100 Years of ABCs
D Deacons – In August 2002, Bishop Rose ordained nine men to the permanent diaconate. This was the first class ordained since 1976. Parishioners Dennis Williams and Jim Thorndill were received as candidates for the diaconate right around this same time and they were both ordained in February, 2006. Another diaconate candidate from St. Francis Xavier parish, Dean Vernon, was assigned to Saint Thomas for an internship in September, 2004. We were blessed to have him assigned at St. Thomas after his ordination in June, 2017. Parishioner David Bevins was received as a candidate in November, 2020 and was ordained in January, 2024 and assigned to Immaculate Heart of Mary parish.
Dominican Sisters – In honor of the Domincan sisters who were the first teachers at Saint Thomas school in 1925, who helped to shape and form the school’s mission, and who graciously devoted their lives to the school for many years, a commemorative statue was placed in the garden in between the church and school in October, 2000. This statue, called Dominican Sister and Children, is an expression of the personal reality of the gift of their lives that the sisters gave the children at Saint Thomas during the school’s first 75 years of existence.
