Newman Hall-Holy Spirit Parish is a spiritual home to undergrad and grad students at UC Berkeley, and to adults and families from the Berkeley/Oakland area and beyond. This special combination of student and resident parishioners has created a unique community of faith that invites all to the love of Christ.

In particular, we are about serving the students at UC Berkeley as they delve into and take ownership of their faith as young adults.

Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

We have 50 days of celebration of Christ’s resurrection because this is too amazing and grand an event to celebrate in just one day. Keep on unpacking how amazing is the resurrection of our Lord and its implications for us.

Thank you to everyone who attended one of the
Town Hall meetings after Masses
last weekend (April 6-7)

Our Paulist Fathers will leave Newman on July 1st. We’ll be remembering and celebrating their years at Newman at 2 parties.

One, for folks who’ll be leaving town at the end of the Cal semester, will be after the 5 p.m. Mass on Sunday, April 28th. This one is hosted by our students. Please RSVP so students know how much food to prepare.

The main one will be on Saturday, June 22nd starting with the 5pm Mass. We will be inviting former Paulists to come join us. Hope to see you there.

Confirmation with Bishop Barber, SJ

This past Thursday, April 11th, we celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation for our 12 adult and 3 teen confirmandi. This was a wonderful celebration of the Holy Spirit and Her 7-fold gifts. Congratulations to:

1. Chang-min Kung
2. Thomas Della Vigna
3. Shane Doherty
4. Adam Vincent Hernandez 5. Adrian Portillo
6. Anita B.
7. Arian De La Torre
8. Avigail Reyes Remias
9. Clarisa Consuelo Del Villar
10. Clarissa Limon
11. Gaberiela Rodriguez Sahagon
12. Iliana Gonalez
13. Julian Emilliano Correa
14. Mayra Crystal Lua Reyes
15. Nathalia Morales

congratulations to our Elect who celebrated the sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil

Please pray for Amy, Ava, Jubilee, and Nathan who were baptized and then celebrate confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Please also pray for Jacob who is already baptized Catholic and celebrated confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Prayer cards for them can be found in our lobby.

Bishop’s Ministries Appeal

Come support our diocese in her efforts to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of the East Bay. You can pick up an envelope and brochure in the lobby or donate through the diocesan website. Just make sure to select “Holy Spirit - Newman Hall” so we get the credit. Any funds above our goal is returned to the parish.

Columnist Martin Snapp is looking for Memories of Newman

As we approach the end of the Paulists' 117 years in Berkeley, columnist Martin Snapp of The East Bay Times would like to write a column focusing on people's fondest memories of their time at Newman Hall- Holy Spirit Parish. (Among us we could have memories spanning 80 years.)

If you have any memories you’d like to share, please contact Martin at 510-422-3922 or catman442@comcast.net

An Important Note from the Paulist Fathers

With great sadness, we are reporting the Paulist Fathers, due to declining priests, will be returning Newman Hall-Holy Spirit Parish to the diocese on July 1st. After 117 years of ministry to UC Berkeley and the East Bay, we are sadly ending one chapter and allowing the diocese to usher in a new chapter for campus ministry at UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Catholic community. We trust that our patrons, the Holy Spirit and St. John Cardinal Newman, will be guiding our parish during this new chapter of new leadership.

Here is the Pastor’s message sent to the parishioners.
Oakland Diocese Press Release
Paulist Father Press Release

Beware of Internet Scams

Please be aware of scams on the internet with folks pretending to be the pastor or someone you trust. They will be asking for a favor that typically is getting them gift cards and sending the codes over the internet. Before getting the gift cards or sending any info, please verify by using your usually way to talk to the person. It is most likely a scam.

If you choose to interact with the person, you may want to be kind to the person, maybe let them know you’ll be praying for them. They are trying to take advantage of our kindness, so be true to your kindness and be kind and wise. NYTimes had a front page article about people in the FarEast being scammed with the promise of a high paying tech job only to be shipped to a foreign country, locked away, and forced to run internet scams all day long. That would explain how these scams keep on going and keep on changing.

Explore becoming Catholic

Thinking about becoming Catholic or wanting to learn more about the Catholic Faith?
Sensing a desire to make some changes in your life?
Wanting some direction and purpose in your life?

Our Meetings are on Tuesday at 7:30pm

We have a process called the OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) where we accompany you with others to learn more about the Catholic faith and to deepen your relationship with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit through the lens of the Catholic faith and our sacraments and rituals. The process involves the entire Catholic community and you are welcome to join any of many faith and service groups to learn more how Catholics love and serve Jesus. This proess, OCIA, is for those wanting to know more about the Catholic faith to see if God is calling you to be Catholic or those who were baptized Catholic, but not catechized and desiring to finish celebrating their sacraments of initation, namely Confirmation and Eucharist. To find out more, contact Fr. Ivan.

