Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy mourns for two beloved students, Janine Lieu and Paul Sanders, after a tragic accident that took place on the first weekend in February.

On Saturday afternoon, four of our students drove down to Combermere in a minivan belonging to one of them, on a personal trip. At some point during the trip, they drove onto the frozen lake with the minivan and it went through the ice.  Two students made it out but Janine and Paul did not survive. 

The trip was not an Academy-sponsored event, and the school was at the time on a pre-scheduled three day study break, February 2-4.  The entire community is shocked and saddened, and our focus is on prayer, mutual support, and consolation of family and friends. We invite all concerned to add their prayers to those of the families and friends.

Students are visibly saddened but are finding comfort in the support of their friends, faculty, staff, and concerned members of the community.  Several priests, deacons, and trained psychologists have been continually present to the Academy community for consolation and grief counseling.

There has been a steady stream of both spontaneous and organized prayer services in response to this tragic accident, most of them held in the very supportive local parish church of St. Hedwig.  Masses, rosaries, and
all-night vigils have been and will continue to be held.

We greatly appreciate the continued prayers of all concerned people throughout what will no doubt be a long and difficult grieving process.

OLSWA extends its deepest sympathy to the families of Janine and Paul.  We are keeping you close in prayer.

On January 28, 2008, the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, we were blessed with the first official visit of our new bishop, His Excellency Michael Mulhall, to Saint Hedwig’s and Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy.  Appointed for the diocese of Pembroke last spring, and ordained on the feast of Saint Matthew on September 21 last fall, Bishop Mulhall is new at his task, but young, orthodox and enthusiastic.  In his homily to the parishioners and students, the bishop focused on the role of the teacher in transmitting truth:  the teacher, whether from the pulpit, in the classroom or within the home or workplace, is in fact a window on the truth; this requires humility, and a submission to God’s word and His Church.  In an iconic representation of this submission, the professors at the Academy then knelt before the bishop and recited the Oath of Fidelity, required of all Catholic university teachers according to Ex Corde Ecclesiae.  Such a sacramental sign gives those who teach the grace to fufill their roles as transmitters of the truth more fully, clearly and easily by uniting us to our bishop and, through him, to Christ and His Church.

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Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy is one of only twenty-one Catholic post-secondary institutions—and the only one in Canada—to be listed in the Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College: What to Look for and Where to Find It. The fruit of much painstaking research, the Guide presents Catholic parents and students with detailed information about a core group of colleges in the United States and Canada that are truly Catholic, according to the standards set out by Pope John Paul II’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

OLSWA is proud to be recognized by the Newman Society as a post-secondary institution that faithfully imparts the teachings of the Church within a Catholic environment. The Guide is endorsed by such eminent Catholics as Father Benedict Groeschel, Father John McCloskey, and Dr. Peter Kreeft.

For more information about the Guide, to be published this October and jointly marketed with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, click here.

On Monday, November 12th, His Excellency Terrence Prendergast, the newly-appointed Archbishop of Ottawa, visited Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy.  After touring the grounds, and visiting with the staff and students, the Archbishop (who is our metropolitan) celebrated Mass, then enjoyed a hearty meal with the entire college.  He even opened himself up to a question and answer session! 

It was a very pleasant surprise when the Archbishop also agreed to be our commencement speaker in May.  We would like to thank the Archbishop for his visit, and his continued support of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy.  May many graces be his as he continues to lead our archdiocese into the years ahead. 

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy was honoured with a meeting with His Eminence Marc Cardinal Ouellet in Quebec City, on October 20th, the feast of Our Lady of Schools.