Every year Assumption students like Molly Sweeney '16 travel across the country, and overseas, to lend a helping hand through the College's SEND Service Immersion trips. Last winter Molly traveled to Guayaquil, Ecuador, a region marked by extreme strife and poverty, where she and 11 other students assisted at worksites ranging from a Catholic school to a women's shelter to an after school program run by the Rostro de Cristo foundation. Everywhere they went they made a difference and learned about the importance of faith, service and compassion.

"I thought that I would be going to Ecuador to help change the lives of others, but it was the people of Guayaquil who changed my life and made me appreciate all of my blessings," Molly remembers. She also remembers the simple joy and profound sense of accomplishment she felt serving those in need-and how it has inspired her to keep on helping

Position Endowed by Donald ’64 and Michele D’Amour

Professor J. Brian Benestad, Ph.D., was formally installed May 1, 2015, as Assumption College’s inaugural D’Amour Chair in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. The Chair affirms the College’s commitment to its mission as an institution of higher education that is enlivened by the Catholic affirmation of the harmony of faith and reason that aims, by the pursuit of the truth, to transform the minds and hearts of students.

The ceremony was held in La Maison Française Salon and remarks were given by Assumption College President Francesco C. Cesareo, Ph.D., Interim Provost Louise Carroll Keeley, Ph.D., and the chair’s benefactor, Donald D’Amour ’64.

In 2008, Donald D’Amour and his wife Michele made a historic $4.2 million gift to the College—the largest in Assumption’s 111-year history. More than half of this generous contribution was used to establish the Donald and Michele D'Amour Chair in the Catholic intellectual Tradition. As the D’Amour Chair, Professor Benestad’s responsibilities include teaching one or two courses per semester in his field of specialization and leading a faculty workshop or seminar on the Catholic intellectual tradition as part of on-going faculty development efforts.

(As we recall the end of World War II and the incredible stories emanating from the German Nazi concentration camps, the following story recently appeared in a local French newspaper about Fr. Delory and his own experience.)

Liberation from Dachau. "I am at Dachau and in fairly good shape. It was Sunday, April 29 at 5:30 PM that American soldiers liberated us. As you can imagine, it was with absolute delirium that they were welcomed by the 30,000 plus prisoners who were awaiting them! Before they even entered the camp, they saw piles of dead bodies, fellow prisoners that our S.S. guards had executed --- a horror --- a total breach of all international guidelines of accountability. When our liberators did enter the camp and saw with their own eyes scenes that outsiders could hardly believe, they better understood our enthusiasm, our emotion, and our gratitude. All of us appeared before them. Thank God that seeing what was happening within the camp, they stopped to liberate us before marching on to Munich. I am lucky to be counted those in fairly good shape. There are thousands in poor shape, others who are totally exhausted, especially survivors from the last trains that arrived. How many victims and in what terrible condition! Tomorrow we will have a ceremony of thanksgiving as well as a Mass for the dead on the site where roll-call took place every day and where an altar has been set up ... ". Fr. Delory May 2, 1945.

Biography of Fr. Delory, A.A, a member of the Province of Paris.

On May 18, 2015, Brother Eddy received his second degree from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, where most of our Assumptionist brothers in formation receive their seminary training alongside laypeople and members of other religious orders.

Brother Eddy received his ThM degree this week. Typically, our brothers earn a three-year MDiv (Master's of Divinity) followed by the one-year ThM (Master's of Theology) in order to complete the four years of theology which the Vatican requires for ordination to the priesthood.

Brother Eddy's next ministerial assignment, where he will profess Final Vows and discern his diaconate and priestly ordinations, will be in the Philippines. Let's pray for him on this next stage of his journey!