37 and Counting

THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE, July 7 — With the ordination of three new priests this summer, Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., now boasts 37 alumni priests.

The priests serve across the United States and abroad, including dioceses in New York, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Jersey and Argentina. Others are in religious orders, including Benedictines, Cistercians, Norbertines, Oblates of Wisdom and Oblates of the Virgin Mary, according to a press release from the school. Many are members of the Legionaries of Christ.

“We're not a seminary,” college president Thomas Dillon said. “But we recognize that despite our human frailty, the college's unwavering fidelity to Christ and his Church … provides fertile soil for the cultivation of religious vocations.”

Unconstitutional Program?

WNDU (Indiana), July 8 — Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education program has come into question after the American Jewish Congress filed a lawsuit claiming the program is unconstitutional.

The program trains college graduates to teach in low-income parochial schools, the South Bend, Ind., news station WNDU reported. It is partially funded by the government-supported AmeriCorps.

A district court has ruled the Alliance for Catholic Education program unconstitutional because it blurs the line between the separation of church and state, the news station noted. The university says it plans to appeal.

Financial Boost

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 9 — Jesuit-run Xavier University in Cincinnati is $2.5 million richer after a former television repairman left part of his estate to the school he graduated from in 1968.

Robert Borcer of Cincinnati obtained his master's degree in English from the school to begin a teaching career. He died last year at age 90 and had no children or surviving relatives, the Associated Press reported.

College officials said the university would use the money to support the biology, chemistry and physics departments at the school.

Philosopher Punished

THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 8 — A college philosophy professor who says officials punished him for saying his philosophy was based on Catholic teaching has filed a federal lawsuit saying the school violated his rights to free speech and religion.

James Tuttle, who teaches at Lakeland Community College outside Cleveland, filed the lawsuit June 30, the Washington Times reported.

He said school administrators cut his teaching load and salary and did not renew his contract after a student complained about comments he made in class and on his syllabus, where he refers to himself as a “Catholic Christian philosopher and theologian.”

Prep School Preparations

SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE (Florida), July 2 — When the Diocese of Venice, Fla., closed its special-education school, a parent of one of the students decided to start his own.

Ave Maria Preparatory School is scheduled to open in August for middle- and high-school students who have trouble with memorization, attention, processing information, language organization or social skills, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.

The school is named after Ave Maria University in nearby Naples, which doesn't financially support the school but whose lawyers helped the prep school's founders obtain nonprofit corporation status. Three university students will also be working at the school.