Interview with Louie Verrechio

Louie Verrechio and Deacon Edward Schaefer
Oct 28, 2015
10 min read

The following is an interview of me by Louie Verrecchio of www.harvestingthefruit.com. Please read the whole interview and visit Louie's Blog. He has a lot of perceptive insights.

Before we talk about the college, tell me a little about yourself.

My educational background is in music, with a specialization in the musical patrimony of the Church. I have four degrees and a certificate in music, along with formal studies in chant at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Dance de Paris and studies in chant with several individuals at monasteries in the United States and Europe. I taught in Catholic colleges and universities for twenty-seven years, leaving only after it became impossible to support the direction in which these schools were moving. Currently, I direct the Florida Schola Cantorum, a group that sings weekly for Traditional Latin Masses. Overall, I have over thirty-five years of experience in higher education teaching and administration.

I am probably a little unusual as a permanent deacon. I was raised on the traditional Mass, its spirituality and its theology. I am also fully versed in its ritual, having served as a deacon or subdeacon in solemn Masses numerous times. In fact, my assignment in the diocese was, in part, based on my attachment to the Traditional Latin Mass in the diocese.

Tell me about Collegium sanctorum angelorum and what is motivating your efforts.

Other than St. Mary’s College, a two-year college operated by the Society of St. Pius X, there isn’t a single college in the United States that is truly devoted to traditional Catholicism. Some accommodate it to varying degrees, but no college is dedicated to living, learning, and praying according to traditional Catholic teaching and practice. We are.

We also don’t have colleges that are truly affordable. We are dedicated to keeping the cost of tuition, room and board at $13,500/year per student.

Traditional and affordable will get a lot of our readers’ attention. Talk about these in more detail, starting with “traditional.”

Most colleges today are so expensive that they focus on preparing students for the workforce in order to justify the cost. There is nothing wrong with preparing students for work. We will do that, too. But our primary mission is to prepare students for heaven.

How will you go about doing that?

We’ll do that through embracing Catholic teaching and practice as it has been handed down to us from Apostolic times; making it a part of everything we do.

On the level of simple day-to-day living, for instance, we intend to create an environment that helps students live virtuous lives, rather than one that throws near occasions of sin in front of them constantly. One small example of this is the residence halls, which are commonly co-ed today. Ours will be single-sex residences, and we’ll have a dress code that promotes modesty as well.

The students of the college will also come together regularly each day for prayer. They will be taught how to sing traditional Lauds and Vespers, and will gather to sing them every day, in addition to having the option of singing Compline.

Traditional liturgy, obviously that’s very important. What about Holy Mass?

At present we will be able to assist at the Traditional Latin Mass offered (sung) each Sunday nearby at a local parish. If at some point we are granted a chaplaincy, we’ll have Mass daily at the college. It is curious that, with all of the hype in Sacrosanctum concilium about the Liturgy being the “source and summit” of the life of the Church, in practice today – and especially in the colleges – the liturgy is anything but the source and summit of Catholic life. That will change at Collegium sanctorum angelorum.

OK, having daily Mass at the college sounds terrific, but I have to ask, how will the college respond if the local bishop requires celebration of the Novus Ordo as a condition for granting a chaplaincy, a chapel, or anything else?

A fundamental part of the college’s identity is its commitment to serving Catholics who desire the Traditional Latin Mass. Without looking too far ahead, perhaps the best answer I can give is to say that regardless of whatever challenges may arise in the future, we will remain true to our mission of living, learning, and praying according to traditional Catholic teaching and practice, and that necessarily includes the sacred liturgy.

Tell me about the curriculum?

The curriculum will be largely a liberal arts curriculum, focused on the spiritual and intellectual development of the students in the light of Catholic teaching. While the courses of the curriculum will be taught separately, they will all be coordinated to develop an understanding of Western society as developed and nurtured by the Catholic Church through her theology, philosophy, history, literature, music, art, scientific developments, and liturgical practice.

My daughter recently graduated from a secular college, and there was a focus on gaining hands on experience in the “working world.” Will your students have any such opportunities?

Yes, we will have a program of ora et labora. The college will have several auxiliary enterprises that I will discuss in more detail a moment, and the students will all work in these enterprises, partly as a part of their spiritual formation and partly as a way to gain valuable experience in the working world.

All in all, it will be a community with an integrated living, learning, praying and working experience, most importantly and above all, centered on a traditional Catholic life. It will not be a college that is largely secularized with a smattering of Catholicism.

This sounds wonderful, but can you really make it affordable?

Absolutely, we can! Most colleges today are built on a financial model that is simply unsustainable. They require constantly higher numbers of students paying higher and higher tuition, supplemented by ever-increasing fund-raising campaigns. It is simply impossible for those three things to remain in constant growth mode.

We are rethinking the entire financial model. First, we can keep expenses down. We are limiting the size of the college – 120 students maximum. This limits the size of the infrastructure. In addition, while the infrastructure needs to be adequate, it does not need to be luxurious. It is a little difficult to form students not to succumb to the temptation of materialism when we surround them with it all the time. (Beauty is another matter. Let’s not confuse material luxury with beauty.) A small student body also limits the number of classes we need. We can serve all of the students with one section of each course. We will limit the size of the full-time faculty. Every administrator will teach. Every faculty member will have some administrative responsibilities. Salaries will be adequate, but modest. This will be more vocational work than it will be career work. We will employ technology wherever it can improve efficiencies. There are more things we are doing to contain costs, but the point I can make here is that every expense associated with a college education has been rethought, and we can reduce the cost side of the ledger significantly.

What about the income side?

