SAN DIEGO — The Catholic community at San Diego State University has grown steadily for almost a decade.
And, when students return for their spring semester classes on Jan. 21, there’s every indication that this trend will continue.
“We’re definitely bigger than before COVID,” said Father Pedro Rivera, the SDSU Newman Center’s chaplain for the past eight years.
Between 2016 and today, he said, average attendance at the center’s Sunday Masses has jumped from about 60 to more than 120 at the noon Mass and from fewer than 25 to almost 80 at the 8 p.m. liturgy.
That growth hasn’t gone unnoticed by Liam Walters, a 20-year-old junior who is majoring in Environmental Sciences.
“I’m almost moved to tears by how many people come to our noon (Sunday) Mass,” said Walters, who is co-president of the Newman Center this year.
In recent weeks, he said, there have been “just enough chairs … for people to sit in” –– and that’s after office chairs or a bench have been brought in to provide additional seating. He said that the center also recently began adding another row of seats at its daily Masses.
In addition to its Mass schedule, the Newman Center’s weekly events also include Eucharistic adoration five days a week, and nine Bible study groups are currently underway.
There are also regular monthly events, including Dollar Dinner, XLT, Theology on Tap, and a special activity unique to each month. Attendance has been booming at those, too.
For example, at the Dollar Dinner, where participants can enjoy an all-you-can-eat, homecooked meal for only $1, Walters said that the center can no longer rely solely on the food generously donated by local parishioners.
“This year, we’ve actually had to start purchasing food on top of that,” he said, explaining that the event was attracting so many people that the food would run out within a half-hour.
XLT is a praise-and-worship night that includes a spiritual talk and Eucharistic adoration.
Theology on Tap brings a Catholic speaker to campus to deliver a talk and take part in a Q&A, while students enjoy food, drinks and fellowship in a casual setting. Past presenters have included Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Bejarano.
Walters noted that, for newcomers, the Dollar Dinner is “kind of an easy intro” to the Newman Center –– a purely social event where “you’re around people who love Jesus.” From there, veterans can invite newcomers to the following week’s XLT, which will introduce them to Eucharistic adoration; then to Theology on Tap, where they can ask questions about the faith; and, ultimately, to Mass.
A thriving SDSU Newman Center has led to conversions and vocational discernment.
“The students are searching for truth, searching for and attracted to the beauty of the Catholic Church,” said Father Rivera, who noted that the community had 13 people go through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) last year to enter into full communion with the Church.
Another 23 have signed up for the OCIA process this year.
Father Rivera said that students also have been open to the idea of priesthood and religious life. In October of 2023, he said, 26 men from the community attended the diocesan Explorer Day to learn more about the priesthood; this past November, another seven attended.
A few SDSU students explained what led them to the Newman Center and kept them coming back.
Originally from Ohio, Walters recalled arriving at SDSU as a freshman and “not really knowing a single person.”
“The thing that was home to me was the Church,” he said. “So, I immediately looked up the closest Catholic church, and I found out there’s one on campus” –– the SDSU Newman Center.
He recalled the warm welcome that he received upon arriving at his first Dollar Dinner.
“Everyone rushes over to me and introduces themselves,” he recalled. “I meet, like, 50 people that night.”
“They just became my really close friends,” he said, “and I haven’t really looked back since.”
It was a few months into her freshman year that Brooke Suverkrubbe, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in English, first started going to the Newman Center.
She had been baptized and had attended Catholic school until third grade, but her family was non-practicing.
“I didn’t really have anyone pushing me to the faith, so I fell away,” she said.
But she made a Catholic friend at SDSU, and she accepted his invitation to the Newman Center.
Suverkrubbe first came to the center for spiritual direction, not really certain what that entailed, but knowing that she was going through “a little bit of a rough time.”
“I went, and just met everyone there, and never left,” she said.
She added that, “all of a sudden,” she found herself in a Bible study, attending Sunday Mass and, later, even daily Mass. This year, she joined the Newman Center’s leadership team.
Suverkrubbe, who makes daily holy hours now, credits the Newman Center as “a catalyst for … growing deeper in the faith.”
Ryan Marquez, a 19-year-old sophomore, is a Business Management major, but plans to enter the Diocese of Orange’s priestly formation program next summer.
He admitted that he had been “very hesitant” to attend SDSU because he knew it to be “a big party school.” But he was reassured by a good friend, a recent graduate who convinced him that he “had to go there … for the Newman Center.”
Like Walters, he has also found the center to be a welcoming place.
“To walk into a building and feel instantly at home, I think it’s just very attractive for students,” he said.
Marquez described the community as one where “everyone has a desire for their friends to grow.”
“I feel that people are pushing me to do better, and just allowing me to grow, and loving me despite my faults,” he said.
While he can’t credit the Newman Center with sparking his call to the priesthood –– something he had been discerning before setting foot on campus –– he admits that being an active member “increased that desire for the seminary” and “seeing the beauty of the Catholic faith being lived out by so many fellow Catholic friends … made me want to follow my faith even more.”
He said, “Every type of person can find a home there, at any level of their faith. … We have a beautiful community of diverse Catholics.”
For more information, visit sdcatholic.org/newmancenter.
