After a year of waiting due to gathering restrictions imposed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Assumption recognized the Class of 2020 during a combined Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement ceremony on May 15 at the DCU Center in downtown Worcester. The Class of 2020, who received their diplomas last year after a virtual Conferral of Degrees ceremony, was the last to graduate under the name Assumption College.
Robert Royal, Ph.D., founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute and editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing, urged the 270 graduates in attendance (of the 450 members of the Class of 2020) to embrace and share the soul of their liberal arts education.
“To become a student of the liberal arts has less to do with the subject matter that you study … and more to do with matters of character and even with matters, I would argue, of the soul,” he said.
Royal shared that to study the liberal arts means to try to understand what it means to be liber, which in Latin translates as “to be free.” “It may sound simple enough … but to be truly free is not a simple matter,” he explained. “It requires you to take into account the limitations of the world around you, the limitations of yourself, the different perspectives, and the different ways of understanding things that are presented to you.”
He explained that this is done with humility and wisdom, and it’s where the liberal arts come to our rescue. “All of our practical training, though intended to fit us for careers, for jobs, to be able to take care of ourselves, our families, our com- munities, all of those need to take their bearings from what it means to be liber,” he said. “In other words, we don’t simply do these things [for the sole sake of a job]; we do them because the things that we do matter. They matter if we care about what true liberty is and how to implement it and extend it to other people as well.”
Quoting the great St. John Henry Newman, Royal emphasized the importance of infusing soul into one’s work. “We focus a lot on skills and training these days … but we fail to pay sufficient attention to the formation of character, and even the soul, in order to be worthy of the term liber,” he said, sharing that Newman said the match for the growing technical power in the world was an increment of soul. “We need a spiritual power that is equal to the technical and economic power that we’re developing in the world. You are all now part of that effort to develop that increment of soul. And never lose sight of that because that means you will never lose sight of purpose in your life.”
Assumption President Francesco C. Cesareo, Ph.D., shared his hope that the Class of 2020 graduates were living meaningful, purpose-filled lives, living their vocations with passion, and con- tributing to the common good during the time since they completed their studies. “I hope that you are living the motto of Assumption, ‘… until Christ be formed in you,’ every day of your life,” he shared. “If we are able to celebrate these fruits of the education you received at Assumption, today and throughout the rest of your life, then we can be confident that we fulfilled our mission and that you were transformed in both subtle and profound ways while you were a student at Assumption.”
Valedictorian Lauren Robichaud ’20, G’21 also shared the hope that her fellow graduates were making use of their Assumption educations. During her address, she compared their Assumption education to a lighthouse, a navigational tool that provides refuge in the darkness, “sturdy and unwavering, the epitome of strength and an enduring symbol,” she explained. “As we continue the next of the times, I ask that we not forget the foundation that Assumption helped us to forge. I ask that we begin by suspending our urge to look for a lighthouse on the horizon to provide guiding light, and instead challenge ourselves to become that light.”
Royal and James T. Brett, president and chief executive officer of The New England Council, received honorary degrees at the ceremony. Royal was recognized for his dedication to exploring and sharing the essential fundamentals of faith and reason, while Brett was honored for his meaningful contribu- tions that have benefited millions of individuals throughout New England.