Children’s Faith formation

Monthly Family Gathers after the 10am
to help you and your children
grow in the richness and beauty of the Catholic Faith

Children’s faith formation has started for the year. We are using a family-based format this year, where we’ll meet once a month for growing in our beauty faith and sharing a meal. Jesus did his best teaching over food.

Our upcoming meetings are on Sundays after the 10 AM Mass on April 21 and May 19, 2024

For more info, please contact Peter and Eva. Please register at the front desk or below:

Helping with our Liturgy

Our Sunday worship is the heart of our Catholic faith, the source and summit. To celebrate well, it helps to have a full set of active volunteers. If you missed our lector or Eucharistic ministry training, we still want you be a lector or Eucharistic Minister. We also need altar servers, sacristans, live stream producer, and chapel cleaners. We surely could use your help!

Please click on the button below to find out more or sign up.

Newman Grads

If you’re a graduate student or young adult, come join Newman Grads. Contact us at grads@calnewman.org for more info or look out for us in front of the church after the 10am Sunday Mass. Here are our regular events:

Sun (11am) - Sunday Social
Thu (7pm) - Women’s Group
Thu (7pm) - Men’s Group

Catholicism WOW!

Wednesday at 7pm on ZOOM

Each week participants in this drop-in group explore a different topic from our rich Catholic faith. During Lent this year, we’ll be participating in the Lenten program, Living the Eucharist, using the workbook to guide our sessions. If you plan to join us for Lent, pick up a workbook at Newman’s front desk.

Join us Wednesdays on ZOOM. Contact Ned & Yvette for the ZOOM link. See the description of this week’s topic on the webpage CatholicismWow!

Special thanks to Randy and Chris Dixon

As you come to the chapel, you may notice the extra color in the sanctuary, a space that is typically predominantly concrete gray. Thanks to Randy, who designed the tapestries, and to Chris, who sewed them together, a number of bright banners now brighten the altar. The three ceiling banners, an altar piece, and the ambo banner complete the set. The three ceiling banners represent the powerful and graceful wings of the Holy Spirit. Our eyes are then drawn to the altar where one can see a tapestry of the dove’s head, a representation of our Church, Jesus Christ. The ambo covering depicts fish symbols, an early symbol of Christians: We are the fish being caught by and inflamed with love by the Holy Spirit.

Loaves & Fishes Thanks

Thank you to everyone who helped with our February 3rd dinner. Our next community dinner is on May 4th. We appreciate all of your who’ve signed up to help. At the moment, we’ve got plenty of volunteers for the March 2nd dinner. Check back here next month if you’d like to volunteer. We’ll post a volunteer link then.

Habitat for Newmanity Thanks

Thanks to all who helped maintain and beautify Newman in 2024. We are blessed to have such faithful volunteers! Click this link to get the latest information about our upcoming projects.

Please pray for Our Recently Deceased:

• Philip Catterton - brother of a parishioner

• Wanda Luisi - (3/06/24) - Former parishioner whose husband helped with Loaves & Fishes and lots of handy repair work at Newman. Funeral Mass was at St. Jerome’s (El Cerrito) on Wednesday, March 20th.

• “Fitz” John Joseph Fitzgerald - Faithful entertainer for Loaves & Fishes Dinner - Funeral Service - was on 3/9 at St Luke’s Episcopal Church (1755 Clay St., SF)

• Madeline Jay Chu (2/15/24) - long time parishioner whose funeral service was 3/2/24 at Mountain View Cemetery

• Juliana Fernandez (Dec 2023) - mother of a parishioner - Funeral Mass was 1/18/24.

• Sarah Evangeline Hughes (12/24/23) - daughter of a parishioner

• John Piercy (12/9/23) - Long term parishioner - Funeral Mass was 1/15/24.

• Carmen Neafsey (11/4/23) - Long time parishioner, spiritual director - Funeral Mass was 11/28/23.

• Mary Frances Luersen (10/29/23) - 10am Mass parishioner, former Parish Council member - Funeral Mass was 1/20/24.

Events & News Outside NEWMAN

Ceasefire Walk Night Walks

Grief Support: An Evening with Sandy (7-8pm, Tue) - peer ministry and drop in session, so come any time and join a group of people sharing our experience of grief along with each other. Sandy Heinisch is a grief trainer with the Diocese of Oakland.

Parish in Action - Ideas for helping parishes address the needs of society.

2022 Gallagher Talk: Three Fates of Toxic Polarization and How We Can Deal With Them - Fr. Steven Bell, CSP
Click on the title to watch a presentation

Body-Soul Unity of the Human Person Pastoral Letter (9/29/23) - from Archbishop Cordileone & Bishop Barber, SJ

Paulist VOICE Newsletter - Quarterly newsletter from the Paulist Fathers and the latest news.