Sermon for Berkeley

In our second reading today, the Apostle Paul writes to the Philippians,

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and the God of peace will be with you.

As Roman Catholics we believe that our faith extends into every element of our culture, into all the arts and the sciences. As a Paulist community, we believe in a dialogue between the Catholic faith and American culture. Paulist founder Isaac Hecker loved that debate and hopefully because Cal Berkeley is a part of the Paulist family, so do we all.

But how did Newman come to be and how did the Paulists get here?

In the fall semester of 1899 a group of ten students decided to start a Club for Catholics on the campus of Cal Berkeley. Several of them had met a year earlier in 1898 but nothing had followed as many Catholic students were afraid to identify themselves as Catholics on the campus. What made a difference this second time was their chaplain. It was the encouragement they got from a newly ordained priest from neighboring parish of St. Joseph's in Berkeley where many of the students attended Mass on Sunday. Father John Campbell, later the first Bishop and Archbishop of Los Angeles, believed in them. He wanted students to be more than temporary parishioners at St. Joseph's; he wanted them to have a real Catholic presence on the campus of this university, which was thirty years old.

Being a Catholic on campus was a very brave thing to do as many academics wrote off the Catholic faith as superstitious, as anti-intellectual, as opposed to reason and science. What we would today call campus ministry was something completely new. Newman Clubs like the one that began here in 1899 were few and far between. And Catholic students were not encouraged to attend state universities. American bishops in 1899 believed that young Catholics belonged in Catholic colleges where they could be appropriately formed in their faith, such as the new Saint Mary's College in Oakland. The state university was full of Protestants; in fact many state schools were originally founded as denominational Christian colleges. Berkeley was no exception. It began in 1855 as the College of California, founded by Henry Durant, a Congregationalist minister. Durant would later become the first President of the University of California.

Sending young Catholics to secular schools, often Protestant in origin, like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Berkeley, led to fears that students would lose their faith rather than deepen it. Bishops worried that the students might be pressured by faculty and fellow students who, if not Protestant, were probably secular or atheistic. This was not a place to deepen their understanding of their Catholic faith.

But Catholic students oftentimes could not afford the tuition at Catholic colleges like St. Mary's, Santa Clara, or the University of San Francisco. State universities offered tuition and fees that were much more reasonable and sometimes even free. State schools had far more scholarships as well. For economic reasons, state schools were often the only choices.

The Newman Club at Berkeley grew over the next few years. Meetings were held every other Wednesday afternoon in Stiles Hall where there was a lecture on some area of Catholic teaching, while students continued to go to Saint Joseph's parish for Mass on Sunday.

But it was time to take another step. It was time for the Newman Club to be housed in a Newman Hall. And Catholics at the University of California were soon to discover that they had a friend and supporter in the person of their local bishop, Archbishop Patrick Riordan of San Francisco. Not only was he an important supporter, but in reading the 1905 encyclical of Pope Pius X that mandated bishops to provide chaplains to secular schools he decided there should be a building and a chaplaincy staff for the students at Berkeley. In 1905 Riordan began work to build Newman Hall as a serious presence on the campus. What slowed him down was the earthquake and fire of 1906 which diverted his energy and attention.

In 1907 Riordan celebrated 25 years as bishop and was presented with a gift of 50 thousand dollars. This was big money at the time; in today's terms, several million dollars. He pledged it to the building of Newman Hall. And he went to the Paulist Fathers and asked them to be chaplains. Why the Paulists? Well the Paulists had a reputation of being comfortable among Protestants. Their order was founded and staffed by Protestant converts, and so where Catholics talked to and worked among Protestants, there were the Paulists. The Paulists, thought Riordan, were just the priests to serve as mentors and guides for young students as they foraged through the structures of Protestant America.

And in response the Paulists sent five extraordinary priests over the next twenty years; the best of their number to Berkeley. It began with Father Thomas Verner Moore, who was 30 years of age when he arrived at Berkeley. With a doctorate in the new field of psychology, he had just finished his training in Leipzig, in a new and developing field of research called psychoanalysis. He would in time become a physician and a psychiatrist and while at Berkeley he began the study of the relationship between science and religion which would occupy him the rest of his life.

Thomas Lantry O'Neill was his assistant who would succeed him as the principal chaplain and remain at Berkeley for the next twelve years. O'Neill was 26 years old and a newly ordained priest when he got to Berkeley. He had broken off his doctoral studies in Washington to come here. O'Neill would provide the continuity that Newman Hall needed. He remained at Berkeley until he went to Rome in 1922 to become rector of the American church at the basilica of Santa Susanna. Other academic Paulists would come and go but it was Father O'Neill who created many of the programs for Catholic students and faculty and who really provided continuity through the initial years of Newman Hall. With O'Neill was George Searle, the Harvard astronomer and scientist who came to Berkeley when Thomas Vernor Moore left. Searle had been a professor of astronomy and mathematics at the United States Naval Academy and had recently served as the Superior General of the Paulists. Searle was followed by Clarence Woodman, also an astronomer and scientist, who had been knighted by the King of Spain. These were no ordinary Paulists and they came with credentials that allowed them access to the university and its faculty.

We celebrate this weekend the founding of the Paulist Fathers. Five converts, five former Redemptorists who had a vision of a Catholic America. So we also celebrate how the Paulists began a new work here at Berkeley some 101 years ago and the first five Paulists who helped create Newman Hall. The first Catholic students to organize took the name "Newman" for their club because Cardinal Newman believed that the university is the place to shape and form believing Catholics.

What made Newman Hall work was the fundamental belief that faith extends into all areas of study.

Learning is a dialogue and for American Catholics it is a dialogue between faith and culture, faith and reason, faith and science. One hundred and one years ago Catholic students began that dialogue at Cal Berkeley in order to shape their identity as educated Catholics. The Paulist Fathers have been companions and guides in that journey. We are here today because of them. May God bless Newman Hall and may we never be afraid to say that our Catholicity extends into every area of research that is housed by the campus.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and the God of peace will be with you.

For this is the good news we share today.

Fr. Paul Robichaud, CSP