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Dear St. Paul community,
In January, I--along with Frs. Reginald, Simon Felix, Dennis, our FOCUS missionaries, and about 50 students—attended the FOCUS SEEK Conference in St. Louis with more than 17,000 others. It had been four years since the last in-person SEEK Conference so the joy and energy were palpable.
In addition to the conference experience itself, SEEK was a revelation for me. Never before had I witnessed the scale of the impact our campus ministry is having on the Church. From our current students to the more than 20 alumni serving as FOCUS missionaries to the hundreds of lives impacted by all of them, there are few ministries who have the impact on the Church like St. Paul Catholic Center. What a blessing it is to serve this community as pastor!
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Thanks be to God for his myriad blessings, our campus ministry and its impact on the Church continue to grow. Of course, as our ministry grows so do the challenges. One of the challenges we currently face is financial. Simply put, most of our financial support comes from a small group of resident parishioners. Our medium-sized parish cannot support, on its own, one of the largest campus ministry programs in the country.
As we move forward, we need to grow and develop sources of financial support from outside of our resident parishioners. We are, however, quite confident that the Lord who has so blessed our campus ministry will continue to do so through the support of friends, parents, and alumni.
Thank you for your support of our ministry here at St. Paul Catholic Center. As you will see, God has been so good to us this school year and we remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing the mission of Jesus Christ and His Church on the campus of Indiana University and to the Bloomington community.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Patrick Hyde, O.P., VF | Pastor & Director of Campus Ministry
ON THE COVER: clockwise from top left Fr. Dennis builds gingerbread houses with students; Hoosier Awakening is an opportunity for students to grow in relationship with Christ and one another; Students prepare meals to share in fellowship; Hoosier Awakenings is the largest retreat of the year; Students share in fellowship at an IU basketball game.
