Thomas Aquinas College President Dr. Michael McLean will be happy to sit in the back of the room on March 23 when his school’s challenge to the HHS mandate is one of seven consolidated cases -- including Priests for Life vs. HHS -- to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorneys representing Thomas Aquinas and other plaintiffs in the Archdiocese of Washington’s case told Dr. McLean the front rows are reserved for “Catholics in uniform” – the Little Sisters of the Poor, cardinals and bishops. Certainly Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, will be wearing his collar as he represents his organization in the High Court.
But every Catholic and every Christian in that court, whether in uniform or not, will bring with them a fervent resolve not to comply with a mandate that violates their freedom of religion and the core teachings of their faith.
“The time has come,” Dr. McLean said, “to really stand up and fight.”
Thomas Aquinas College, located in Santa Paula, CA – about an hour north of Los Angeles and ten miles from the Pacific Ocean – has since the 1990s been partners in a Catholic self-insurance trust set up by the bishops of California to avoid state mandates regarding coverage of objectionable products and procedures.
When Obamacare came along and changed the rules, Dr. McLean said, “We took notice of it right away. We were very alert to the challenges the mandate posed.”
As they pursued various avenues, the college was advised by Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez not to pursue a remedy in the notoriously liberal, predictably pro-abortion nearby Ninth Circuit. Like Priests for Life, Thomas Aquinas filed suit in the D.C. Circuit, where President Obama later “packed the D.C. circuit with liberal judges.” The school did receive a favorable ruling at the district level but, like Priests for Life and the Washington Archdiocese – with whom the college’s case was consolidated – lost in the appellate division.
“It hasn’t worked out quite the way we hoped,” he said, but added that the consolidated cases are a “show of unity and strength. We don’t regret the move.”
Now that dozens of plaintiffs are relying on the Supreme Court, where Dr. McLean had “a reasonable amount of certainty we could prevail,” the death last month of Justice Antonin Scalia has made things much less clear.
Dr. McLean is hoping the Court either will re-hear the challenge once a ninth justice has been seated, or that the current Court might order the Obama administration to “rework the accommodation” that actually offered no relief to faith-based non-profits.
The mandate does not impact students at the unique liberal arts college but the 75 or so faculty and staff members will be affected by the outcome at the Supreme Court. Students are kept up-to-date on the case and join the faculty in “praying consistently to St. Michael the Archangel to intervene on our behalf,” Dr. McLean said. The school also has appealed to alumni to join in prayer and fasting on March 23, Dr McLean said. Priests for Life will promote this effort as part of its overall prayer campaign for these consolidated cases, at www.SupremeCourtVictory.org.
Thomas Aquinas offers a single curriculum, based on in-depth study and discussion of the “the great books of Western Civilization,” beginning with Scripture. Dr. McLean joined the faculty in 1978 and has never left. He also served as assistant dean for student affairs, vice president for development and dean of the college before becoming its fourth president in 2010.
He is very proud of the alumni, including 65 men who have been ordained to the priesthood, and the large number of female graduates who are pursuing the religious life.
“We are part of the new evangelization,” he said of the school that was founded in 1971. “Our graduates are well-prepared to defend their faith and serve their communities, country and Church.”
The father of three and grandfather of five received his undergraduate degree at St. Mary’s College of California and a doctorate in philosophy at Notre Dame. For a year after college, he and his wife, Lynda, served in the Peace Corps, assigned to the Caribbean island of St. Vincent.
“It wasn’t as luxurious as it sounds,” he said with a laugh, describing a house with no electricity or running water. His wife worked in a mental hospital while he taught a class of 70 students in a school housed in an abandoned warehouse. Dr. McLean also served for three years in the U.S. Coast Guard.
A believer in the benefits of studying the classics, Dr. McLean extended that discipline beyond the campus as one of the founders of the Great Books Seminars in Ojai, CA.
Thanking Father Pavone for the “courage he has shown in this fight” against the mandate, Dr. McLean said Thomas Aquinas College has an obligation to its students to wage – and win – this battle.
“We offer an educational program faithful to the teachings of the Church,” he said. “This issue gives us another way to show how that faith manifests itself.”