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Felician
College to Hold its 38th Annual Commencement
Sunday, May 19, 2002
Lodi,
NJ – Felician College will
hold its 38th annual commencement exercises on Sunday, May 19, 2002,
at 3:00pm in the Breslin Auditorium of the Main College Building on the Lodi
campus, 262 South Main Street. Approximately
300 students will receive their diplomas. Among
the graduates will be the first to receive a Master of Arts degree in teaching.
The Rev. Michael Duffy, OFM will deliver the commencement address.
Father
Duffy will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in the memory and
spirit of Father Mychal Judge, the 68-year-old fire department chaplain who
perished under the collapse of the twin towers as he was giving last rites to
fallen fire fighters, and on behalf of all the heroes and victims who lost their
lives on September 11. Sister Mary
Agatha Cebula, CSSF, a Felician sister who has dedicated nearly four decades of
her ministry to serving as a nurse, hospital administrator, and director of a
nursing home, will also receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
About the Award
Recipients…
The Reverend Michael
Duffy, OFM
With
a childhood spent in rural Ashland, NH—a town of only 1,000 residents—Father
Michael Duffy’s current days spent ministering to the poor in Philadelphia—a
city of 5.8 million people—stand in stark contrast. The catalyst that drives Father Duffy to attend to more than
400 people in need each day at Philadelphia’s well-known St. Francis Inn is
“the gift of faith, given me by my parents,” a gift he sees as essential to
everything he does. Father
Duffy’s journey of more than 40 years of ministry began in 1961 when he
graduated with a degree in Natural Science from Boston College and moved to the
Island of Jamaica to minister to the rural communities of the Blue Mountains
where he taught at St. Mary’s College, a local high school run by the Jesuit
Fathers. Compelled to go farther in
ministry, he joined the Franciscan order of priests in 1964, progressed through
the formation program and took his final vows as a Franciscan on the Feast Day
of St. Francis of Assisi on October 4, 1970.
Father Duffy was ordained a priest in September of 1971 and was assigned
locally to St. Joseph’s parish in East Rutherford, NJ, where he served until
1975. The Order then asked him to
take on the task of recruiting more young men to join the Franciscans, serving
as Vocation Director until 1979 when he went on to live with an International
Community in East Boston, Massachusetts. There
he founded the Our Daily Bread food pantry and the Crossroads Family
Shelter, which provides transitional housing for families in need.
In 1987, Father Duffy moved to Philadelphia to work at The Saint Francis
Inn, a soup kitchen that feeds over 400 people each day and houses a thrift
store, men’s shelter, and women’s day center.
In 1989 he was instrumental in forming the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry,
a program for recent college graduates to give a year of direct service to the
poor, while living, praying and serving with the Franciscans.
Leading a life centered on the Gospel adage of “Whatsoever you do to
the least of My brothers and sisters, that you do unto Me,” Father Duffy has
spent his priestly ministry in service of those who are in need.
For a life dedicated to ministering others, Father Duffy was awarded the
Alumni Award of Excellence in the Field of Religion from Boston College in 1998.
Sister
Mary Agatha Cebula, CSSF
Serving
the community as a nurse for over forty years, Felician Sister Mary Agatha
Cebula has dedicated her ministry to caring for those in need.
She joined the Felician community in 1947 and began her ministry teaching
elementary school for nearly ten years. Answering a call to enter the health-care ministry, Sister
Agatha began her studies at Saint Joseph Hospital School of Nursing in
Philadelphia, PA, in 1957. Graduating
in 1960 and passing the R.N. licensure exam, she began a four-decade long career
in nursing ministry. From 1961-1969
Sister Agatha served as the supervisor of the medical, surgical and maternity
units at Blackwell General Hospital in Blackwell, Oklahoma.
While in Blackwell, she also served as an instructor at the School of
Practical Nursing and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from
Sacred Heart College, now Neuman University.
Sister Agatha received a Master of Science in Nursing from Yale
University and certification in midwifery from the American College of
Nurse-Midwives in 1971. She was
promoted to Assistant Administrator at Blackwell General Hospital and served as
the Director of Nursing and on-site Assistant Professor at the University of
Oklahoma Nursing Department for their Rural Nursing Program.
From 1974-1980, she served as an Assistant Professor at Felician College
in the Associate Nursing Program. Saint
James Hospital in Newark, NJ, had the benefit of her ministry as the Supervisor
of the Maternity Department and Assistant Director of Nursing from 1980-1986.
While at St. James’ she helped to develop the curriculum for Brazilian
nurses preparing for the New Jersey State Board of Nursing examination.
In 1986, Sister Agatha received her licensure as a Nursing Home
Administrator and joined the staff as Administrator of the Saint Ignatius
Nursing Home in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she continues a
fifty-year tradition of serving the economically challenged elderly and infirm
citizens of Philadelphia. Under her
watch, a three-fold plan of expansion has begun which, when completed, will
increase capacity to allow the center to serve 180 patients.
In 1995 the Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute awarded Sister
Agatha the 8th Neuman Award Medal, which honors an exemplary woman
who has made an outstanding contribution to family, Church, profession or
country.
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