Washington Archbishop To Address 2006 Undergrads
May 20, 2006 at 11 a.m.
Approximately 600 undergraduate degrees will be conferred during the commencement exercises.
Cardinal McCarrick, who served as the late Pontiff’s emissary on international issues, will receive an honorary degree during the ceremony. Honorary degrees will also be conferred upon Luiz F. Kahl (posthumously), the former president of The Vector Group, and philanthropists Sebastian J. ’48 and Lenore M. (McGowan) Rosica. Sebastian Rosica, retired audiologist, is the chair of the board of directors for St. Mary’s School for the Deaf and also serves as director of its Foundation for Deaf Education. Lenore Rosica is a member of the Board of Trustees of the McGowan Charitable Fund.
Pope John Paul II installed Cardinal McCarrick as Washington’s Archbishop in January 2001 and seven weeks later elevated him to the College of Cardinals. As Archbishop of Washington D.C., Cardinal McCarrick is minister to the half-million Catholics in the nation’s capital and its 140 parishes.
Fluent in Spanish, German, French and Italian, Cardinal McCarrick travels as a human rights advocate for the Vatican. He was among the first Westerners in Rwanda following the 1984 genocide. When the Iron Curtain fell, Cardinal McCarrick chaired the Committee for Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe. He also served on the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad, and later became a member of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom. He was only one of three American clerics invited to visit China in 1998 to discuss religious freedoms in that country.
Cardinal McCarrick’s national and international political contacts, including important ones in the church hierarchy, garnered him a seat in the Sistine Chapel, last year, where a conclave of cardinals elected Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal McCarrick graduated from St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York in 1954 and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 1958. He earned a master’s degree in history from St. Joseph’s Seminary and a master’s degree in social sciences and a PhD in sociology from The Catholic University of America.
Richard A. DiVita ’55, of Buffalo, will receive the LaSalle Medal from the Canisius College Alumni Association during the ceremony. The LaSalle Medal is the Alumni Association’s most distinguished award and recognizes substantial contributions in advancing the interests of Canisius College.
DiVita is president and CEO of the DiVita Group of Companies, a private management firm which oversees a diverse group of restaurants, hotels, financial consulting services and electrical supply companies. Prior to establishing the DiVita Group of Companies, he was a practicing tax accountant for 35 years.
DiVita co-chaired the 50th Reunion Committee for the Canisius College Class of 1955, which raised more money than any 50th year reunion class in the history of the college. He has served on the college’s Boards of Trustees and Regents, as treasurer for the Alumni Association and chaired the annual fund cabinet. In memory of his first wife, DiVita established the Winifred E. DiVita Memorial Scholarship at Canisius to provide financial support to aspiring business students from Western New York. He is a Distinguished Alumni recipient (1993) and a member of the DiGamma Honor Society.
In the community, DiVita gives his time and efforts to many charitable and cultural organizations, including as a committee member for the Pediatric Digestion & Motility Disorders Society Inc. He previously served as chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association annual appeal and as treasurer for the Western New York Chapter of the Liver Foundation.
DiVita holds a bachelor’s degree in business education from Canisius College.
Eric M. Soehnlein, of Orchard Park, will give the student commencement address. He is a political science and English dual major and a member of the All-College Honors and English Honors programs. He is a recipient of the Raichle Pre-Law Scholarship, awarded by Canisius College, and the Dillon Pre-Law Scholarship, awarded by the Erie County Bar Association.
Soehnlein is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit honor society; Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society; and Sigma Tau Delta, the national English honor society. He has volunteered with Catholic Charities as an English as a second language teacher for refugees, and at Roswell Park Cancer Institute as a volunteer musician.
For more information, contact the Office of Public Relations at (716) 888-2790.
Canisius College is one of 28 Jesuit colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring, faithful individuals able to pursue and promote excellence in their profession, their communities and their service to humanity.
Date released: 3/20/2006
