Newman centers live out English saint's charism on college campuses - Our Sunday ...

Newman   centers live  out
English saint’s charism on
college campuses
In his book “The Idea of a University,” St. John Henry Newman
insisted on the interrelationship between the different areas
of knowledge, and that a university should help students
develop this “connected view.”

Inspired by this idea, clubs formed at Catholic universities —
first in England and then the United States — to provide
catechetical formation to integrate into a college education,
many taking the saint’s name as Newman centers or Newman
clubs.

Recognizing this significance, Brownsville Bishop Daniel E.
Flores last year dedicated the St. John Henry Newman
University Chapel at the Newman Center in Edinburg, Texas,
serving the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. With his
upcoming Oct. 9 feast day this year, for the first time,
people who “piously visit the chapel” can receive a partial
indulgence.

St. John   Henry
Newman

The famous Oxford-educated convert was a well-respected

Anglican theologian who is even recognized on the Church of
England’s and the Episcopal Church’s Calendar of Saints. He
led the Oxford Movement in the 1830s, which led to an
embracing of Anglicanism’s historical Christian roots, and
many — including Newman — to embrace the Catholic Church.

“The chapel is a very big deal for us, because we’ve
transformed that space significantly in the last two years,”
said Raul Cabrera, director of campus ministry at the
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “It’s a nice, reverent
place for students to come and pray.”

Cabrera said students are encouraged to learn more about St.
John Henry Newman through events like the daily “Coffee with
St. Newman,” which brings them together to read and reflect on
a few paragraphs, a prayer or something else he wrote. The
ministry also celebrates his feast day by offering the Liturgy
of the Hours, including a vespers service the night before,
and reading from Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua for the Office
of Readings.

Read more from our Catholic Colleges Fall 2021 special section
here.

Considering the university’s Hispanic population was 90.5% in
the Fall of 2020, it may seem strange for there to be such a
devotion to an English saint. One example of tying Latino
spirituality to Newman is through his motto, Cor ad cor
loquitur (“Heart speaks to heart”), said Cabrera, noting a
strong devotion among many Hispanics to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus.

“The Newman name is not common in our culture. What we try to
bring together is: How can we put together that with our
Latino culture?” Cabrera said. “How do we let the Sacred Heart
of Jesus speak to us? That’s how we tie into the culture the
Faith and the particular way of teaching from St. John Henry
Newman.”

A personal connection
Newman’s motto also serves as a model for evangelization, said
Audrey Aylmer, campus minister for the Our Lady of Wisdom
Newman Center at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine.

“When we vulnerably open up our hearts to people, we can
really evangelize that much better, because we’re caring about
somebody’s heart,” she said.

                             Students prepare snacks for a
                             pre-hockey game gathering at the
                             St. John Paul II Newman Center in
                             Omaha, Neb. The center, which
                             opened in August 2016 near the
                             University of Nebraska at Omaha
                             campus, is the dormitory home to
                             more than 100 students from the
                             university and the College of St.
                             Mary. CNS photo/Mike May,
                             Catholic Voice

The Newman Center is one of four churches that comprise the
Parish of the Resurrection based out of Old Town, Maine.
Members of the parish and campus communities have made the
Newman Center their spiritual home and found ways to also
carry out the New Evangelization, Aylmer said.

Aylmer, who also leads the Rite of Christian Initiation for
Adults program at the parish, said she typically has at least
one student candidate or catechumen, which she credits as a
result of that “heart to heart” invitation.

Erin McConnell, an incoming senior at U-Maine and current
president of the Black Bear Catholic student club, has seen
this firsthand.

“I had three friends become Catholic this past Easter. Having
watched their journey through RCIA and being there receiving
their first Eucharist and being confirmed, it’s amazing to
know that it started as a tiny conversation or someone
inviting them to Mass or a game night at the Newman Center,”
she said. “On a religious campus you may have the influence
from your campus to help you continue in your faith, but on a
secular campus, you really don’t have that unless you have
something like a Newman center and the people to help you
continue that.”

During her college career, McConnell has grown more confident
in her faith. She led a Bible study specifically for fellow
members of the U-Maine marching band her sophomore year, and
she’ll join others in praying the Rosary on campus.

