By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
Students returning to campus this fall will find some new faces in their Newman Centers.
Father Shaun L. Mahoney, formerly on the faculty at St.Charles Borromeo Seminary, is the new chaplain of Temple University’s Newman Center.
Father Charles Zlock, formerly on the staff at St. John Neumann-Maria Goretti High School, will assume the chaplaincy at the University of Pennsylvania Newman Center, which was left vacant after the death of Father Charles J. Pfeffer.
Father Edward A. Windhaus, former pastor of St. Titus Parish in East Norristown, will replace Father John J. Ames as the chaplain of the Newman Chaplaincy Cluster, which serves Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges.
Father Ames is the new deputy secretary of the Office of Catholic Formation, which heads the Newman Center apostolate for the Archdiocese, taking over the position for Father Martin T. Cioppi who was assigned as pastor to St. John Bosco Church in Hatboro.
“I was very happy in the Newman apostolate, but the archdiocese asked me to take this on and I’m excited about it,” Father Ames said. “It’s a challenge with new responsibilities and hopefully I’ll be up to meeting these new responsibilities.”
Father Ames served as chaplain of the Newman Chaplaincy Cluster for seven years and is very familiar with the broad and complex scope of this apostolate.
“You’ve got students coming to campus who are away from home for the first time. They’re in a very different climate, a very different culture, that in some ways may have values contrary to what they’ve grown up with,” he said.
Incoming freshman find themselves among other students whose faith lives vary from having a deep relationship with God to having none at all. In addition, as Father Ames pointed out, these young people are “trying to find out where they are in life, what their place is in this world, and what their relationship is with God.”
The role of the campus chaplain is to minister to all of these different groups of students — much like a pastor would in a parish. Although celebration of the sacraments is at the heart of the ministry, there are many other avenues, such as bible studies, faith sharing groups, socials, and whatever else can help a student foster, or even just sort out, his or her relationship with God.
It’s a big job that’s already being done with great success by Father William E. Grogan at Drexel University and Father Samuel Verruni at West Chester University.
“My responsibility is to try to help the new chaplains get acquainted with the work of the Newman apostolate, try to organize us together so that we can share ideas and experiences and support each other in our ministries so we can be as effective as possible,” he said.
Another challenge that he’d like to address is how to better support local parishes that take care of students at colleges where there is no full-time chaplain assigned.
“How do we try to meet the needs of those students in a realistic and effective way without further burdening or over-extending the pastor at the local parish? This is something on a larger scale that I’d like to look into.”
In the meantime, he plans to do everything he can to support the incoming chaplains as they take on their new assignments.
Father Shaun Mahoney, who is the new chaplain at Temple University’s Newman Center said that the assignment “came out of the blue, but I’m excited about it.”
Before entering the seminary in 1986, Father Mahoney was very involved in a ministry for young adults that was housed at 5th and Girard. Several men, including him, lived in the house and used it as a gathering place for young adults who needed an opportunity to engage their faith on a deeper level.
They had a coffee-house in the basement and a prayer room on the second floor, and sponsored weekly events with dinner, vespers and a speaker. The house was such a success that several men left to become priests — including Father Mahoney.
Before setting up the house, Father Mahoney worked for two months as a volunteer with Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. He spent three months volunteering in a Jesuit-run leprosy center in India before heading to Pakistan, where he spent three months serving refugee camps with Caritas Pakistan.
His background will bring a new flavor to the ministry at Temple. “I have a simple plan at this point, which is to let the Lord lead,” he said. “But in order to let the Lord lead, we really need something of a steady rhythm of a praying community centered in the Eucharist. For me that would be the goal. … If that happens, then you’re going to see a depth of communion in the lives of the students … a radiance, an attractiveness that will draw other students to the Center.”
Father Charles Zlock, the new chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania Newman Center, is not only taking over the nation’s founding Newman Center, he’s also succeeding the late and very beloved chaplain, Father Charles Pfeffer, who died suddenly in December 2004.
“Father Pfeffer was talking with Bishop McFadden on the 20th of December 2004, about a vision for Penn-Newman,” said Father Zlock. “On the 21st, Father Pfeffer died. It was just four days before Christmas.”
His death was a real blow to the students. “It rocked their world,” Father Zlock said.
Luckily, the Center’s Campus Minister, Susan M. Harte, who worked closely with Father Pfeffer, remained at her post and ran the Center for the last half of the year.
“She was very instrumental in setting the vision and the strategy with Father Pffefer probably a year and half before that,” Father Zlock said. “Since he died, she’s been carrying the water.”
Harte gives all the credit to the students. “We worked hard to build a strong community here. Most of the programs under the Newman Center are student-led so I think the foundation that Father Chuck and I built really paid-off for me in the last six months because they were so capable, even in the midst of their own grief. They were still able to keep the programs going, meet together, pray together.”
Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615
Newman chaplaincies
Rev. William Grogan
Drexel University
215-590-8760
Rev. Shaun Mahoney
Temple University
215-232-3779
Rev. Edward Windhaus
Tri-College Newman Cluster
215-219-9187
Rev. Charles Zlock
University of Pennsylvania
215-898-7575
Rev. Samuel Verruni
West Chester University
610-436-0891