The legacy of St. John Henry Newman lives on

The legacy of St. John Henry Newman lives on through Catholic Campus Ministry here in the Diocese of Charlotte.
In Catholic Campus Ministry, students find a community of college-age Catholics who encourage, support and challenge each other to grow deeper in their Catholic faith and in their academic knowledge of what the Catholic Church teaches and why.
St. John Newman was dedicated to both religious and secular studies at the university. An intellectual himself, he was a professor at Oxford and an Anglican priest. His search for truth eventually led him to the Catholic Church, where he was ordained a priest and later made a cardinal.
To St. John Newman, a university’s purpose was to educate the whole person. A student should learn about matters beyond their area of study. He was convinced that the study of theology, along with the study of secular topics, was central to students’ total formation.
Two years before his death, Catholic students at Oxford named their student association the “Oxford University Newman Society” in honor of Cardinal Newman. They incorporated principles from his great work, “The Idea of a University,” into their programming. The society hosted weekly lectures from theologians, legal scholars, politicians, artists and others from various professional backgrounds.
St. John Newman’s work in higher education spread beyond Britain. In 1893, Catholic students at the University of Pennsylvania formed a student organization called the “Newman Club,” which started a trend. Catholic students, with support from priests at parishes near university campuses, formed similar Newman clubs at public and private non-Catholic colleges across the country. These Newman clubs were the forerunner to what we know today as Catholic Campus Ministry.
In 1985 the U.S. bishops declared St. John Newman the patron of Catholic Campus Ministry in a pastoral letter entitled “Empowered by the Spirit.” The pastoral letter reflects his influence even today, particularly in the sections called the “Aspects of Campus Ministry,” which spell out the bishops’ programmatic mandate for Catholic Campus Ministry in a diocese.
As the whole Church celebrates one of its newest saints, St. John Henry Newman, Catholic Campus Ministry continues his legacy to help students integrate secular learning with the study of faith and Catholic theology. According to St. John Newman, this is the sign of a well-educated person. Please pray for Catholic Campus Ministry, here in the Diocese of Charlotte, and across the world.
St. John Henry Newman, pray for us!
— Darien Clark, Diocese of Charlotte Catholic Campus Ministry