OUR MISSION
St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center serves the spiritual, social, and personal needs of students enrolled at Northern State University. Our primary focus is to provide and express the importance of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession. We know that college is difficult and trying, so we all need and long for the presence of Jesus Christ. We also strive to provide an atmosphere of comfort and warmth for all students to come, enjoy, and use all that the Newman Center has to provide. In many ways, the Newman Center is a home away from home.
HISTORY OF THE NEWMAN CENTERS
John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was an Englishman who spent nearly all of his life in an academic setting. He was dedicated to pursuing religious truth and understanding the faith. Newman was raised in the Anglican Church. His search led him to join the Catholic Church and, late in life he was named a cardinal. His theological insights bore fruit in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960′s.
The “Newman Movement” had its origins just over 100 years ago when a group of Catholic students in Wisconsin formed the “Melvin Club” named after the person at whose house they met. Similar groups of Catholic support were starting all over the country. ln 1893, the Catholic Club at the University of Pennsylvania chose to call themselves the “Newman Club” in honor of the great scholar who had just died three years earlier. During the 1900′s, the Newman movement grew, and today Newman Clubs (Catholic Centers) can be found on most college campuses throughout the United States.
In Aberdeen, SD the first Newman Club was founded in 1948; and during that time Fr. William Cracknell, Chaplain of St. Luke’s Hospital was the chaplain. Back then there was no “Newman Center”–only a Newman Club. Meetings were held at Sacred Heart and the students assisted with masses there. Then in 1968, plans began for a Newman Center on land previously purchases adjacent to campus. The 21,777 sq. ft. center opened Sept. 1969 under the direction of Fr. Milton Eggerling. St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center was constructed in response to the foresight of Bishop Hoch who understood the importance of a Catholic presence on our campuses. The Newman Center has served the campus of Northern State University ever since.
ABOUT OUR PATRON: ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), is the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and of divine revelation. He is one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church and is honored with the title Doctor of the Church. His feast day is celebrated January 28.
The unity, harmony and continuity of faith and reason, of revealed and natural human knowledge, pervade the writings of Aquinas. As a Dominican priest and man of the Gospel, he was an ardent defender of revealed truth. Yet, he was broad enough and deep enough to see the whole natural order as coming from God the Creator, and to see reason as a divine gift to be highly cherished. When asked why he stopped working on the Summa Theologica, Aquinas replied, “I cannot go on . . . ALL that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.”
From his Summa Theologica: “Hence we must say that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act. But he does not need a new light added to his natural light, in order to know the truth in all things, but only in some that surpasses his natural knowledge” (1-2, 109,1)
St. Thomas Aquinas…pray for us!