Mass Excursions

St. Paul Catholic Center invites IU students ‘to encounter Jesus’

By Natalie Hoefer

At first, the statement made by Dominican Father Patrick Hyde seems a bit haughty: “The future of every parish in the archdiocese and beyond is impacted by the ministry we do at St. Paul Catholic Center.”

But the words are not his own.

“Priests of the archdiocese told me this when I first got here, and I’ve found it to be true,” says Father Patrick, who in 2016 began ministering at the parish, located on the campus of Indiana University (IU) in Bloomington. He was named pastor in 2019.

“Our job is to launch and form our students for life in parishes other than our own. It’s an awesome responsibility, and we take our mission very seriously.”

‘Inviting them to encounter Jesus’

St. Paul Catholic Center was founded in 1969, but its roots trace back several decades prior.

Newman Clubs for Catholic higher education students began appearing on U.S. college campuses in 1893. Indiana’s first Newman Club was founded by St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington in 1928, serving about 200 Catholic students at IU.

As the university grew, so did the number of Catholic students. When the parish moved from its location on the edge of the IU campus, its former site became a dedicated Newman Center in the early 1950s.

In 1967, Father James Higgins was named administrative director for IU Catholic students. He helped establish St. Paul Catholic Center, a combined Newman Center and Catholic parish and served as its first pastor.

Archdiocesan priests headed the faith community until 2005, when friars from the Chicago-based Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great began ministering there.

The parish has 400-500 families registered—most either newly married or retired couples, notes Father Patrick.

“But pretty much all we do is campus ministry for IU,” he says. “We’re here for all 50,000 students, but we focus primarily on serving the 8,000-plus Catholic students on campus—from freshmen through doctoral students—encountering each and every one of them where they are with the Gospel of Jesus and inviting them to encounter Jesus and change their life.”

In church, on campus, around town

There is no greater means of encountering Christ than through the sacraments. Every week during the school year, the four Dominican priests on staff at St. Paul offer Mass 17 times and confession 16 times.

“At Mass on Sunday during the school year, two-thirds [of the congregation] will be IU students, depending on which Mass—and almost entirely at the Sunday evening Mass,” says Father Patrick.

The parish also partners in ministry with the Fellow of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). Currently, about 440 students participate in FOCUS Bible studies, and about 120 of those are “in formation”—learning how to be missionary disciples.

As “one of—if not the—largest Christian ministries on campus,” says Father Patrick, St. Paul connects Catholic students “with a lot of things going on in the community, helping with things on campus, helping with St. Vincent de Paul [Society]—we have volunteers all over the place.”

The four Dominican priests on staff get out and about, too.

“We think creatively about how we can be present and available on campus,” says Father Patrick.

For example, Father Simon Felix Michalski is present on different parts of campus several hours each week for conversation and prayer. And Father Ben Keller, who played college baseball, makes himself available to athletes, teams and even coaches.

“In addition to those specific efforts, the friars regularly spend time with students in and around town and on campus at various events and social gatherings,” Father Patrick adds.

Proof of that out-and-about presence made national news—in what ultimately was a case of mistaken identity.

As reported in an April 5, 2016, article on The Tab news site, a tweet the night prior warned IU students of someone on campus wearing KKK gear and “armed with a whip.”

As it turned out, that “someone” was one of St. Paul’s friars wearing the Dominicans’ traditional white, hooded habit and the “whip” was a large rosary hanging from his belt.

‘The most formative years of their life’

The availability of sacraments, the Bible studies and the presence on campus are yielding fruit.

When he arrived in 2016, about 40 to 50 students came to the parish’s free supper after its Sunday 5:30 p.m. Mass, says Father Patrick. Now the average number is 200.

More importantly, about 30 students a year for the last several years have been welcomed into the full communion of the Church at St. Paul through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, he says, and an average of 15 Catholic students a year have received the sacrament of confirmation.

“They may have gone to Catholic school or maybe Mass at Easter and Christmas, but never got confirmed,” says Father Patrick.

“It’s a stark reality that often now, by the age of 13, a lot of kids don’t identify deeply as Catholic. We’re doing outreach to reach those who are lost or seeking but don’t know the beauty of the Church. We’ve seen more and more seeking that [beauty] out in last three to four years.”

He calls it “a gift” that so many parents entrust “the spiritual and moral formation of their kids to us during some of the most formative years of their life.”

“But we couldn’t do it without their and our alumni’s prayers or financial support,” Father Patrick adds.

Along that latter line, St. Paul Catholic Center will launch the public phase of a capital campaign this fall.

“The church was built in 1968 and dedicated in 1969,” he says. “A lot of the infrastructure goes back to then. And the most recent renovation was in the 1990s.

“The scope of the campaign is to address critical infrastructure issues in the church and to enhance the beauty of our worship.” Doing so will “ensure a beautiful sanctuary on IU’s campus for generations to come.”

Which in turn supports what Father Patrick calls St. Paul Catholic Center’s primary mission: “Being a sanctuary on campus, a place where Catholic students can come to study, pray, meet with Jesus, build relationships, and then send that out into the fraternities, sororities, dorms and beyond.”
 

(Mass Excursions is a periodic feature highlighting archdiocesan parishes. View past features at www.archindy.org/excursions.) †