The sixty-four UNM students, graduates,
and faculty who met at St. Charles Borromeo Church for Mass and breakfast on Sunday, March
19, 1936 could not have known that their gathering that day would be the beginning of a
new parish in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. They heard speeches touting the life and
thinking of John Henry Cardinal Newman and were galvanized to form a Newman Club on campus
which flourished in the forties as a haven for Catholic students to reinforce their faith,
receive spiritual counseling and engage in social activities. For the next several years
the pastors of St. Charles, at the request of the Archbishop, directed the Newman Club as
part of their pastoral duties.In early 1950, Archbishop Edwin V. Byrne, sensing a greater need by Catholic college students for direction and unity, purchased land for $80,000 on Las Lomas Road from the Sigma Chi Fraternity and asked the Albuquerque Council of Catholic Women (ACCW) to undertake a project of fundraising and remodeling of the dilapidated property. With enthusiasm and ingenuity, bold solicitations for donations and progressive dinners, the ACCW matched the Archdiocese contribution of $15,000 and turned the fraternity property into a residence for 20 male university students and the two Dominican chaplains, whom Archbishop Byrne invited to Albuquerque. Their efforts also provided a student lounge which accommodated 80 and a chapel that seated 40. The first chaplain, Father Ralph Goggins, O.P. and his assistant, Father John Reardon, O.P. brought great zeal to their work on the campus but there was little money to fund their own bare necessities.
The third chaplain, Father Richard Butler, O.P. who arrived in the
fall of 195 set out immediately to correct the dire financial situation. Using personal
charm and unusual networking skills, Father Butler obtained two $15,000 grants from the
Raskob Foundation and the Stillman Foundation. With these and additional funding from the
Archdiocese he launched a building program for a new church, one that would blend with
existing campus architecture and be a symbol of New Mexico's traditional Catholicism.
Francis Cardinal Spellman came to dedicate the "new" St. Thomas Aquinas Newman
Chapel, which seated 400, on September 6, 1954.It was not long before rapid growth of the city, the university and the parish created a need for even larger facilities. In 1957 the old Aquinas Hall was razed and two new buildings were constructed containing a large social lounge, an auditorium seating 500, a library, classrooms, and a community house for the Dominicans.
Archbishop Byrne then petitioned the Sacred Congregation to commit the parish of St. Thomas Aquinas in Albuquerque to the Order of Preachers of the Province of St. Albert the Great. The petition was granted, the Dominican Order accepted, and a formal Dominican religious house was established on July 21, 1957. The new facilities were dedicated on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, March 7, 1950.
City-wide benefit performances helped
fund the new building costs. The Newman Center parish is forever grateful to George
Goebel, Bob Hope, James Arness, Jane Russell, Jerry Colonna, Dennis Day, the Lennon
Sisters, Raymond Burr, and many other celebrities who donated their time and talent in the
late fifties to support this effort, and to the many dedicated parishioners, and Father
Butler, in particular, who made it all happen.Also noteworthy in parish history - during the sixties a group of local business and professional people created a voluntary association called the Newman Forum to bring noted speakers to the University. Monetary contributions by these sponsors of the Newman Forum enabled the lectures to be presented to the public without charge. Among the speakers who came were Gen. Alfred Gruenther, Caesar Chavez., Fr. Robert Drinan, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Maria von Trapp, James Meredith and Ann Landers.
As the years rolled by, the face of the university campus changed and with it the Newman Center parish. For one thing, the GI Bill and returning servicemen created an older student body, bringing more married students and families to be served by the Center. Even today, the average student age is 28. The Newman Center shed its old "club ideas" and adopted new directions. Campus ministry, which is the Center's primary focus, is still about college students and their needs. But over the years this need has shifted from simply providing a place for social gatherings and camaraderie among Catholic youth to finding creative ways to share knowledge and expertise in Catholic traditions and history with a broader, more family-oriented community. Today, religious education for tots and teens garners parish energies along with peace and social justice activities, adult education and faculty forums. Blessed through the years by the services of outstanding Dominican clergymen, the Aquinas Newman Center has become a vital parish of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, currently serving as a place of worship, prayer, and spiritual community for 1600 families.