2004 Aquinas Convocation Speaker Announced

Sister Ruth Caspar, O.P., to be Keynote Speaker at Ohio Dominican's St. Thomas Aquinas Convocation

January 6, 2004

COLUMBUS, OH - Sr. Ruth Caspar, O.P. will be the keynote speaker at Ohio Dominican University's annual convocation in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas, to be held on Wednesday, January 28, 2004.

The convocation will begin at 10:30 a.m., when Sister Ruth will deliver a lecture on the theme, "Wisdom and Light: Contributions from Aquinas to Contemporary Bioethics." The lecture will be held in The Little Theatre on the second floor of Erskine Hall on Ohio Dominican's main campus, 1216 Sunbury Road. The event is open to the public and free parking is available in the Visitor's Lot to the west of Sunbury Road.

At noon, immediately following the lecture, there will be a Eucharistic celebration in Christ the King Chapel, located on the ODU campus in Sansbury Hall. The Most Reverend James A. Griffin, Bishop of Columbus, will be the presider and homilist at the Mass.

Sister Ruth, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, taught in Ohio Dominican's Humanities program from 1968 to 2003, and was chair of the Department of Philosophy from 1973 to 1992. In 1992, Sister Ruth became the first recipient of Ohio Dominican's Master Teacher Award, which recognizes senior faculty members for the role they've played in developing the distinctive character of the institution.

She is a Dominican Sister of the Congregation of St. Mary of the Springs. Sister Ruth holds a bachelor's degree in English from the College of St. Mary of the Springs; and master's and doctoral degrees in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. She has done postdoctoral work in Bioethics at the University of Virginia, the Kennedy Institute at Georgetown, and the Hastings Center.

She has served as a consultant for Biomedical Ethics for various Catholic health care organizations. Sister Ruth currently serves on the boards of trustees for Mohun Health Care Center in Columbus and St. Joseph Home in Westerville. She has also served on the Columbus Health Department's Community Risk Panel; Mount Carmel Hospice's Professional Advisory Committee; OSU's Human Subjects Review Policy Coordinating Committee; the Catholic Conference of Ohio's Medical-Moral Committee; and the Ethics Committee of St. Francis-St. George Hospital in Cincinnati.

Sister Ruth has been published in several academic and professional journals. She recently edited for publication the Congregational History of the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs, written by Sister Camilla Mullay at the time of her death. She is also preparing a collaborative Liturgy of the Hours for Congregations of Dominican Religious Women in the United States.

Read the Speech Here.