ARTICLES

Aztec Catholics

WHY WOULD STUDENTS PREFER NEWMAN CENTER TO FRATERNITIES?

Most secular universities offer Catholic students a refuge where they can attend Mass, meet other Catholics, and add a spiritual dimension to an environment hostile to religion. These sanctuaries are known as Newman Centers, named for John Henry Cardinal Newman, the 19th century convert, apologist, and scholar. In 1930, Catholic students at San Diego State University started their Newman Club.

A 1950s structure houses the present-day Newman Center on Hardy Avenue, less than a block away from campus. Hidden by an asphalt parking lot and a wooden fence, a cross decorated in Native American figures and a sign are the only indications of religious activity. As you enter the center lobby, you find a house on both sides and you face a large back yard next to an older, yellow house built in the 1920s that faces Lindo Paseo (the next street). Magazines as diverse as This Rock and U.S. Catholic can be found on a magazine rack, and a bulletin board offers students seminary choices and activities such as helping the poor in Tijuana and pro-life rosaries in front of Planned Parenthood. Four students live in the house on the right; activities are held in the house on the left (a former garage). Attached to the student house is a chapel for daily mass that seats 30 people. The 30-by-40 foot main room holds a portable altar and about 60 removable chairs. This room doubles as a chapel for Sunday Mass and a hangout for study, conversations, meetings, dinners, dances, and shows. The priests live in the old house in back. Catholic students would not enjoy the services of this center were it not for Bishops Charles Buddy and Phillip Straling.

When Bishop Buddy appointed Straling as chaplain of the San Diego State College Newman Club in 1961, Straling was a priest for the San Diego diocese. He later became the first bishop of the Diocese of Riverside-San Bernadino and is now the bishop of Reno, Nevada. When he recalls his tenure at the Newman Center, Straling's voice softens: "At that time [1961] it was just a group meeting on campus. Masses and other programs met at St. Therese church in Del Cerro. It was really Father Bill Kraft [then pastor of St. Therese] who had the program going. There were only about 11 to 12,000 students going to State at the time.

"By 1963, Bishop Buddy had given me three jobs. I was teaching at Uni [University of San Diego] High School, associate pastor at St. Therese, and the chaplain at the Newman Club. I approached the bishop and told him that I couldn't do it all, and that my preference would be to work as the Newman chaplain. To my surprise, around Christmas time, he wrote me a note -- which I still have with me -- saying, 'You're relieved of all other duties to be the chaplain at the Newman Club.' It included a subsidy for the center. I was surprised myself. Even though he had put so much into USD, he [Buddy] had the vision to know most students needed a Catholic presence on secular campuses. I think his idea of a university was that you can't have a complete education without involving the mysteries of God."

As full-time chaplain, Straling was able to persuade Bishop Buddy to make the Newman Club a permanent presence on campus, transforming it into the Newman Center. "It was around 1965 that we bought the first building on Hardy Avenue. We bought it from a little Irish lady whose husband had died. She allowed us to use the garage as a meeting place. She said she would sell it to the church, so Bishop Buddy got us the house -- in fact, one of the last checks he signed was to pay for the Newman Center. Later, Bishop Furey paid for the rest of the center. We bought the house next door, which I think was the rectory for St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, and we joined them together. We later purchased the old yellow house in back as a living quarters for priests. Before that, it was a frat house."

Remaining until 1969, Straling wanted the Catholic Church to be near and available to all students. "We made a difference. I saw people turning toward God, many of whom never came or knew we were there. I really wanted to be a presence of the Church and Christ on campus. I used Cardinal Newman's motto, "Cor ad cor loquitor" which means, 'Hearts speak to hearts.'"

Straling believes his work made a difference. "I am pleased with the number of students that we did get. I saw conversions. People came to an understanding of the Catholic faith and how they could live it -- young people. But I gave ministry and service to students, faculty and staff. It was the time of Vatican II and the Vietnam War, and San Diego State wasn't exempt from the tensions and troubles that came with all that. It was a time when the Lord helped me look at where the church was and where it was going."

The service Straling brought to the Newman Center was not limited to San Diego State. Straling was in charge of campus ministry for the entire diocese and started Newman Centers at UCSD, Mesa, Grossmont, and City College. "It was a blessing. My heart is still in campus ministry. When you help bring God to a secular university, it's something you give, but it's also something you receive."

Visitors to the Newman Center are surprised by older people at Mass on Sunday morning. Many of these congregants are SDSU alumni who stayed with the Newman Center instead of joining a parish. For Tonya Pearsley, 54, of El Cajon, the Newman Center has been her family's main parish since she started at State in 1963. Pearsley remembers Straling and credits him with making the Newman Center more than a Catholic club: "We met in a garage. We even had Masses there. Bishop Straling made it a place where we wanted to be -- a home away from home. He made it a great place -- not just a church thing. It also became a social gathering area. He was a very empathetic priest."

