Santa Clara University

Graduate Commencement Ceremony
Friday, June 16, 7:30 p.m., Leavey Event Center
Commencement speaker:  Peter Steinfels, former senior religion correspondent for The New York Times and author of A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony
Saturday, June 17, 8:30 a.m., Buck Shaw Stadium
Commencement speaker: Thomas Reese, S.J., a widely recognized expert on the Catholic Church and former editor of America magazine.

About the speakers

Peter Steinfels

Peter Steinfels currently directs the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture with his wife, Margaret O’Brien Steinfels. He has served as an editor of Commonweal magazine, the independent journal published by Catholic lay people, and The Hastings Center Report, the leading journal of medical and scientific ethics. He has been a visiting professor at Georgetown University, University of Notre Dame, and the University of Dayton. Peter and his wife will receive honorary degrees from the university at the ceremony.

“Peter and Margaret have enhanced our society through their ongoing work to educate the American public about the importance of spiritual life and their careful analysis of the role of the Catholic Church in American society. We believe that our students and their families can learn from Peter and Margaret’s knowledge, wisdom, and experience,” said SCU President Paul Locatelli, S.J.

Thomas Reese, S.J.

Thomas Reese, S.J. was editor of America magazine, a leading Jesuit weekly and Web site, from June 1998 to May 2005.  He is author of, among other books, a trilogy examining church organization and politics on the local, national, and international levels: Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church; A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. During the 2005-06 academic year Reese has been a visiting scholar at SCU. 

Reese was also a widely quoted as an expert on the Catholic Church on television throughout the world as an insightful commentator on the papal funeral and election last year.  In July 2006, Reese will return to the Woodstock Theological Center, in Washington D.C. where he served as a senior fellow before he became editor of America magazine in 1998. The Woodstock Theological Center is an independent nonprofit institute at Georgetown University.

About Santa Clara  University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,397 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the third-highest graduation rate among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. More information is online at www.scu.edu.