By Cassandra Taylor, Publications Assistant
On Saturday, May 13, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the Thomas More College community gathered to honor the Class of 2023 during their Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement ceremony.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered by Fr. David Pignato (Diocese of Fall River, MA) and was concelebrated by two long-time friends of the College, Msgr. Richard Kelley (Pelham, NH; retired) and Fr. Donald Brick, OCD (Brighton, MA). “St. Thomas More was inspired to accept persecution because he wanted Christ to find faith in his heart. The same desire should inspire each of us to remain faithful, regardless of whether others in our own time do the same,” Fr. Pignato exhorted during his homily. “We pray at this Baccalaureate Mass today that when Our Lord returns in glory, He will find the flame of faith alive in the souls of you, the graduates of the Class of 2023.”
After Mass, all gathered for lunch in the festive tent behind the barn (or under Ambrose’s shady, flowering branches) before reconvening for the graduation exercises. Commencement began with an invocation by Fr. Pignato, which was followed by brief introductory remarks (and some customary roasting at the Seniors’ expense) by President William Fahey. An honorary doctorate was conferred upon this year’s speaker, author and editor Sohrab Ahmari, who then addressed the graduating Seniors. (An adapted version of Mr. Ahmari’s remarks—his first Commencement address—can be read at The American Conservative.) “To have spent four years immersed in the Catholic tradition of liberal arts; four years reading the great books in a coherent order, closely, under the guidance of teachers who love those books, and who love you, their student,” reflected Mr. Ahmari, “—what a gift that must have been.”
For the TMC community, few embody this love of learning, this love of the student, as much as Dr. Patrick Powers (1943–2022), who passed into eternity just before Christmas. In recognition, not only was Dr. Powers posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate—accepted on his behalf by his loving wife, Mary Ann—he was also given an undergraduate degree together with the rest of the graduating class. President Fahey noted that in Dr. Powers’ eyes, the undergraduate degree was the more telling, the more important, of those that can be earned by a student. It was fitting then that he should be counted among the Class of 2023, with whom he completed his over fifty-year-long teaching career, to which he dedicated himself until the last possible moment.
After the honorary degrees were conferred, the big moment for the graduates had arrived. One by one, in front of their teachers, peers, and family members, they stood to receive their diplomas and hoods from the hands of President Fahey, Dean Walter J. Thompson, and Dean of Students Dr. Michael Dominic Taylor. President Fahey then delivered his customary “charge” to the now-alumni, saying, “Take what you have received here at this College and remember the best of it. Be witnesses to this world that is so sad and so in need of the true, the good, and the beautiful; so in need of an encounter with Christ.” He encouraged the graduates to help bring the world “back to the source of joy,” stating, “One can do that if one is united with Christ and others in charity. One can do that if the mind, the will, the heart, the body, have been educated in goodness with an eye towards happiness.”
After a final benediction from Fr. Pignato, the graduates gathered together on the lawn of the White House for a final round of picture-taking, cap-throwing, hugs, and tears. This year’s afterglow and post-graduation festivities included a contradance, which featured New England mainstay Dudley Laufman backed by The Contra Banditos—a fitting celebration to round out the Class of 2023’s time at the College.
As the Class of 2023 settles into the next stage of their lives, we would like to leave them with these closing words from the Presidential Charge: “Desire the truth, know the truth, rejoice in the truth. And as you do, do so remaining in Christ, until I pray, with our patron, ‘we may merrily meet in Heaven.’”
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