President Tomás D. Morales along with faculty and staff and members of Cal State San Bernardino’s Catholic Newman Club, and officials from the Diocese of San Bernardino, were among the attendees for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Bishop Barnes Newman Center on Sept. 21.
The center, named for Bishop Gerald Richard Barnes, the current head of the Diocese of San Bernardino, is located near campus at 2564 Kendall Drive. It will serve students from the Catholic Newman Club at CSUSB as well as other schools and colleges. The center is expected to open in the summer of 2018.
Newman Centers, Newman Houses, or Newman Clubs are Catholic ministry centers at non-Catholic universities found throughout the world. Their establishment as inspired by the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who encouraged societies for Catholic students attending secular universities. The first Newman club was established in 1888 at Oxford; the original Catholic club was founded by Hartwell de la Garde Grissell.