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April 20, 2016
10,000 Ojai Road
Santa Paula CA 93060
Contact: Anne Forsyth, Director of ������ý Relations
(805) 525-4417      

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Chair of USCCB Committee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage
to Speak at Thomas Aquinas ������ý Commencement

SANTA PAULA, CA—April 20—On Saturday, May 14, the Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone, archbishop of San Francisco, will serve as commencement speaker at Thomas Aquinas ������ý’s annual graduation exercises. During the event, Archbishop Cordileone, who also heads the USCCB’s subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, will receive the school’s highest award, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion, in recognition of his life-long fidelity and service to the Catholic Church. 

“We are honored and delighted that our long-time friend, Archbishop Cordileone, will be with us for Commencement, especially as this visit comes so soon after the publication of Pope Francis’ recent exhortation on marriage, Amoris Laetitia,”  says Dr. Michael F. McLean, president of the 4-year, Catholic college. “Nationally, Archbishop Cordileone is known for the clarity of his teaching about marriage, the family, and the unborn, and the courageous witness he gives in their defense. In the Bay Area, too, he serves his flock as a faithful shepherd. We very much look forward to His Excellency’s visit and to his remarks at commencement.”

Archbishop Cordileone will address a graduating class of 79 students who hail from across the United States and abroad. Upon completion of the college’s rigorous, 4-year curriculum that includes mathematics, natural science, Latin, literature, philosophy, and theology, each graduate will receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal arts. These new alumni will go on to a wide variety of pursuits including law, medicine, business, military service, education, public policy, and journalism as well as the priesthood and religious life.

Commencement exercises will begin at 11:00 a.m. on May 14 on Thomas Aquinas ������ý’s academic quad. A private Baccalaureate Mass will be offered earlier in the morning.

������ý Thomas Aquinas ������ý

Thomas Aquinas ������ý has developed a solid reputation for academic excellence in the United States and abroad. At Thomas Aquinas ������ý, there are no majors, no minors, or electives because all students acquire a broad and fully integrated liberal education. The ������ý offers one 4-year, classical curriculum that spans the major arts and sciences. Instead of reading textbooks, students read the original works of the greatest thinkers in Western civilization — the Great Books — in all the major disciplines: mathematics, natural science, literature, philosophy, and theology. Rather than listening to lectures, they engage in rigorous Socratic discussions about these works in classes of 15-18 students. The academic life of the college is conducted under the light of the Catholic faith and flourishes within a close-knit community, supported by a vibrant spiritual life. Genuinely committed to upholding civic virtue and leading lives dedicated to the good of others, Thomas Aquinas ������ý graduates enter a wide array of fields where they are a powerful force for good in the Church and in the culture. Well-versed in rational discourse, they become leaders in education, law, medicine, journalism, public policy, military service, and business. In addition, a steady 10% of alumni go on to the priesthood or religious life.