Monsignor Stuart W. Swetland, S.T.D., president of Donnelly College, Kansas City, will be the principal celebrant and homilist for the Mass for the Solemnity of the Passing of Our Holy Father Benedict at Saint Vincent. The Mass will take place at 4 p.m. Friday, March 21 in the Archabbey Basilica.
Monsignor Swetland is a Catholic convert, theologian and scholar, a Navy veteran and a Pittsburgh native.
As a student, Monsignor Swetland studied a broad range of disciplines, including physics, politics, economics, theology and philosophy. He received his undergraduate degree in physics from the United States Naval Academy, where he was first in his class. Awarded a Rhodes scholarship, he entered the Catholic Church while studying at Oxford and was ordained a priest in 1991.
He has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree from Oxford; a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary; and his S.T.L. and S.T.D. from the Pontifical Lateran University having studied at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. He was named a Prelate of Honor by Saint John Paul II in 2000 and he has been awarded two honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters: one from Benedictine College and the other from Walsh University.
Monsignor Swetland learned about Donnelly College while serving as the Vice President for Catholic identity and Director of Pre-Theology at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg Maryland, where he also held the Archbishop Flynn Chair of Christian Ethics. He fell in love with Donnelly’s mission and accepted the call to become its seventh president in 2014.
In addition to his role at Donnelly College, Monsignor Swetland is a Knight Commander for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre and a fourth-degree Knight of Columbus. He was the Executive Secretary for the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars for twenty years and hosted a variety of television and radio shows presenting Catholic social teaching. He currently serves as pastor of Our Lady and St. Rose Catholic Church, and as chaplain to the local chapters of Legatus and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in Kansas City.
On March 21 the Catholic Church marks the Transitus of Saint Benedict, who died on the date in the year 547. Known as the patron saint of Europe and the patriarch of western monasticism, Saint Benedict’s Holy Rule is at the heart of the Benedictine Order, which is the order of the monks of the Archabbey.
