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 Bishop Frank Dewane made a special occasion even more memorable for Ave Maria University Friday at the ceremony installing Jim Towey as the school's new president when he issued a formal decree declaring that the school is officially a Catholic university.
The audience in the Ave Maria Oratory greeted the proclamation with a full minute of steady applause Friday morning when the bishop made the long-awaited announcement following an inaugural Mass, just before the formal installation of Mr. Towey as the university's second president. Right, Bishop Dewane congratulating Jim Towey as AMU founder Tom Monaghan looks on.
"It only increased the joy for me," Mr. Towey said after the ceremony, adding that he learned only the day before that Bishop Dewane had decided to make the declaration -- four years after the school moved to its new campus in the town of Ave Maria and five years after Bishop Dewane assumed responsibility for the Diocese of Venice.
"It took time for both parties to come together," Bishop Dewane said when asked about the timing. "There was time to address a number of issues that needed to be addressed, and they have been," he added, without elaborating on what the issues were.
U nder Catholic Canon Law, the decision on whether institutions like schools or hospitals can call themselves "Catholic" rests solely with the local bishop.
The installation ceremony, with its formal flourishes such as the presentation of the university seal and president's robe to Mr. Towey, marked the final stage of a management transition at AMU that began in February, when Mr. Towey's hiring was announced.
The new president paid tribute to his predecessors, Nick Healy from whom he took over as president and Tom Monaghan, the university's founder, from whom he assumed the responsibilities of CEO.
 "Running a university is so challenging," Mr. Towey said. "I can't imagine what it would be like to start one from scratch."
"The biggest question of all now looms," Mr. Towey said in his address, "Can the university move from dependence on Tom's great generosity to the land of self sufficiency?" Right, Mr. Monaghan giving Mr. Towey the president's ceremonial robe and hood.
He said his priorities are academic excellence and ensuring that students are both rooted in the Catholic faith "while remaining fully open to the world."
"Students should not be sheltered from society and the so-called ‘real world' that awaits their full participation." To that end, he said the university will look to expand study abroad, service learning, campus ministry initiatives and student internships.
"The more outside engagement the better."
T he Mass preceding the installation was celebrated by Bishop Dewane with Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami delivering the homily. He praised Ave Maria for integrating the students' faith life with academics. Left, Mr. Towey's wife, Mary, watches her husband during the Mass opening procession.
"Here at Ave Maria in southwest Florida," the archbishop said, "the Church is alive, and the Church is young."
Right, Archbishop Wenski at left and Bishop Dewane before the Mass procession.
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