The Catholic Times: Planting Seeds of Faith at UW-Madison

It was the work of a tireless pastor in collaboration with Catholic students at University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) that provided the spark for the countless Catholic apostolates at Newman Centers and similar organizations on secular university campuses around the U.S.

In 1883, recognizing the sometimes hostile challenge to the faith that the secularism at UW-Madison posed, Father Henry Hengel began inviting Catholic UW-Madison students to gather for faith formation and fellowship at private residences near the UW-Madison campus. Eventually, these meetings led, in 1906, to a formal parish being specifically erected to address the needs of UW-Madison students. The parish was named after the apostle sent by Christ specifically to preach to the gentiles, St. Paul. In fact, the name was more prophetic than those who first formed the parish might have thought.

UW-Madison graduate Timothy Harrington would take what he learned in the premed program at UW-Madison with him to medical school at University of Pennsylvania (UP), Philadelphia. As a member of that fledgling group of Catholic layman meeting with Father Hengel, he would also take with him such a profound experience of the faith that he sought to recreate the same experience for others at his graduate school. Inspired by Father Hengel’s leadership, in 1893 Harrington helped found the first Newman Center in the United States at UP.

Staying true to Father Hengel’s vision, today, the St. Paul University Catholic Center at UW-Madison remains an oasis of faith and fellowship. While it’s seen its share of turbulence at a university notorious for its part in the violent upheaval of the radical late-1960s, St. Paul’s has won through to become a vibrant center of Catholicism – in both thought and practice. Led by its pastor, the director of St. Paul’s, Father Eric Nielsen, and assisted by director of Student Ministries at St. Paul’s, Father Eric Sternberg, this Catholic community boasts of a membership which includes more than 1,500 students. With a vibrant social and sacramental life, the parish is also beginning to offer academic opportunities of its own to UW-Madison students.

continue at The Catholic Times..... and open the pdf and then scroll down to page 8.... sigh... it's a good article and worth the mortification of finding the rest of it.  They go on to interview Fr. Sternberg.