Pearsley, eventually took an M.S. in psychology from SDSU in 1978 and now works as a school psychologist in the National School District (National City). She interrupted her studies several times to raise her three children, who are now all grown.

"When we started going to a regular parish -- I won't say which one -- my oldest boy, John J., who was seven at the time, said he'd rather go back to the Newman Center. When I asked him why, he said, 'Nobody ever smiles at our church. If they can't even smile after going to communion, when do they smile?' That was enough for me, so we went back."

Margie Brittain, 49, is one of Pearsley's friends whose children grew up as part of the "extended family" at the Newman Center. Brittain started anding Mass with her husband, Pete, an SDSU alumnus in 1966. "Originally, I went because I wanted to hear more challenging sermons. Our parish, St. Columba, still had priests at had come from Ireland, and the sermons were just too pre-Vatican II. At the Newman Center, it was more of a living parish. We had Straling and Father Charles Sheslo. There was a parish council at the center. We would get together and look at the readings for each week, choose the music, and make banners. We did a preparation for the sacraments too. In fact, we spent a year preparing the program."

After Straling's departure in 1969, several diocesan priests ran the center until 1980. The last diocesan priest to take charge in 1979, drove Brittain, her two children, and other congregants away from the Newman Center. "Father Robert Waters took control of the center and abruptly changed everything. He [Waters] blew up the whole structure," Brittain laments. "After Mass one Sunday, he held a meeting and told us that anyone who was not currently a student wasn't welcome -- our donations were welcome, but our presence was not!

"Waters came in and made changes that were not necessary. The development of student leadership declined. The library went downhill. He tore out a kitchen in the middle of the center that made big dinners easy for us and replaced it with a music room. The type of students who came changed. Traditional Catholics, such as Asian and Hispanics kept coming, but the Anglos did not. I took my kids over to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart."

Unable to spare more chaplains from a shrinking pool of priests, the diocese offered the Congregation of Jesus and Mary or Eudists control of the Newman Center in 1980. Several Eudists have operated the center since then, but the longest tenure was that of Father William Rowland and Father Angus Beaton, who worked together from 1983 until 1994.

Father Rowland and Father Beaton had worked together before at Dougherty High School in Buffalo, New York during the 1970s. Rowland, 56, was the principal of the school and Beaton, 74, was an English teacher. Their tenure was noted for its relaxed atmosphere. They were addressed by most students as Angus and Bill. While sound on doctrine, Father Beaton and Father Rowland were known as hesitant to scold or criticize anyone. One longtime member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insists that the casual atmosphere wasn't a big problem. "It was your typical college group, in fact, they were better behaved than most. Probably the worst thing was the politically correct modifications made to the lectionary, depending on who was saying Mass.

But, you know, I still saw fewer liturgical abuses there than in your average parish."

Father Rowland left the center in 1994 to become the pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church. After Rowland's departure there was a slight decline in Newman Center activity with Father Beaton and Father John Shinsky left in charge of the center -- largely because of the poor health of both priests. Father Shinsky left in May of 1997 to become a chaplain for Mercy Hospital. Father Beaton retired from the Newman Center in June this year. In July, more than 200 former students attended a retirement party for Father Beaton at the Mission Bay Aquatic Center, some traveling from as far away as the Bay Area.

The Eudist takeover brought back many longtime Newman Center members who had left. Pete Brittain stayed at the center all along, and when the Eudists came in, Margie and the kids returned. Margie remembers, "My kids had gotten what they could get at OLSH. I wanted to attend Mass as as family again. [Fathers] Bill, Angus and John Shinsky were very open and present to people one on one. They did a lot of community building ... like Passover meals and other things. They emphasized liturgy and celebration. It was a balanced combination of traditional liturgy and Vatican II liturgy."

Since 1994, The Eudist order has handed the care of the Newman Center to Eudist priests from Latin America. Its current pastor, Father Cesar Rubiano, came from Bogota, Colombia, to replace Father Shinsky in 1997.

Father Guillermo Echeverry came from Bogota to join Rubiano last March. Rubiano, 33, and Echeverry, 48, speak in broken English but offer a sense of calm and confidence reassuring to young college students far from home. Many of their language problems are solved by their secretary, Dulce Silva.

