FAYETTVILLE — Warm weather sometimes brings extra visitors to St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Fayetteville, but they’re not all welcome inside. So when the campus ministers Laurie Schuler and Vera Zawislek find tiny black snakes crawling down the hallway, they scoop them up and deposit them back outside, away from the church in hopes the reptiles will find a home elsewhere.
The two women take it as a matter of course in their work at the parish, which serves the University of Arkansas community. But it’s a little harder to ignore the leaky roof, the deteriorating electrical system and the heating and cooling systems that are dying off room by room because those things affect how the parish is served. When the microwave goes on, the computers go off, so its staff is frequently reminded their facilities are in need of repair.
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St. Thomas is one of four full-time campus ministries around the state and it is the oldest, its church, Newman Hall and other facilities having been constructed 50 years ago. The newest building is Jonesboro’s Blessed John Newman University Parish (serving Arkansas State University), which was built 15 years ago.
St. Leo the Great University Parish in Russellville (serving Arkansas Tech University) and Catholic Campus Ministry in Conway (serving University of Central Arkansas and Hendrix College) both operate out of small houses. Their quarters are cramped, not large enough to serve their entire community at one time.
Conway’s campus minister, Deacon Richard Papini, also serves as diocesan director of campus ministry, so he is very familiar with all the ministries around the state, which include part-time ministries at six other campuses — Lyon College in Batesville, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Harding University in Searcy, ASU at Beebe and University of the Ozarks in Clarksville.
As enrollment increases at the schools, the number of Catholic students and faculty also increases, and the populations have outgrown the aging facilities in many cases. Papini said, “Yes, in all caps, we are definitely in need of facilities and we’re in need of funding … to grow campus ministry throughout the diocese.”
Most of the campus ministries are supported by the diocese. Catholic Arkansas Sharing Appeal provides some funding as does Catholic Church Extension Society in Chicago, Papini said. Other money comes from fundraising activities, including phone-a-thons and newsletter appeals. Fayetteville and Jonesboro do a lot of fundraising, he said, and Conway raises enough money for operating capital and for a full-time staff person.
He said he believes St. Leo in Russellville is in the most dire need of new facilities because its building isn’t structurally sound. The 1,200-square-foot house was damaged by fire once and was built nearly 60 years ago.
Father Ernest Hardesty, who serves St. Leo parish as well as Church of the Assumption in Atkins, likes to talk about the many activities at the university parish, including a thriving Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program, annual mission trips during spring break, and a weekly lunch for students. Despite the fact only about 55 students can fit inside the small building at one time, more than 100 have shown up regularly for the free Thursday lunches during the last few months. They show up for Mass each Sunday, too.
He doesn’t ask for it, but it’s difficult not to feel sympathy for Father Hardesty. After overseeing construction of the Jonesboro facilities, which he describes as “beautiful,” he was assigned in 1996 to the Russellville campus parish. He admits to some frustration at times because the building isn’t sufficient for the community’s needs — it’s not even large enough to invite alumni and their families back.
In fact, he asks college faculty and their families to attend Mass at St. John Church in Russellville because there’s simply not room for them and the students at St. Leo.
Father Hardesty provides all the usual functions of a priest at St. Leo’s except, he said, for baptisms and weddings. He does perform many weddings, but never at St. Leo’s.
“No young lady would ever want to be married here,” he said good naturedly.
There is some reason for optimism. The parish recently hired Mary Buford, a graduate of Christian Brothers University in Memphis, as director of development. The position is part time — for the balance of her time, Buford keeps the books at Father Hardesty’s other parish in Atkins – but she’s already had some early success in bringing in additional funding for St. Leo’s.
Deacon Papini said the Conway ministry also operates in a small house, albeit a structurally sound one. It’s in a prime position on the edge of the UCA campus. At 8 p.m. Mass each Sunday, 50 to 60 students sit elbow to elbow with no room to kneel, he said. The site includes a large lot so, if and when funding becomes available, expansion is possible.
“We could probably construct a chapel adjacent to (the existing building) and keep the house,” Papini said.
Even at Fayetteville’s St. Thomas where there’s a church, Newman Center and other facilities, space is cramped. There, too, worshippers from the community are asked to attend St. Joseph Church on the other side of the city because of the lack of space. Father Andy Smith celebrates Mass twice on Sunday evenings — Sunday mornings he says Mass at his other parish, St. Bernard in Bella Vista. The second Sunday Mass was originally made possible when the late Father Jim Fischer, a Vincentian priest, lived in the area. Father Smith hasn’t changed the Mass schedule since Father Fischer left, but Schuler and Zawislek know it’s a big demand on his time.
More than 600 people are registered in the parish and 400 people show up for the Sunday 5 p.m. Mass, Schuler said.
Zawislek and Schuler said the parish does have plans for renovating the structure but it won’t be easy. They know the diocese doesn’t have the money to help – even if it did, without a bishop, no large capital project that requires funding from the diocese can proceed. If St. Thomas can raise the money itself, it may be able to go ahead, but it will be expensive.
Deacon Papini said the ministry at Conway is “kind of limping along. The facility itself is OK, it’s just too small. We need the space bad.”
It’s important, he noted, to realize that the student communities are the future leaders of the Church.
“I’ve personally witnessed … how these students are hungry for the faith. They’re searching for Christ and they’re really committed to growing in their Catholic faith. They just have such leadership potential; we just need to reach more of them.
“These are the ones that are going to make a difference in our Church. They’re going to renew our Church.”
New
Blessed John Newman University Parish, Jonesboro
Serving students and faculty at Arkansas State University
Year built: 1992
Seating capacity: 250
Average Sunday Mass attendance: 170-200
Old
St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish, Fayetteville
Serving students and faculty at the University of Arkansas
Year built: 1957
Seating capacity: 250
St. Leo University Parish, Russellville
Serving students and faculty at Arkansas Tech University
Year built: 1950; diocese acquired building in 1990
Seating capacity: 55
Average Sunday Mass attendance: 55-60
Conway Catholic Campus Ministry
Serving students and faculty at the University of Central Arkansas and Hendrix College
Year built: Unknown. Diocese acquired building in 1996
Seating capacity: 50
Average Sunday Mass attendance: 50-60
