History
The Newman Club, later called the Catholic Campus Ministry, started because of the perceived threat of Protestantism. The U. S. bishops insisted all catholic students attend Catholic schools from grade to graduate school. By the Mid-to-late 1800's, Catholic students began to attend public and private non-Catholic colleges and universities. Catholic students like people on trampolines tried to balance their intellectual learning with their faith lives. In such institutions, Catholic students often found the university hostile to Catholicism.
Because of such hostility, the seed of a Newman Club was planted. On Thanksgiving Day, 1883, while visiting the home of Mr. & Mrs. John C. Melvin adjacent from the University of Wisconsin, In Madison, John J. McAnaw, a prelaw student form Ohio, complained that a Medieval studies professor and slandered the Catholic Church. Mrs. Melvin suggested to him to begin a club for catholic students for support. That very evening McAnaw found himself president of the "Melvin Club" which for fifteen years held discussion on various Catholic topics.
Timothy L. Harrington, a student of the Melvin Club carried its memory and activities with him to medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1892. He was especially impressed with the writings of the recent deceased John Henry Cardinal Newman of England. John Henry was an author, poet and an intellectual of his day. After Harrington had returned from his Christmas vacation, he asked his classmates if they were interested in forming a club similar to what he had experience in Madison. Eighteen of them agreed. In 1893, the Newman Club was officially established.
After this, Newman Clubs began to appear at all major universities. In the early 1900's, Father John O'Brien began the firs Newman Foundation, a separate center, at the University of Illinois. Since then, more Newman Centers have begun at other major non-Catholic institutions. Here at Elmhurst College there is no Newman Center, but there is a Newman Club which comes under the umbrella of Catholic Campus Ministry.
The Newman Club Today
The Newman Club is now a Christian organization for Catholic and non-Catholic students. Newman provides an opportunity for students to meet new friends. Students come together for fun activities, to volunteer to help make life better for others, to become leaders, for prayer and mass.