Historical Notes:
The Naming of St. Jude Chapel
It is a quirk of history that the CSC chapel took so long to name. At first, in the
1960s, the CSC was just that – a student center, with no chapel. St. John’s church (at its
old location) was also the Mass location. When the CSC was moved to the old school
and convent in 1970, there was no chapel either; Mass was celebrated in the large multipurpose room. It was only in 1985 that a separate chapel was built and dedicated. That it
was not named after a saint might have to do with the fact that it was just an expansion of
the existing building.
Then, when the H.L. Grant Catholic Student Center was built in 1993, a fullfledged chapel was part of the building. But the emphasis was on gratitude to Mr.
Grant’s gift and the naming of the entire building, not on the chapel. At intervals over
the years, the idea was raised about naming the chapel, but nothing came of it.
The Idea
On September 20, 2006, Bishop Gregory Aymond came to the CSC to give an
evening talk on Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Taking advantage of his visit, a dinner
was organized for the bishop and about 25 of the most active CSC students. The idea
was to create a forum where the students could share their ideas with the bishop. During
a brisket dinner, the group sat around a large horseshoe of tables in the lobby. After
everyone had their food, Fr. Jonathan welcomed Bishop Aymond and invited the students
to share some ideas. The Catholic campus ministers in the diocese had been talking at
some of their meetings on how best to reach inactive Catholics on the various campuses.
Now was a chance for the students to bring their ideas on the subject. How could the
CSC better reach the large Catholic population at Texas State?
Many ideas were brought up. Some of them included:












Positive peer pressure (It’s cool to be Catholic)
Brochures on prayer – examples from the lives of the saints
“Tell it like it is” (in a relativistic world, offer objective truth that connects to
God)
Take advantage of current events to explain what we really stand for
Some kind of event on campus – in the dorms
Series on faith/Christianity (like the Saratoga Club) to get the word out
Bigger scale mission trip that gets a lot of excitement going
Handing out rosaries
Being willing to be a speaker at the high school meetings of Fellowship of
Christian
Athletes (FCA)
Summer orientation is a great time – incoming students are eager – table in
front of the LBJ Student Center
Bus advertising
Two suggestions invited to concrete action. The first was to make the CSC building look
more like a church. Many students pass by the building, but without a large cross on the
outside or other religious symbol, it is often mistaken for just another “student center”
(like the LBJ Student Center) instead of a house of God. This fit with one of the points of
the CSC case statement for the “Our Faith – Our Legacy” diocesan campaign conducted
just a few months before: to use the first portion of the parish rebate to place a large cross
on our building. (The goal was accomplished the end of September 2007.)
The second idea was closely related to it. Would it not be more obvious to other
Catholics that the CSC is a church, offers regular Masses, and has a place of prayer if we
named our chapel after a saint? To call it St. XYZ Chapel at the H.L. Grant Catholic
Student Center would help raise the profile of our center in a very important way. Bp.
Aymond supported the idea at once. He invited the CSC community to discern and
suggest a patron saint after which the chapel would be named. He would then give the
name to the chapel.
The Advisory Committee agreed that this was a very good idea, and with the full
support of everyone involved, the search could begin.
The Search
The search began in the context of All Saints Day, 2006. On the Sunday before
All Saints (October 29), Fr. Jonathan presented to the congregation at both Masses the
procedure for discerning the patron saint. On a one-page explanation sheet he wrote:
As we celebrate All Saints Day, we think of the special connection between the
Church in heaven and the Church on earth. When a church or chapel is named after a
saint, it is placed under the special protection of that saint. The choice of the saint is
often also motivated by the inspiration which his or her life gives to the congregation.
For instance, a campus ministry site might find a saint inspiring because of his or her
work with university students, or theology, or teaching, or love of youth. The saint
must be canonized (Saint) or at least beatified (Blessed) to receive such an honor.
I would like to suggest the following process. We want to accompany it with
prayer and really find the right saint for us. (….)
Step One: Nomination – anyone in the CSC community can nominate a saint or
blessed. The nomination must include: the name and your reason why you think this
is the right saint for the CSC. Please submit in writing to Fr. Jonathan, Melinda, or
the office. Nominations must be received by November 15.
Step Two: First Discernment – The nominated saints (with reasons) will be
posted at the CSC in the days after November 15. Everyone will be asked to inform
themselves and take part in a first round ballot at the Sunday Masses on November
26. All CSC community members (students and permanent community, age 8 and
older) may vote. Each person will be asked to vote for three saints. The top four
saints will be announced and advance to Step Three.
Step Three: Final Discernment – On a night early in the next semester we
would have a special program featuring the four “finalists” and why they would be a
good patron for the CSC. This will be followed by a final ballot on a Sunday to be
determined in February . Each person will be invited to vote for one finalist. The top
two saints will be presented, in order of votes, to Bp. Aymond.
Step Four: Bishop’s Decree – Bishop Aymond will then make the final choice
and issue the decree naming our chapel under the patronage of the chosen saint.
We had an incredible response with nominations. Twenty-five saints and blessed
were nominated. Nominations came from students, faculty members, children in the
religious education program.
On Sunday, November 26, 2006 we had the first round ballot (with late-voting for
off-campus students in the following days). The vote was preceded by lots of discussion
and even some lobbying, especially may many of the members of sorority (Mu Epsilon
Theta) who rallied around St. Nicholas to try and “head off” St. Francis who was already
the patron of the fraternity (Lambda Omega Alpha). 223 students and permanent
community members voted. To give an idea of the leading nominees and the votes, here
are the top ten vote-getters:
The Four Finalists
56
St. Francis of Assisi
51
St. Jude
47
St. Thomas Aquinas
45
St. Joseph
Rest of the Top Ten
42
St. Christopher
35
St. Catherine of Alexandria
35
St. Nicholas
35
Pope John Paul II
33
St. Michael
29
Bl. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)
With the Fall Semester coming to an end, the remainder of the process had to wait for the
Spring Semester.