Born in Tijuana and raised in San Diego, Silva, 26, graduated from USD in 1997 with a degree in psychology and a minor in Spanish. She has worked at the Newman Center since November of 1998. "I enjoy ministry, but I help around the office, too. I'm actually the program coordinator. I help plan retreats and community service projects. "Some of these projects include feeding the homeless downtown, working at Rachel's Women Center, Tijuana Prison Outreach, and helping the Casa de la Mujer in Tijuana, a center for the prevention and reform of prostitution.

"I came here in 1997 as part of a National Evangelization Team. You travel for nine months in a van on a team of six guys and six girls." Silva has used her evangelization training to bring more students to the center. "We have an information table every Tuesday at Aztec Center. Once they [students] fill out a card, we try to invite everybody back at least once a semester. We have a 'Welcome Back Breakfast' the first Sunday of every semester and lots of other activities." She estimates that about 500 students are registered with the center, but many come and go.

So why would students prefer the Newman Center to a fraternity or sorority? For Dulce, it's because of community. "Here, everybody belongs. People are very open and friendly. You can build friendships here. It's safer than all the partying out there. Here there is a real hunger for the truth.

"We started something called REACH. It stands for Renewing and Evangelizing Active Collective Holiness. We got the idea at the Youth 2000 retreat in Garden Grove. It's on Thursday nights. One of our goals was to always have some form of prayer so it doesn't just become a social thing. We begin with music for about 20 minutes, then an opening prayer and scripture. We then go into our theme. Some of the themes have been The Father's Love, Confession, Ephesians, and the Call to Holiness ... things like that. After the presentation, we have small group sharing for 30 minutes. It can change form week to week. Sometimes we finish with Eucharistic adoration. On the last Thursday of the month we have Mass and the priest will incorporate the themes from that month into the Mass."

It's hard to imagine college students at a secular university wanting to hear unpopular docrines regarding sexual morality, but Silva insists that they do. "After the first REACH, we had students fill out forms on what issues they wanted to know more about. Many of them wanted to learn more about purity, chastity, temptation and prayer. It's so obvious that people are really hungry for something that's real.

"Since I've been here I've seen things change ... mostly positive changes. There's a constant group of ten to twelve people who always come back. They do all the planning, work, and clean-up. Father Cesar ordered everything he could get from Catholic Answers, including a CD-ROM on the lives of the saints and the Bible.

"We also started praying the Divine Mercy chaplet every day at three o'clock. That beautiful Divine Mercy painting (in the lobby) was a gift to us. Ever since we've had the picture up, I can't tell you the blessings that have come our way.

"We also started a kind of sisterhood. This was kind of to help women with prayer-partners. We've bonded and gotten really close. We did a night when we separated the men from the women to discuss what it means to be a holy man of God and ladies of devotion. Our focus has been on purity, prayer, and chastity. The students wanted this change. The guys especially.

Besides defying the popular culture, this renewed focus on prayer and holiness has inspired religious vocations. Silva can name five Newman Center members who are planning to become priests. "We have Ed Horning who will enter St. Francis seminary this fall. He has led a lot of our pro-life activities. Peter Ferrelli is joining the Benedictines at Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside. Tony Heim lives at the House of Discernment (a nearby Eudist residence for men considering the priesthood) and he is looking into a religious order in France. Alex Fotinakes plans on joining the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. And Richard de Lorimier was living with the Legionaires of Christ. It's been such a good experience for the women to see the guys strive for holiness and hunger for prayer."

Associate pastor Father Guillermo Echeverry has lived in the United Sates for four months. He doesn't like to talk about himself but is willing to discuss what goes on at the Newman Center. "We start our days very early. We have many meetings -- here or outside with other churches in the diocese. We have confessions and Mass -- many kinds of help to students. People come looking for information. By the end of the night at 9:30, we are still here. There are many students here at night -- even midnight. Father Cesar ... he works so hard ... until midnight every night."

Like Dulce Silva, Father Echeverry doesn't see much of a problem in presenting unpopular doctrines to young people. "It's not difficult. They are very good persons. They follow Jesus. There are other students, non-Catholic, that don't like our work, but they don't say anything."

Father Echeverry sees difficulties in the culture students live in. "These students. They don't know about life, God, the future. They live very, very alone, but we are here for them. Maybe where they live there is no one to say 'Hi' to them.

"Many of these young people are lost. They come for help and then look at their watch and say 'Thank you very much, but I have an appointment.' They don't know what a family is -- they are so alone, so poor. They are very responsible with their money. The study and learn only to make money. They come to me and say, 'Father I work so hard, I study all the time, but I am crying ... I am not happy.'

"I am sorry. My English is not good. You see, we want to help everybody, but we will only help them with Jesus. Many young people do not want to hear about God, about Jesus. But when we tell them and they leave ... sometimes they come back."