students read, study and discuss the originals and not the watered-down pablum served up by most textbooks. I can guarantee you one thing: you won't find any over-the-hill Marxist ideologues among the faculty. I include this among my good news reports because TAC is growing and thriving and its graduates are doing remarkable things in the world and the Church.

US News & World Report in its annual college guide, America's Best Colleges 2010, ranked TAC among the best liberal arts colleges in the country. Click here to read more. And if you'd like to read a recent article (in a secular newspaper) about TAC, click here. I expect you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA

ELCA Lutherans not of one mind...not by a long shot. As I mentioned in this blog a few weeks ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), at its main meeting in Minneapolis last month, voted to approve actively homosexual clergy and the blessing of gay marriages. As a result, a significant number of ELCA Lutherans who disagree with the vote have decided to get together to address their response. So many Lutherans registered to attend the conference that the group (Lutheran CORE) had to move it to a larger venue, a Catholic church! In the words of the group's director, "It is wonderfully ironic that Lutherans who started 500 years ago as a movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church would now return to a Catholic Church to re-form themselves." This is all good news because it shows that many of our Lutheran brothers and sisters have kept their sanity and their faith. To read an article in the Washington Times about the conference, click here. For more information on the ELCA opposition group, Lutheran CORE, click here.

We are all Evangelists... we are all missionaries. Pope Benedict, in his message for World Mission Day, affirms that all Catholics are duty bound to assist the mission ad gentes (the mission to the nations). This is especially good news because too many Catholics don't seem to believe they have a responsibility to evangelize, to spread the faith throughout their little slice of the world. Jesus, right before His Ascension, commanded His disciples to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." [Mt 28:19-20] This was a command aimed not only at the apostles, but at all of us. To read the Holy Father's entire message, click here.

Irish Seminarians on the Rise. Good news out of Ireland. Despite all the problems that the Church in Ireland has experienced in recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Irish seminarians. It's been a sad thing to watch the sufferings of the Church in this country that has been so strongly Catholic for so long. How wonderful that an increasing number of men are recognizing and accepting their vocations to the priesthood. Pray for the Church in Ireland. You can read more about this by clicking here.

Enough for now, I will make an effort to spread a bit of good news every week or so. I think we all need to hear it.

Blessings...