By Irene Lagan
Herald Staff Report
(From the issue of 6/12/03)

Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, was the principal celebrant at a special Mass last week in celebrating the graduation of several students from the Institute of Psychological Sciences in Arlington.

"For those to whom much is given, much will be demanded," said the Archbishop. Commencement is a moment of inauguration when those who have completed their studies move forward in the world. Like St. Peter, you are called to feed the many hungry sheep in this troubled world.

"You are in a position to teach other about the dignity of the human person, the true good and freedom to which he is called," the Archbishop added.

The Apostolic Nuncio was the principal celebrant at the Mass celebrated in the Crypt Church of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Father Richard John Neuhaus, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and former Lutheran pastor, was the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony.

"We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses," Father Neuhaus began. "We become like what we revere, that to which we give ourselves without reservation. We are what we worship."

"Every day is a great day for ordering our loves and loyalties," Father Neuhaus added. "But commencement day is especially good, as we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses both living and dead upon whose foundations we have come to this day."

A well-known Catholic author and intellectual, Father Neuhaus is the president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life and is the editor-in-chief of "First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life."

Members of the 2003 graduating class included Barbarda De Ronde, Colleen Graveline, Daniel Kochis and Andrew Sodergren.

Founded in 1999, the IPS is a graduate psychology program dedicated to the development of Catholic psychology that is consistent with the teaching of the Magisterium of the Cahtolic Church.