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CV NEWS FEED // The Cardinal Newman Society, an organization that reviews and recognizes authentically Catholic colleges, recently published a list of upcoming commencement speakers at universities featured in its Newman Guide, all of whom are virtuous models of the Catholic faith.
According to an April 23 press release from the Cardinal Newman Society, a core aspect of the universities featured in the Newman Guide is their mission to form young people in truth through the speakers they invite. Hosting authentic witnesses to the Catholic faith as commencement speakers, the release noted, is essential to advancing the goal of guiding young people in truth and virtue.
The 2025 speakers include author Chris Stefanick; Sister Deirdre Byrne, surgeon and retired U.S. Army colonel; Bishop Scott McCaig of the Military Ordinariate of Canada; and Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation.
Stefanick will address the graduates of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, and Sr. Byrne will speak at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.
Bishop McCaig, the press release noted, will speak to the Ontario-based Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College graduates, and Dr. Roberts will address those at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, chooses its “student of the year” to deliver the commencement address, highlighting its commitment to forming faithful leaders from within.
The college has chosen three people to receive honorary degrees, including Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte.
“Our Catholic schools, first and foremost, are here to breed, to help form, and grow disciples of Jesus Christ in the Church — that’s our primary, number one, unchanging, without-a-doubt mission,” Bishop Martin said, according to the release.
Other speakers included in the guide are Bishop Robert Barron, author and bishop of Winona-Rochester, who will speak at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and Michael Knowles, host of “The Michael Knowles Show” at the Daily Wire, who will address graduates at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida.