Once back in January, the four finalists – St. Francis, St. Jude, St. Thomas
Aquinas, and St. Joseph – were discussed in a presentation night on Tuesday, January 30,
2007. One student each prepared a short presentation on the four candidates, and there
was discussion on who would be the best for the CSC.
The final ballot took place on Sunday, February 11, 2007, with late-voting on the
following days for those unable to come on Sunday. No fewer than 300 ballots were cast,
a sign of high interest in the voting. Of course, all four saints were a good choice and a
good fit, and the results reflected the closeness of the discernment. The difference in
votes from the top to the bottom saint was a mere 7 votes! Here is the final tally:
79
76
72
72
St. Jude
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Joseph
1
Blank
----300
-------Total
And so it was that St. Jude took first place.
The Spirit of St. Jude
Fr. Jonathan informed Bp. Aymond of the final results by letter (dated February 15,
2007), also indicating something of what he perceived as the spirit behind the choice:
At first glance [the choice of St. Jude] is surprising (…), but the fact that he
finished second in the first round in November (only behind St. Francis of Assisi) was
a sign that he must speak to a deep need in the soul – even holding his own in the
crowded and very prominent field of saints on our nomination list. The current
generation of students on our campus has an interesting connection to devotionals
such as the rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, saints medals, and the like. Perhaps,
underground, there is more devotion to St. Jude than we notice on the surface.
I don’t think we can doubt that the appeal here to St. Jude is rooted primarily in
his fame as the saint of hopeless causes. In addition to the usual stresses of study and
exams, the new generation of students is more exposed than ever to the after-effects
of broken families, divorce, and the violence and vulgarity of society. There are more
struggles with anxiety and feelings of helplessness. Just yesterday we had an
interfaith chaplaincy meeting where we discussed the alarming increase in students
suffering from stress, anxiety, depression, etc. At Texas State alone, in the last 5
years there has been a 42% increase in students seeking counseling from the
university’s health services. Other studies (U.S. wide) are showing that 40-50% of
college students report feeling so depressed at times that they had difficulty
functioning during the past school year, with 15% reporting depression as a serious
impediment. All of this is without mentioning addictions (including the growing
pornography problems we talked about last week at the campus ministry meeting).
Perhaps St. Jude is a more appropriate modern campus saint than we give him credit
for.
One other thought crosses my mind about St. Jude. The National Shrine of St.
Jude in Chicago was founded and is run by the Claretians. Visiting the local
churches, I get the impression that this rubbed off on the parishes the Claretians used
to run (St. John’s, Kyle, etc.), at least in the statuary. I don’t see that this influenced
our vote, but perhaps the Holy Spirit is giving a little “tip of his hat” to the Claretians
for their decades of unselfish service here.
Bp. Aymond’s responded quickly. In a letter to Fr. Jonathan dated February 21
(Ash Wednesday), 2007, he gave his affirmation:
I am pleased to acknowledge and to accept the votes from the community and do
hereby name the chapel the St. Jude Chapel at Texas State University Catholic
Student Center.
Making the Name a Reality
The decision was followed up by a number of outward additions to the decoration
of the chapel and the building:
1) Lawrence Kavenagh, the 88-year-old grandfather of one of our students (Carly
Kavenagh) from Marble Falls, offered to paint an original painting of St. Jude. He did so
right away and by April we could display it in our chapel as the interim image of St. Jude.
2) We ordered a four-foot statue of St. Jude from Italy to be the permanent image
of St. Jude in the chapel. It arrived in June and was installed for the official dedication
and blessing ceremony with Bp. Aymond on October 28, 2007.
3) The outdoor sign was repainted to also say “St. Jude Chapel”.
4) Fr. Jonathan contacted a friend of his in Minnesota, Mark Rockers, who works
in a sign business. He designed both a fitting sign for over the interior entrance to the
chapel and a logo for the CSC. Both were put up in August 2007, and the logo was
begun to be used in the bulletin and on brochures.
5) A 12-foot outdoor cross with backlighting was ordered for the exterior wall of
the chapel (facing the post office). It was installed the end of September.
Dedication of the St. Jude Chapel
The climax was the dedication of the chapel to St. Jude on October 28, 2007.
We were fortunate to get Bp. Aymond to join us exactly on the feast of St. Jude (October
28) and that it fell on a Sunday. It turned out that we needed the time between February
and October to take care of all the details. Fr. Jonathan also used the sermons of the Fall
Semester to work on the theme “With St. Jude into the Terra Incognita” referring to the
“unknown land” of the many challenges we face in life and how St. Jude – as one of the
Twelve he was taught in this by Jesus – can help us.
The actual dedication was attended by about 300 people, filling the chapel and
lobby. Bp. Aymond noted in his homily that although we know very little about St. Jude,
we know what counts: that he said Yes to Jesus and never gave up following him. After
Communion and before the end of Mass, the bishop solemnly blessed the new statue of
St. Jude. He also blessed the painting of St. Jude by Mr. Kavenagh (who came from
Marble Falls with his family for the event) and after Mass it was given its special place
next to the fireplace in the lobby.
After Mass we had a brisket dinner (catered by Woody’s) and cake (baked by
members of the CSC community). Many people helped make this day possible and it
was a wonderful day, with sunshine and pleasant temperatures so people could even
mingle and visit comfortably outdoors.
Fr. Jonathan Niehaus
November 2007