Campaign already has impact
Catholic Campus Ministry receives $5,000,000 pledge!

With a $5 million pledge from The Reiman Foundation, Roy and Bobbi Reiman are helping Archbishop Dolan bring his dream of expanding Catholic Campus Ministry on public college campuses to life! Brian Zanin and Fr. Mark Niehaus, directors of campus ministry at UW-Whitewater and UW-Milwaukee campuses, are excitedly planning for much needed expansion.

A new facility for UW-Whitewater! The most critical need for Campus Ministry at UW-Whitewater is a new facility with handicapped access to replace the aging, small facility currently housing this ministry and supporting approximately 3,000 Catholic students. Brian has already begun assembling a building committee to involve students, faculty, and the pastor and building committee members from nearby St. Patrick Parish in Whitewater. Brian commented "I am both amazed by the students with disabilities who overcome the challenges our facility presents to be part of our ministry and the able-bodied students who are always willing to assist them, from pushing wheelchairs around tough corners, to helping them eat and even helping them use our bathroom."

More campus ministers and building refurbishments are on the docket for Campus Ministry at UW-Milwaukee. Strengthening outreach to the 7,000 to 9,000 Catholic students is a top priority here, as are repairs to the house and chapel windows, the installation of new chapel doors, and seed monies for a new scholarship fund. Says Newman Center student president Erik Bakk, "I had no idea how strong my faith would become and how many other students this place would touch. I started coming just for a place to pray and study, but the N.C. has become a place where I go to be with true friends and to discover who God wants me to be."

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Washington, DC (CARA), ninety percent of Catholic college students attend public or non-Catholic colleges or universities. For these students, campus ministry sites serve as vital links to faith at a time when their lives are at a crossroads. Because of Catholic Campus Ministry, students can gather to worship, attend bible classes, discussions and leadership trainings, and engage in social activities that build community.

Parishioners who pledge to the campaign can help equip college students to become mature Catholic adults and leaders. Ultimately, through additional support from the Faith In Our Future Campaign, planners hope to extend the benefits of strengthened campus ministry programs to Catholic students at other public college campuses in our archdiocese.

In its November 1985 pastoral letter entitled Empowered by the Spirit: Campus Ministry Faces the Future, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops identified six central aspects of Catholic Campus Ministry

• Forming the faith community
• Appropriating the faith
• Forming the Christian conscience
• Educating for justice
• Facilitating personal development
• Developing leaders for the future

A Final Thought from the Bishops' Subcommittee

"What if campus ministries reached an additional 10% of the nearly five million Catholic college students across the United States?" About every four years, dioceses across the United States would see about 500,000 committed Catholic leaders enter their parishes who attend Mass more frequently, who are more involved in parish activities, who give more financially, who consider religious vocations more seriously, and who more frequently encourage others to consider religious vocations.