Innovative group of speakers highlights Catholic university commencement ceremonies in Archdiocese of Baltimore

A nationally renowned librarian, a beloved retiring university president, a dedicated academic and Maryland’s first secretary of service and innovation are the featured commencement speakers at Maryland’s four Catholic universities this May.

Here’s a look at the speakers for the commencements, which are scheduled for May 9 (St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Roland Park); May 11 (Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg), May 18 (Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore) and May 22 (Notre Dame of Maryland University, Baltimore):

St. Mary’s Seminary and University

Monsignor Paul McPartlan, a professor from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., who specializes in  ecumenism, will be the commencement speaker at the university in Roland Park. 

For his dedication to the Catholic Church and to the broader Christian community, Monsignor McPartlan will receive this year’s honorary doctor of divinity from St. Mary’s Seminary. 

After initially studying mathematics at the University of Cambridge in England, he studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Westminster. He then earned a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Gregorian in 1985, and earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford in 1990. 

Monsignor McPartlan was a postdoctoral research fellow at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, from 1993 to 1995. After his fellowship, he was appointed to the faculty of Heythrop College in the University of London, from 1995 to 2005. After that, Monsignor McPartlan was invited to teach theology at The Catholic University of America, where he was then appointed to the Carl J. Peter Chair of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism in 2006, and where he now has been granted the title professor emeritus.  

Monsignor McPartlan served in several administrative roles at the institutions where he has worked. At Catholic University, such roles include serving as acting dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies, as director of the Historical and Systematic Theology Academic Area and as a member of the Academic Senate. 

Monsignor McPartlan served for 10 years on the International Theological Commission and for 10 years on the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council. He was for many years a member of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, and before that a member of the English Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee. Since 2005, he has served on the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. 

He has authored or edited six books, largely focusing on ecclesiology, especially his particular field of eucharistic ecclesiology, and ecumenism. He has penned more than 100 articles and book chapters. He has also served on several editorial boards, including those of The Catholic University of America Press, the Revue théologique de Louvain, and the new journal OmegaAlpha for the study of the thought of the Orthodox theologian, John Zizioulas.  

Mount St. Mary’s University

Mount St. Mary’s University President Dr. Timothy E. Trainor, scheduled to retire at the end of June, will deliver the commencement address at the 216th commencement exercises May 11, 11 a.m., at Knott Arena in Emmitsburg. Trainor, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general, has been president of the university since 2016.

He will hand the leadership baton to Dr. Gerard “Jerry” Joyce, vice president at DeSales University, in July.

“I am honored to send the Class of 2024, adult undergraduate students and graduate students on the way to a life of significance in service to God and others,” Trainor said in a media release. “The Class of 2024 came to the Mount after an unsettled senior year of high school and had to adjust to a hybrid learning environment and fewer face-to-face extracurricular activities than usual once they arrived on campus. They have come a long way since then, and I am proud of their accomplishments. I am looking forward to joining the graduates, as well as their families and friends, in commemorating this joyous day.”

Since August 2016, Trainor guided the university through a leadership crisis that brought him to the Mount and the pandemic. 

Trainor is credited with helping Mount St. Mary’s retain its entire workforce throughout the pandemic and welcome its largest first-year class in the fall of 2020. Undergraduate and graduate enrollment grew by 12 percent since 2016, according to the university.

Other major accomplishments under President Trainor’s leadership include the addition of several new undergraduate majors and the expansion of NCAA Division I athletic teams from 16 to 24 and a near doubling of the number of student-athletes. 

He also helped the Mount invest in living and learning facilities and campus infrastructure by raising $80 million from donors, government and foundation grants and other benefactors. In addition, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary grew to the largest Catholic seminary in the country and established a propaedeutic stage of priestly formation.

Trainor, a retired brigadier general, became president of the Mount after retirement from a 33-year career with the Army. He formerly served as dean and chief academic officer at the United States Military Academy. Trainor graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy in 1983, has an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke, and a doctorate in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University.

Loyola University Maryland

Paul Monteiro, Maryland’s first Secretary of Service and Civic Innovation, will deliver the address at Loyola’s 171st commencement May 18, 11 a.m., at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore.

“At Loyola, we encourage our students to think not just about the success they can achieve, but also about their significance – the mark they can leave on the world. One of the ways they can achieve significance is through service,” said Terrence M. Sawyer, president of Loyola. 

“The Class of 2024 has overcome great challenges already, and we are so proud of them. In addressing the Class of 2024, Secretary Paul Monteiro will be able to draw on his compelling life story and offer an inspiring, compelling message to our graduating students – students who are poised to have a transformational impact,” he said.

Raised in Hyattsville, Monteiro was the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Maryland and a law degree from Howard University. While in law school, he served as a fellow in the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, where he spent a year instructing middle and high school students on the U.S. Constitution.

Monteiro leads the newly created Department of Service and Civic Innovation for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D). The program promotes service and volunteerism in Maryland and recently launched the Maryland Corps/Service Year Option. The program, targeted at high school graduates, offers a yearlong paid opportunity for professional growth and career exploration while serving the community.

Previously, Monteiro directed the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS), which serves as “America’s Peacemaker” for communities facing conflict based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, religion or other protected classifications. Monteiro also worked as chief of staff to the president and assistant vice president of external affairs at Howard University from 2017 until 2022. 

He also directed several programs for former President Barack Obama and served with the Prince George’s County Public Schools Board of Education, Madison House Autism Foundation, and Wesley Theological Seminary and on several other boards. He is a member of Leadership Greater Washington’s Class of 2021.

Loyola will present Monteiro with an honorary doctorate of humane letters during the ceremony.

Also honored at the commencement exercises will be: Jasmine S. Jenkins, ’06, receiving the Carroll Medal; Trustee Walter B. Doggett III, receiving the Newman Medal; and CASH Campaign of Maryland, receiving the Milch Community Partnership Award.

Notre Dame of Maryland University

Dr. Carla Hayden, the first woman and first African American to lead the Library of Congress, will address nearly 500 Notre Dame of Maryland University graduates May 22, 10:30 a.m., at the Baltimore Convention Center. Hayden, former director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, will also receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Notre Dame.

Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress in 2016 after being nominated by Obama. She leads the world’s largest library and home to America’s national treasures, with a collection of millions of books, videos, audio recordings and photographs.

In redefining and modernizing the library’s mission, Hayden prioritized making the collections more publicly accessible. Through her social media presence, events and activities, she introduces new audiences to the library’s gems. Through investments in technology, she enabled more Americans to explore the nation’s stories and history.

Hayden led the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore from 1993 to 2016. In 1995, she became the first African American to win Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award, honoring her outreach services. In 2015, she gained national attention in the wake of riots after the death of Freddie Gray, when she kept libraries open throughout the city to continue service and provide havens.

The Tallahassee, Fla., native also worked for the Chicago Public Library and was an associate professor of information sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.

In Maryland, she was a member of several boards, including for the Baltimore City and Maryland historical societies; Goucher College; Baltimore Reads; Sinai Hospital; Kennedy Krieger Institute; Maryland Museum of African American History; Baltimore Gas and Electric; and the Baltimore City Combined Charity Campaign.

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