quinas A C s o a l m l Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter e o g h e T Fall 2020 F id m es tu Q llec Volume 48 Issue 2 uaerens Inte “The Work to Which We Have Been Called” College Gratefully Resumes In-Person Classes on Both Coasts ust months after being sent home early last spring, hold our classes, Masses, and lectures outside,” says Dr. Jafter weeks of lockdown and countless hours on Goyette. “And once we were able to move classes inside Zoom, the students of Thomas Aquinas College returned again, our tutors wore masks and sat several feet back from to their campuses for in-person instruction in August — the discussion tables. We’ve even had to serve faculty and with a palpable sense of relief, gratitude, and joy. staff meals in a location separate from the students, which “The start of a new academic year always brings much is not our custom, but if the alternative is going back to excitement, but not like this,” observes Dr. John J. Goy- the online learning of last spring, we’ll take it!” ette, dean of the California campus. “After being away for The successful resumption of in-person classes is a so long, and seeing their friends at other schools unable testament to months of hard work on the part of the Col- to return to their campuses, our students know just how lege’s administrators and Medical Advisory Board. “The blessed they are to be doing the hard but important work reopening plan we used for the start of the academic year of Catholic liberal education. And they are more than is modeled after the one we adopted for the High School willing to bear whatever burdens are necessary to make Summer Program,” says Dean Goyette. “More than 100 that happen.” Dr. Katherine Gardner leads a class in one of many teenagers from across the country came to both campuses Those burdens have been many: Before coming to makeshift outdoor classrooms on the California campus for two weeks and — working under these protocols — campus, all students had to test negative for the COVID- this fall. we did not have a single infection. That was a very encour- 19 virus. For their first week, they wore masks and kept aging sign to us that we could safely re-open in the fall.” six feet apart from one another. They could only inter- In Massachusetts, where infection rates have gen- So far, the strategy has worked once again. mingle freely and unmasked after clearing a second erally been lower, and faculty and their families live on “By God’s grace, we have yet to experience any infec- round of testing, after which they could leave campus campus, fewer precautions have been necessary. “Given tions, let alone outbreaks, and for that we are deeply only for the most important of reasons. our small size, and by barring off-campus visitors, we thankful,” says Dr. McLean. “The College owes a tremen- “The restrictions that our students have had to endure have been able to effectively function as a single house- dous debt of gratitude to our Medical Advisory Board, have been onerous but worth the cost,” says President hold,” explains Dr. Thomas J. Kaiser, dean of Thomas to the parents who have entrusted their children to our Michael F. McLean. “Protecting their safety — as well as Aquinas College, New England. “So we have been able to care, to the benefactors who have enabled us to shoulder that of our faculty and staff, their families, and our neigh- worship, dine, and conduct classes pretty much the same the additional costs, and to our students and tutors, who bors — is of paramount concern. We have also had to be as we always do, which is a great blessing.” have persevered under trying circumstances. Thanks to vigilant in upholding all applicable safety regulations in In California, more restrictive local ordinances have the dedication of many, we have been able to resume the California and Massachusetts, so as to ensure the requi- required more extensive modifications to the College’s work to which we have been called.” site government approvals to reopen both campuses.” routines. “For most of the semester, we were required to “Come, Follow Me, and Do Not be Afraid” College Opens Year with Small but Joyful Convocations on Both Coasts aunching its 49th year amidst a pan- Ldemic, Thomas Aquinas College observed Convocation 2020 in ways both subdued and exuberant: The ceremonies were less grand than in years past, with neither friends nor parents in attendance. Yet the quieter events did little to dampen the spirits of 138 freshmen, who — despite the requisite masking and social distancing — were delighted not only to come together for in-person instruction, but to commence their four-year experi- ence of Catholic liberal education. “These things are obviously important and will be well attended to,” said