The Naming of St. Jude Chapel

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 multi-purpose 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.GrantCatholicStudentCenter was built in 1993, a full-fledged 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 TexasState?

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 LBJStudentCenter
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.GrantCatholicStudentCenter 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

56St. Francis of Assisi

51St. Jude

47St. Thomas Aquinas

45St. Joseph

Rest of the Top Ten

42St. Christopher

35St. Catherine of Alexandria

35St. Nicholas

35Pope John Paul II

33St. Michael

29Bl. 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:

79St. Jude

76St. Francis of Assisi

72St. Thomas Aquinas

72St. Joseph

1Blank

------

300Total

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 TexasState 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 TexasStateUniversityCatholicStudentCenter.

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 (CarlyKavenagh) from MarbleFalls, 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 MarbleFalls 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