2018 BACCALAUREATE MASS
and COMMENCEMENT
Celebrating the Largest Class of Graduates in Thirty Years
Maggie Fischer
W
ith a record number of graduates this
year, Sacred Heart Major Seminary’s
Ninety-Fourth Baccalaureate Mass and Com-
mencement celebrated more than degrees on
April 28.
The Class of 2018 marks the largest graduating class since Sa-
cred Heart’s re-founding as a Major Seminary in 1988, with 114
students receiving certificates, diplomas, or degrees.
Dr. David Twellman, assistant dean of studies and registrar,
is an influential part of the leadership responsible for arranging
Commencement. He credits the seminary’s healthy development
as a growing response to God’s prompting for pursuit of the
truth, and the need of formation to prepare students to go out
and transform the world.
“The core thing is that here they learn what it means to love
God and to know God’s truth, and can then go out and apply
that,” he said.
While the seminary’s primary mission is the formation of
priests, the majority of the graduating class are actually lay people.
Dr. Edward Peters, professor of canon law and the Edmund
Cardinal Szoka chair of faculty development, and his family are a
perfect example of Sacred Heart graduates. His wife, Angela, and
two children, Teresa and Robert, received credentials of Catholic
Theology, Music Ministry and Philosophy, and Sacred Theology,
28
Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Fall 2018
respectively, during this year’s ceremony. Not only that, they are
following in the footsteps of their older siblings, Thomas and
Catherine, who are also Sacred Heart graduates .
“These are people who are hungry for the faith. They are study-
ing to do the humble tasks of serving God’s people and serving
in God’s name,” said Dr. Twellman.
The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit,
gave a powerful homily, calling the class of 2018 to this humble
task of service through sharing and unleashing the Gospel.
“My own experience is that there is no better way to possess
what I seek to know and understand, than to share it. And I’m
sure you have that great satisfaction today,” he said.
He compared salvation to rescue and emphasized the Eucha-
rist’s role in evangelization.
“The work of Jesus Christ that you seek to advance in the world
is made present here under the appearances of bread and wine.
The rescue of the world is most visibly and effectively present here
at the Eucharist. And the Eucharist is the manifestation of the
aim of which all of your efforts are focused: to bring people into
the Eucharist,” Archbishop Vigneron said.
Although Commencement symbolized the end of a chapter,
president and rector of Sacred Heart, Msgr. Todd J. Lajiness re-
minded the class of 2018 that this formation, this love for the
Lord they seek each day, is the work of a lifetime.
Maggie Fischer is a Catholic freelance writer and editor based in Omaha,
Nebraska.