UST president to attend three events during pope's visit to the United States
Father Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas, will attend three events connected with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States this week.
Dease and Sister Andrea Lee of the College of St. Catherine will be in an audience for a papal address to presidents of Catholic colleges and universities on Thursday at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Pope Benedict XVI
Dease will hear the pope’s address on Friday at the United Nations in New York City, and will attend a papal reception Sunday sponsored by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See Mission to the United Nations.
Pope Benedict is no stranger to St. Thomas. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was prefect of the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith when he visited St. Thomas on Feb. 13, 1984, to celebrate a Mass and deliver a homily commemorating the 15th anniversary of St. John Vianney Seminary.
He also gave a lecture and received an honorary degree from St. Thomas. The citation that accompanied the Doctor of Humane Letters degree lauded his "readiness to name and to address the difficulties our age presents to the faith and to its transmission."
St. Thomas collaborated with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to produce a 90-second video welcoming Pope Benedict to the United States. The video, which will be shown before his address to Catholic college presidents, can be viewed here.
Dease will present to the pope a photo of his 1984 visit to St. Thomas and a bound collection of copies of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought & Culture, which is published quarterly by the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Thomas.
