OMAHA, Neb.-Due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings, Creighton University will hold a virtual degree-conferral ceremony on Saturday, May 16, at 1 p.m., and will confer 2,205 degrees. The University also will host other virtual school and college celebrations on Friday, May 15, to celebrate the momentous milestone.
Almost 1,600 students will be participating in the online ceremony, with photos and messages from the graduates, an address by Creighton University President the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, SJ, Ph.D., and ending with the turn of the tassel at the conclusion of the ceremony.
Also being recognized with honorary degrees will be Linda Hunt, CEO of Dignity Health Arizona, and the four founders of the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF, which is based on the Creighton campus.
Under Hunt’s leadership, Dignity Health Arizona has grown into a respected, comprehensive health care system that includes five hospitals and multiple imaging centers, specialty hospitals, physician groups, clinics, freestanding emergency rooms and more. She is an important state and national voice in shaping the future of health care and medical education and has received local and national recognition for her transformational health care leadership.
Kathleen Kanavy is the director of spiritual direction formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation. She earned a Master of Arts in Christian Spirituality in 1993 from Creighton with further training in spiritual direction and supervision. She has served as an IPF faculty member, spiritual director, supervisor and retreat director. She received consecration as a consecrated lay woman in 1995.
For 25 years, the Rev. Richard Gabuzda, STD, has served as executive director of the Institute for Priestly Formation. Ordained in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, he was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Omaha in October 2015, at which time he also became a moderator of the IPF Priests of St. Joseph, a clerical public association of priests dedicated to caring for the spiritual life of diocesan priests.
The Rev. John Horn, SJ, is a Jesuit of the Maryland Province. Fr. Horn served as assistant director of the institute from its founding until 2011 when he became rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis. Currently, he is a professor of spiritual and pastoral theology at St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida.
The Rev. George Aschenbrenner, SJ, is the former Jesuit rector at the University of Scranton, and a renowned author, retreat leader, and expert on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.