Presi- full of various adventures and opportuni- Chaplain Rev. Greg Markey leading him, Walshe, O.Praem. (’94), a professor of dent Michael F. McLean of the health and ties; so be joyful, be at peace, above all else the new tutor and alumnus made the philosophy at St. Michael’s Abbey semi- safety precautions that students on both be thankful,” His Excellency told fresh- Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity, nary in Silverado, California. “We com- coasts would be undertaking. “But they men at the subsequent Matriculation Cer- promising obedience to the teachings of mend the beginning and the end of the are for the sake of the real work of Thomas emony held in the Moody Auditorium. the Catholic Church. school year to our Blessed Virgin Mary,” Aquinas College — the formation of your “As students of Thomas Aquinas College, Just two days later and 3,000 miles to Fr. Sebastian told the incoming students. minds, hearts, and souls in imitation of you have no reason to walk into the future the west, the College held its California “So call upon Our Lady to come and put Christ and in accordance with the teach- confused and unsettled, because you have Convocation on August 24. Some 102 her mantle over this school and protect us ing authority of the Catholic Church.” been prepared well to respond to Jesus’ freshmen, drawn from 24 states and 5 during the time that we study here.” In New England, the College wel- invitation of ‘Come, follow me’ and ‘Do countries, signed their names to the cam- On both campuses, the culmination of comed 36 members of the Class of 2024, not be afraid.’” pus registry at an outdoor Matriculation the days’ events came when Dr. McLean hailing from 19 states and 3 countries, on As Director of Admissions Jon Daly ceremony held on the academic quad- proclaimed the start of the academic year a balmy August 22. The day began with called them by name, the freshmen came rangle. Joining the new students were two — to which students responded with Mass in Our Mother of Perpetual Help forward, one at a time, to sign the cam- new tutors, Dr. Joshua Lim and Dr. Scott loud and sustained applause. In gratitude, Chapel, with the Most Rev. Robert Joseph pus registry, thus beginning their tenure Strader (’97), whom Head Chaplain Rev. they, along with members of the faculty McManus, S.T.D., Bishop of the neigh- as students at Thomas Aquinas College, Paul Raftery, O.P., led in the Profession of and Board of Governors, then exited their boring diocese of Worcester, serving as New England. The College also welcomed Faith and Oath of Fidelity. respective ceremonies, joyfully singing the principal celebrant and homilist. a new member of the East Coast teaching Presiding over the day’s events was an “Immaculate Mary” on their way. “Today you begin a new academic year faculty, Dr. John McCarthy (’11). With old friend of the College, Rev. Sebastian thomasaquinas.edu | 800–634–9797 “The Real Work of Thomas Aquinas College” President McLean’s Address at Matriculation 2020 By Michael F. McLean, Ph.D. have all, to one degree or other, missed doctrines of the Catholic faith; our goal President, Thomas Aquinas College the sacramental life and the life of genu- is to increase our understanding of these ine Catholic worship. This absence has starting points to the extent we can and to ow wonderful it is to see all of reminded me of something Alexis de deepen our knowledge and love of God. Hyou; how wonderful it is to gather Tocqueville wrote in his great work, Beginning with the study of sacred together in person, leaving Zoom behind Democracy in America — a work you will Scripture and culminating in the study of to pursue the great work of Catholic lib- consider here in Senior Seminar. some of the most important parts of the eral education. We welcome you, we Among many other things, Toc- Summa Theologiae, your study of theology thank you for joining us, and we thank queville is concerned with religion and leads to the contemplation of the central your parents for entrusting us with your its essential role in American democracy. mysteries and doctrines of the Catholic care, safety, and moral and intellectual In a remarkable passage, he says that faith. Assuming that this study has been formation. “religion is the first of America’s political enriched by the sacramental and devo- We are in the midst of challenging institutions.” tional life provided by the College, it will times. Having to suspend in-person edu- “Religion’s principal advantage,” he bring you closer to the Father, Son, and cation last spring was painful for faculty continues, “is to provide clear answers Holy Spirit and deepen your faith, hope, and students alike; especially so for our to fundamental questions” — he means and charity.