On the income side of the ledger, we are limiting ourselves to $13,500/student per year for tuition, room and board. This number comes from national studies about what average families can scrape up for college before they have to start borrowing against the child’s future. So tuition will cover a little more than half of what we believe it will cost to run the college. The other income will come largely from auxiliary enterprises. We are setting up three now:

Holy Angels Ministries will be a retail venture. It will be a thrift store, an ebay outlet, a salvage operation, a specialty religious goods store, and an outlet for Heavenly Roast Coffee, the most amazing imported coffee you have ever tasted. www.heavenlyroastcoffee.com.
Holy Angels Online Academy will offer assistance to homeschooling families by offering online instruction for high school level students. We offered a ninth-grade religion course this fall, and we will roll out an entire ninth-grade curriculum next fall. There are a few online programs already available, but I have had over fifteen years of experience in online education. We can offer instruction at a much higher quality than is currently available, and we can do it from a traditional Catholic orientation. We are opening the high school only partly to raise funds. It will also assure families who want to send their children to the college that those children can get the proper preparation to be successful in the college. The high school curriculum will be thoroughly traditional and thoroughly integrated between the subjects.
Holy Angels Farm will engage in some agricultural venture. We have not settled on specifics, and we are not even sure that this will raise a significant amount of money. However, it will be an excellent work experience for the students, and it will provide some fresh and healthy food for the college.

There will be some fund raising, yes, especially for major projects like the buildings. However, we are committed to keeping this arm of college under control. We will not depend on ever-spiraling upward campaigns.

Is there anything else that will distinguish Collegium sanctorum angelorum?

I have four degrees and a professional certificate in music, so we would be remiss if music did not play a significant role in the college’s identity. Most of what I know about the faith has come to me through my music studies, especially chant. I know that music can be a profound and extraordinary part of faith formation. I have already mentioned that we will sing Lauds and Vespers every day. In addition, everyone will sing in a choir. As the college grows, there may be more than one choir to serve the varying background levels of the students. In any case, everyone can sing at some level, make beautiful music, and have enormous enjoyment in the process.

The ora et labora program will also be a distinguishing feature. Every student will work some hours in one of the college’s enterprises. Work is good for the body, the mind and the soul. The experience will also serve as a kind of internship in the business world.

But perhaps more than anything, the college will be distinguished by its faculty. Every faculty member of the college will pledge fidelity to the magisterium of the Church, take the oath against Modernity, and support the mission of the college in its entirety. Parents will be able to send their children to this school with every confidence that the college will support and further all the work they have done to raise their children in the faith.

A practical question: Will the college be accredited?

It is our plan to seek and attain accreditation. Generally, accreditation becomes an issue only when a student is applying to certain graduate schools that require an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution. For this reason, I believe it would be a good service to offer the students: their options for continued education are increased because of it.

I have been through numerous accreditation processes during my career. They are always a bit arduous, but I am comfortable that we can meet the requirements of accreditation without sacrificing anything of the college’s mission or its Catholic nature. If that were the case we would not pursue accreditation.

How did you select the name, Collegium sanctorum angelorum?

I was in Paris having dinner with the president of the chant school attached to the Gregorian Choir of Paris and his wife. I told them of my plans for the college and some of the resistance that I was experiencing from people who have an aversion to tradition in the Church. The president’s wife said to me, “Edward, you must pray to your guardian angel and ask him to speak to the guardian angels of your adversaries that they might soften their hearts.” As I pondered her words, I began to realize just how much my own guardian angel has done for me throughout my life and what a great army is the heavenly host of all the angels. I also thought that a unique college should have a unique name. Thus, Collegium sanctorum angelorum was born, both in homage to the angels and to ask their intercession for the college’s success. So, we have not just a single saint working in heaven for us, but an entire army!

By the way, I don’t know whether the English version will get used as we progress, but for the time being we are avoiding it. The Latin signals the traditional focus of the college, and we like that.

Where will it be?

Ocala FL. This is a small town in north central Florida, about one hour north of Orlando. We have made preliminary arrangements to lease space in an unused portion of a Catholic medical complex called Charleston Place. (6451 SW 54th St. Ocala FL 34474) It is about two miles from Queen of Peace Catholic Church where the traditional Mass is celebrated and only a few miles from downtown Ocala.

Ocala is also home to a number of beautiful Florida sites, such as Silver Springs and the Ocala National Forest. It is also a major horse breeding center in the country. So, it’s an ideal location: easy access, near a beautiful church with the traditional Mass, a quiet location but close to a downtown with a friendly small town atmosphere.

When will it open?

We plan to begin accepting applications in the fall of 2018 for students who will be freshmen in the fall of 2019.

How can we help?

This is a huge undertaking. There are a number of things folks can do.

First and foremost, pray. I might suggest this pray to the angels that I add to my Office every morning:

Bless the Lord, All you His Angels, You who are mighty in strength and do His will. Intercede for me at the throne of God, and by your unceasing watchfulness protect me in every danger of soul and body. Obtain for me the grace of final perseverance, so that after this life I may be admitted to your glorious company and may sing with you the praises of God for all eternity.

O all you holy Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones; Dominions, Virtues and Powers; Principalities, Archangels and Angels; and especially you, my dear Guardian Angel, intercede for me and obtain for me the special favor of the success of the College of the Holy Angels.

(Our Father … 9x)

Second, buy some Heavenly Roast Coffee: www.heavenlyroastcoffee.com

Third, visit the website: www.collegiumsanctorumangelorum.org. Follow our blog on the website, share it with others. Help us build awareness and a following.

Fourth, plan for your children to take some courses in the high school and attend the college.

Last, if you can, make a donation on the website.