By Cassandra Taylor, Publications Assistant
On May 16–17, 2025, the Thomas More College community honored the Senior class at their Baccalaureate Mass, Commencement exercises, and related festivities.
The weekend began on Friday afternoon as the graduates gathered in Mercy Hall for their Senior Thesis presentations. Although they had formally defended their theses to a faculty panel earlier in the month, this event was the Seniors’ opportunity to provide an overview of their research to family and friends. Liam Beecher ’25 commented, “The Senior Thesis is such an important event in a TMC education because it gives each student the opportunity to delve deeply into his own special area of interest and gain confidence as a scholar. It is an extraordinary experience.”
“Writing my thesis was an incredibly fulfilling process,” agreed Brendan McDonald ’25. “Critically, the thesis represents the capstone of a Thomas More education. As I wrote it, I realized that what had seemed to be disparate parts of my study here were coalescing in my mind. In addition to using texts I had not read before, I compiled my thesis readings from the humanities, theology, metaphysics, De Anima, Modern Scientific Thinking, and tutorials on Joseph Ratzinger and methods of scriptural interpretation. In this sense, the entire Thomas More faculty is responsible for my project, in addition to my education, and for that, I am incredibly grateful.”
On Saturday, the festivities began with the Baccalaureate Mass, which was offered for the graduates and their intentions. The Mass was celebrated by Rev. Marc Crilly, OSB, Abbot of Saint Benedict Abbey (Still River, MA), with Fr. Augustine Senz, OSB concelebrating. Beginning his homily with a memory from his first day of Christology class in the seminary, Abbot Crilly posed a difficult question to the soon-to-be-alumni seated in the front rows: “Having just received a good Catholic education here at Thomas More College, our Lord is now asking you, His present disciples: Who do you say that I am?” He encouraged, “Your education, academic as it was, was not just academic, not just a matter of knowing this or that about Jesus. Your professors were goading you on to go beyond knowing about Him, to knowing Him, and we can only truly know Him by loving Him.”
Later that afternoon, the community assembled once again for the graduation exercises. Fr. Augustine delivered a beautiful invocation to open the ceremony before giving the word to Fellow and President William Fahey, PhD. After giving his customary opening remarks, Dr. Fahey conferred an honorary doctorate on this year’s Commencement speaker, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, PhD.
“The point of a liberal education, like the one you all have received here at Thomas More College, is not to tell you that the world is broken, or even that the world has always been broken. It’s to show you why it’s broken and how to fix it,” remarked Dr. Roberts. “What your liberal education liberates you from is hopelessness and helplessness. It gives you the opportunity to be great—to ‘set the world ablaze,’ in the words of Catherine of Siena. And there is no better time than now.” Read the full address here.
The bachelor’s degrees were then conferred on the graduating class, who were presented with their diplomas and hoods by President Fahey, Fellow and Dean Denis Kitzinger, PhD, and Teaching Fellow and Dean of Students Michael Taylor, PhD. Before the ceremony was brought to a close with a benediction from Abbot Crilly, President Fahey delivered his traditional “charge.” After reflecting on the virtue of stability, he turned to the College’s patron, St. Thomas More, as an example. “He never gave in to any separation from Christ,” Dr. Fahey exhorted, continuing:
Going against the stream to his known death, More held his union with Christ and lived out the question of stability joyfully to the end. Your charge is simple: Do that.
Let nothing separate you from the love of Christ, our stability. Remember that there will be trials, but after each trial, there will be a chance for true joy. Remember to rejoice. Remember these past days and this day. Remember the motto of the College: Caritas Congaudet Veritati, “Charity rejoices in the Truth.”
Rejoice. Take what you have received here, which includes rich memories and abiding questions, all of them about the true, the good, and the beautiful. Share the questions with the world, a world in need of good questions so that it can encounter the truth. Bring them to Christ; allow yourself to be brought to Christ, the Source of joy….
God bless you, Seniors. Desire the Truth, know the Truth, rejoice in the Truth. As you do so, remain in Christ until I pray that—after our various journeys and attempts at building stable homes—we will end all striving and, with our Patron, merrily meet in heaven.
For further reading:
Read Kevin Roberts’ Commencement Remarks to the Class of 2025