“People see me there and see me in class two days later and
recognize me as one of the people saying the Rosary on campus.
I’ve had it spark up conversations before,” she said. “I’ve
learned a lot through being able to do my evangelization
within a specific group of people and people I’m friends with
outside the Newman Center. That has really helped me to
realize how much I enjoy being able to share with others, and
that was something St. John Henry Newman enjoyed — sharing his
faith with others.”

An example of reaching out
Even after his conversion to Catholicism, Newman maintained

many of his friendships with his former Anglican colleagues at
Oxford University, yet never wavering in his faith. While many
Newman clubs confront a secular campus, one club is closer to
following the saint’s footsteps in being a Catholic witness at
a university run by another religious tradition.

“I can definitely say that we sought to continue his work of
interfaith outreach and love for all people,” said William
King, an alumnus and past president of the Newman Club at
Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

When King’s older brother, David, was a student 10 years ago,
the club received official recognition as a student
organization at the institution run by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

For William, the club was about “giving people in a minority a
place to be with like-minded people.” He recalled the annual
“Involvapalooza,” where various clubs on campus would set up
booths. “We primarily got comments by people like ‘there are
Catholics here?'”

At first, David didn’t know who the Newman center was named
after, but he eventually learned more about the saint.

“Learning about his conversion, his researching of Church
history, his emphasis on Catholic education and choosing to
convert even though coming into the Church was difficult for
him, and choosing to do that because it was the truth — those
are some of the things I look up to him for,” David King said.

‘Pursuing God together’
Emma Fisher, the director of campus ministry at the Western
Washington University’s Newman Center in Bellingham,
Washington, regularly prays for Newman’s intercession as the
patron saint of the ministry.

“With Cardinal Newman … one of his biggest things is there

would be a space for young adults — and students specifically
— to come,” she said. “The house that we own just a few houses
off campus provides that, and it’s been a place that’s
assisted the Lord and the Holy Spirit in the conversion of
hearts.”

The priests from nearby Sacred Heart Parish serve the
university and celebrate Mass on Wednesdays and Sundays. One
example of providing that opportunity for continued formation
is the center’s “Diving Deeper” program, where students listen
to a talk on Friday nights followed by a Q&A session.

“Our mission is to encounter, equip and evangelize,” Fisher
said. When we do that with the students, we want to do that in
a place where they can encounter the Lord and go out and
evangelize,” she said. “That type of program is very similar
to John Henry Newman, and it does very well here, and it’s
cool to watch how that plays out. We’re consistently
encouraging students to ask the question so that they can seek
out the answer in the truths of the Faith and the teachings of
the Church.”

Newman centers are a combination of community life and
friendship in an environment “imbued by scholasticism and
academic work,” said Father Daniel Andrews, director and
pastor of the St. John Paul II Newman Center serving the
University of Nebraska at Omaha.

“It’s a place to ask big questions and find answers, both
spiritual and academic, being a presence near a secular
university to stand out as a beacon and proposing to all
students and faculty that there’s a source of all truth and
that faith and reason live in absolute harmony with each other
if we pursue both of them with earnestness,” he said.

When Newman was canonized, the center took the opportunity to
teach about his life and work.

“That was a very special day for us,” Father Andrews said.

“Sometimes as Catholics, we can have things like Newman
centers and, after a while, people don’t know who Newman was.
We have to be intentional about that from time to time so that
they really understand the origin of these centers and why
they’re so important.”

Following Newman’s example of interconnectedness of study,
Father Andrews emphasized the importance of developing the
“whole person academically, spiritually, physically,
emotionally and relationally.” This is done with activities
such as Bible studies, a speaker series and a “Leadership
Summit” for students looking to develop the qualities of being
a good leader. The students also engage in service
opportunities.

“This touches at the heart of what really ignites the fires at
Newman centers, is the peer-to-peer dynamic of pursuing God
together, and there’s a real palpable sense of our students’
awareness of the depths of each other’s hearts, and a real
reverence for the hunger that’s inside each of them. It
perfectly encapsulates ‘heart speaks to heart,'” said Father
Andrews. “I think our students are aware that Jesus is the
satisfaction of every heart.

“Overall, all the evidence confirms that Newman centers
throughout the country and other parts of the world are really
bright lights in the midst of a difficult time in the world
and, in many ways, the Church,” he added. “If anybody’s ever
wondering if the Gospel is relevant to college students, they
need only to look at what’s happening in Newman centers. They
are accomplishing the visions of John Henry Newman, and no
doubt through his intercession.”

Tony Gutiérrez writes from Arizona.