About

Viking Catholic, (The Newman Center), is the Catholic campus ministry offered at Western Washington University in beautiful Bellingham, Washington. We are a Catholic student ministry dedicated to loving Jesus and becoming the men and women God has made us to be. Viking Catholic's mission is to encounter, equip, and evangelize students to help them grow as modern Catholic disciples. We are passionate about living the fullness of the Gospel through beautiful and reverent liturgies, knowing and living the teachings of the Church, and creating an authentic Catholic family for students to be a part of. We want you here, and most importantly, God wants you here!

In the 1960’s, the Vatican Council expressed a desire to keep closer touch with the protestant churches in the United States. Western Washington University had a group on campus called Christian Campus Ministry (CCM) which was comprised of about seven protestant churches, Catholics, two Lutheran denominations, Baptists, Methodists, and others. The Catholic ministry was represented by Jerry Main and faculty member and CCM president, Bob Christman. Jerry followed in Bob’s footsteps and become the president the following year.

CCM purchased a property near Western's campus to house all of the different communities, but later on, the University was desirous of obtaining the CCM property as part of a long range extension for new facilities. That property is now where the Viking Union building is located! It was at this time that the Board of CCM agreed to sell their property and then purchased new property adjacent to the University, located at Highland Drive. The sale of the property along with additional funds from member churches built the new building, known as the Shalom Center.

As the university continued to grow, as well as the Catholic youth and staff, the Shalom Center became inadequate to house the needs of the students. A third facility was purchased in 2005 and named the Newman Catholic Campus Ministry. Now, fifty years later, this original concept of a home away from home has been wonderful success for Catholic students at WWU! Every year, our graduates enter the working force as educated, ethical, and moral leaders. They are priests, teachers, entrepreneurs, youth ministers, engineers, chancery employees, mothers, fathers, social workers, missionaries, administrators. But above all, and perhaps most importantly, Newman alumni are active members in the universal Church.

Cardinal John Henry Newman was one of the most famous and influential Catholic converts in England. He was a learned Anglican who converted to Catholicism when Catholics were again beginning to be tolerated in England. Born in London on February 21, 1801, Newman earned his bachelors degree at Trinity College, Oxford in 1820. He became a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford in 1822 and a tutor in 1826. Newman had a revolutionary approach to instructing students; he saw his role as a mentor who should develop a close relationship with his students and assist them in developing as whole persons, rather than solely concentrating on academic subjects. Through his powerful but scholarly preaching, he influenced hundreds of students, university officials, and townspeople. 

Aside from his brilliant preaching, Newman made many other important contributions to theology, which have influenced Christian thought even to today. In the idea of a University, Newman outlined his vision for a Christian liberal education, and the institution that could provide it. Newman's Essay to Aid in a Grammar of Assent showed how certitude regarding propositions, especially religious ones, could be reached, and his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine still remains the definitive work on the subject. Newman outlined his own conversion in Apologia pro Vita Sua, which is a classic work of English literature.

In 1877 Newman became the first person to ever be elected to an honorary fellowship to Trinity College. In 1879, Pop Leo XIII made him a member of the College of Cardinals. Newman died on August 11, 1890. His epitaph reads "ex umbris et imaginibus in veritate"-out of shadows and images into the truth.

The history of the Newman Movement began over 100 years ago. In 1883, in response to attacks on the Catholic Church made by university professors at the University of Wisconsin, several lay people established a student group known as the Melvin Club in order to study their faith. Soon, similar clubs began to spring up at colleges and universities across the U.S. The University of Pennsylvania's club was the first to call itself the "Newman Club" in 1893. Cardinal Newman had died three years before Penn founded its club, and they chose the name in recognition of Cardinal Newman's immense contributions to Catholic intellectual and university life.

These new Catholic Clubs, which almost universally bore the name "Newman," formed a nationwide association in 1908. By the time of World War I, this association became known as the "National Newman Club Federation." This organization was extremely successful in its heyday, but it was never strongly supported by the bishops of the United States. The National Newman Club Federation began to disintegrate with the upheavals in the Church, on campuses, and in the wider American culture which occurred in the 1960's, and finally ceased to exist in 1969.

Since 1969, there has been no monolithic national organization of Catholic campus ministries. However, that is not to say that Catholic campus ministry has declined, rather it has increased. In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, many diocesan bishops began to realize the importance of campus ministry, and have placed a renewed emphasis on Catholic campus ministry in their dioceses.