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Commencement
Commencement Program
Saturday, May 10, 2008
9:30 AM
Ave Maria Oratory
All guests of graduates are required to have tickets for admission to the ceremony. Graduating students can claim their tickets at the same time that they pick up their academic regalia from the bookstore on April 28th.
Graduates, administration, honorary recipients and faculty meet in the Academic Building, Lecture Hall #1001 promptly at 8:30 AM for robing and to form the processional line. Ushers and staff will be on hand to assist with any last-minute cap and gown issues.
Honorary Degrees and Commencement Speakers
Ave Maria University will award honorary degrees of doctors of humanities to Mike T. Timmis, Adam Cardinal Maida, Melanio Villarosa, M.D. and Reverend Mr. R. William Steltmeier.
Mike T. Timmis presently serves as as Chairman of Prison Fellowship International, Chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries (USA), President of the Archdiocese of Detroit Endowment Foundation, Inc., and Trustee of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center and is an active member of the Knights of Malta and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, Legatus, and the National Fellowship of Catholic Men.
Cardinal Maida was ordained a priest in 1956 for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, where he later served as an associate pastor, Vice Chancellor and General Counsel of the Diocese, in the Diocesan Tribunal, and as Assistant Professor of Theology at La Roche College and Adjunct Professor of Law at Duquesne University Law School. On January 25, 1984, he was ordained and installed as the ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. On May 7, 1990, Pope John Paul II named Bishop Maida Archbishop of Detroit. On October 30, 1994, Pope John Paul II named Archbishop Maida a Cardinal. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals at a Consistory held on November 26, 1994, at the Paul VI Auditorium in the Vatican.
Adam Cardinal Maida will be the main celebrant of the Baccalaureate Mass on May 9th .
Melanio Villarosa, M.D. is a local pediatrician whose love for the poor led him to open his own pediatric clinic in the small farming community of Immokalee in 1998. With funding from One by One Leadership Foundation of Southwest Florida and the Florida Community Bank, he cares for 1,000 patients, many of whom are without health insurance or on Medicaid, for little or no charge.
Rev. Mr. R. William Steltemeier (Deacon Bill) is the Chairman and CEO of Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. (EWTN). Deacon Bill has been with EWTN since it was incorporated in December of 1980 and its subsequent launch on August 15, 1981. Over the past twenty-six years EWTN has evolved into the largest religious cable network transmitting Catholic programming 24 hours a day in both English and Spanish to more the 146 million homes in more than 140 countries and territories.
Rev. Mr. R. William Steltemeier and Michael T. Timmis will address the graduates, their families and guests at the Commencement ceremony on May 10th.