FAYETTEVILLE — Jay Carney’s academic background is impressive, but Father Andy Smith wondered whether he could relate to students.
Carney was pretty sure he could. After all, as an undergraduate student at the University of Arkansas campus, he helped create “the charging Hog,” a student-led cheer that still rises from the stands at each Razorbacks ballgame.
At least that’s the way Carney tells the story. He must have been convincing because Carney recently became the newest campus minister at St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Fayetteville. He joins Laurie Schuler, who had been the parish’s only student minister since last fall when long-time staffer Vera Zawislak left.
It seems appropriate Carney would return to St. Thomas, even if working there wasn’t originally his intention. The native of the Washington, D.C., area first came to Arkansas as a freshman on a Sturgis Fellowship, one of the campus’ most prestigious undergraduate scholarships. Just a few weeks before graduating, he took part in a church-sponsored mission trip to Honduras. He had been reluctant to go because his academic load was heavy. His father, however, urged him to go: You’ll forget what you learn in class; “you’ll never forget visiting Honduras.”
It was a prophetic statement. On that trip, Carney met the woman who would become his wife, Becky Baltz. She also went at the urging of her father, Reuben Baltz, who was leading that 1999 spring-break trip. She had already completed an education degree at Rockhurst University, a Jesuit school in Kansas City, and was working on a master’s degree at the UA.
Without the mission trip, Carney said, it’s unlikely they would have met. Two years later, they were married.
Carney worked for a computer software company in Madison, Wis., but decided he was interested in theology. He enrolled in a couple of courses and was hooked.
He entered the masters of divinity program at Duke Divinity School in 2002 and eventually the couple went to Africa where they both taught classes in Uganda.
About 40 percent of the Ugandan population is Catholic, Carney said.
“As a Catholic, it was a very rich place to be,” he said. “I felt a tremendous sense of shared identity when I’d be at Mass.”
Carney continued his studies by entering the doctorate program at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 2006 and his interest in the Church and its influence in Africa has been piqued. His dissertation work concerns the violent history of Rwanda in the context of the Church. Rwanda is about 80 percent Catholic, he said.
He’ll be going to Rome for some of his research in May and hopes to be back in time for the birth of the couple’s third child, a boy, expected in July. Their family includes son R.J., who’s 3, and daughter, Annabelle Grace, 19 months.
The couple moved back to Fayetteville last summer to live nearer Becky Carney’s family while Jay Carney continues work on his dissertation. Becky Carney is currently working with children who have cerebral palsy at a private school, On Your Mark Academy, and Jay was caring for the couple’s two children in addition to his research.
He hadn’t intended to look for another job immediately, but St. Thomas’ busy parish needed help after Zawislak moved to Little Rock.
Carney works a limited schedule at St. Thomas, but “so far, it’s worked out well.”
His church duties include doing missions and community outreach as well as helping coordinate local service projects. He’s also trying to restart interest in an international group and is working with faculty members. Working at the UA is quite different from a Catholic university environment, he said, and he hopes to help faculty members understand they can “integrate our faith and be open” about it.
