Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Model Campus Ministry

Yesterday evening, I had a great time visiting the Newman Catholic Community at Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus.

I was honored to be asked to speak with the students about Faithful Citizenship. The visit also gave me the chance to give a brief commercial about the National Catholic Student Coalition (NCSC).

It was through NCSC that I first met C.W. Post's Catholic chaplain, La Salette Father Ted Brown, in the late '90s when I was active in the Newman Club at NYU.

I was very impressed with the ministry of Fr. Ted and the Catholic students at C.W. Post. In addition to Sunday evening Mass, retreats, a bible study, soup kitchen work and trips to places like the Bronx Zoo and Washington, D.C., the C.W. Post Catholics travel each year to Mexico to help build houses and schools.

I also was extremely impressed by C.W. Post's superb Interfaith Center (pictured above). It's a beautiful building in the heart of campus that houses ministries to Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Islamic students (as well as other belief traditions). It's a model that should be replicated on campuses across the country.

When I arrived at the Interfaith Center, the C.W. Post Hillel was meeting in the same meeting space later used by the Newman Club. (The Hillel students donated some kosher pizza for the Newman meeting.) As I left at the end of the night, a gospel choir was practicing upstairs in the large chapel that is used by all of the faith communities on campus.

Very impressive indeed.

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