The class of 2016 gathered on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity to celebrate their Baccalaureate Mass.
Read Father Thompson's Baccalaureate Mass homily on the Campus Ministry's Knights of Faith blog.
Following Mass, the soon-to-be-graduates and their parents gathered at the Waterford in Springfield to enjoy a celebratory breakfast as a group. Bishop O'Connell alumnus, Dr. H. Joel Schmidt '76 was the guest speaker at the breakfast. Dr. Schmidt spent most of his medical career in the Army where he remained for 26 years with assignments that included serving as a general pediatrician, a member of the Army surgeon general's staff, and culminating as the chief of pediatric pulmonology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and director of the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Center at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. Dr. Schmidt retired from the Army as a Colonel in 2006 to join the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU (CHoR). He is now the CF Care Center's Pediatric Program Director and is on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Chapter of the CF Foundation. He is also the father of three O'Connell alumni.
View photos from the Mass and breakfast below (or CLICK HERE to view.)