Since our foundation in 1999, Divine Mercy University has conferred 890 master's graduates and 121 doctoral graduates.
In the pursuit of their vocation to heal, our growing number of alumni are making an impact in the field of psychology and counseling in the culture, in the church, and in the world.
This ever expanding reach of the mission is truly inspiring.
University presents the distinguished alumni award to a graduate who has made significant contributions to society and whose accomplishments, affiliations, and career have honored the legacy of excellence of their alma mater.
Recipients of this award are accomplished in the following areas professional achievement, leadership, service to the community, and faithful advancement of the mission and vision of the university.
It is with great pride and joy that we present the twenty twenty six distinguished alumni award to Bishop Cholinski, class of 2014.
Bishop Chielinski, a native of New York who also moved throughout Connecticut and Pennsylvania, received his Bachelor of Music degree from Temple University.
He entered priestly formation at St.
Charles Borromeo Seminary in 2001.
He earned a Master of Divinity degree in 2006 and a Master of Arts degree in Theology in 2007.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2007.
A student wasn't complete, after five years in ministry, he studied clinical psychology here at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences and received his master's degree.
That same year, he was appointed to the faculty of St.
Charles Borromeo Seminary and in 2022, rector.
He was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia in March 2024.
Among his responsibilities, he directly supports the Office for Catholic Education and the important work in the diocese.
He is a true representative of a distinguished alumni with significant contributions to the field and constant dedication, service, and care to the mission and vision of the university and of the human person.
We are honored to present Bishop Cholinski with this award.
Please come forward.
Thank you so much, Jesse.
Father Charles and to the board of directors, to faculty, administration, staff, bishop Laverty, mister Anderson, it's a great joy to be with all of you today.
I also send warm greetings and congratulations from Bishop Burbridge, who I was in touch with this morning, knowing of his prayers and support.
I wish to share just a brief little story.
When the Victorford clergy called me to his office saying that he wanted me to go and study psychology, he told me, I don't know where I'm gonna send you but we need someone to study psychology.
I said, okay.
So I went back to my office that afternoon and I said a prayer to the Holy Spirit and then I turned on Google.
Because even in my limited experience, I knew that there were all kinds of programs teaching all kinds of things.
And so I prayed to the Holy Spirit and I googled and I just typed in Catholic graduate school psychology and a few different things came up but all of a sudden I saw this thing called IPS and I saw a picture of Father Groeschel and I was like, what is this?
And then I started reading, and all of a sudden as I was reading through this, it was it was done.
I knew it.
The Holy Spirit was telling me so clearly, this is where I'm supposed to go.
And so I presented it to my diocese and and thank God it was accepted.
Interestingly, right around the same time when, people were finding out I was going to study psychology and I they didn't know where I was studying yet, This one religious sister came up to me, a friend of mine, and she said, are you you're going to study psychology?
I said, yes.
She said, I'm gonna pray for you.
I said, well, thank you.
She said, well, no.
I'm gonna pray for you so that you don't lose your faith.
The reason being, there's been many in history, previous decades, previous programs, where people would study psychology, and psychology would present itself almost as if it was another religion.
Almost as if it was another religion.
But I'm happy to say that not only did I not lose my faith, but coming to Divine Mercy, then IPS, it actually increased my faith.
It increased my faith.
It increased my faith in just learning so much about the human person and God's design for what flourishing is really supposed to be.
Learned so much about who he is and who I am as a human being, as a son of God.
I learned so much through this beautiful metal meta model that was still being developed and nuanced and and refined when I was there.
And it creates this beautiful lens and that's what I would tell the seminarians.
I said, you know, one of the most important things a clinician, a counselor can learn is the lens through which he sees the person sitting in front of him or her because that lens is gonna guide everything.
It's gonna guide your counsel.
It's gonna guide the advice you give.
And so I learned so much, not only content wise, but my faith increased through the people that I met, through my peers, through their beautiful faith and dedication, through my cohort, and through the faculty.
The story of IPS and Divine Mercy is truly a miracle.
It's truly a work of God.
And the image that I see, it's like a mustard seed starting in that little room in the Marriott Hotel with a few faculty members who really walked out in trusting faith to follow the Lord in this noble adventure.
And so among all of the faculty who I was so inspired by, I do wish to acknowledge several by name, part of that early cohort who got things running, such as doctor Sweeney, doctor Nordling, doctor Vitz, doctor Moncher, doctor Titus, doctor Scrofani, and so many others.
Thank you for all that you've done.
You've increased my faith.
I was blessed to work at the seminary for eleven years.
And for eight of those years, I oversaw the counseling services and human formation.
And everything I learned at IPS just gave me that foundation.
And they always say at the heart of human formation, you go from self awareness to self acceptance to self gift, all in the light of our relationship with the Lord.
And divine mercy teaches those things.
Divine mercy is a gift to the church and to the world.
And as an auxiliary bishop in the new roles I have, I hope to be an even better ambassador for the importance of of good mental health care within the context of our faith.
So I'm so thankful for this award.
I'm so thankful to be part of the IPS divine mercy legacy.
And I leave you with this quote that sums it all up for me.
Faith in the resurrection of Jesus says that there's a future for every human being.
That's pope Benedict the sixteenth.
This place has increased my faith, and may those seeds continue to grow in all of you.
Thank you.