Goodbye, Newman

Fragrant incense billowed from the backyard of the Newman Catholic Community at Sacramento State as approximately 600 people sat in lawn chairs, many with babes on their laps, in a crowd that spanned generations. In moments, many of them would partake in a bittersweet, final mass.

Tucked in a little neighborhood across the street from campus, in a modest hall more reminiscent of a suburban ranch home than a cathedral, the Sacramento Newman Center has served as a Catholic parish for both college students and the surrounding community for the past 60 years. But on May 22, the center bid farewell to the second half of its congregation.

As part of Bishop Jaime Soto’s decision to repurpose the center, it will reopen in the fall, but only to students.

In a way, the Newman may have been a victim of its own success.

“There are five or six parishes in a three- to six-mile radius from Sacramento State for the community to attend,” said Sacramento Diocese spokesman Kevin Eckery. “The Newman Center was never set up as a parish.”

But a parish it became to more than 750 congregants, several of whom say they are saddened by Soto’s decision and spent last month’s farewell service reminiscing about what brought them there.

“There will never be another Newman Center,” said Bob Curry, a retired Sacramento State economics professor who began attending service in 1956, after enrolling in Sacramento State on the GI Bill. “We had generations of young people graduate from the university, get their education, find their spouses or life partners, have their children baptized with us and then their children had their children baptized with us.”

“It’s really sad to me because the community members at the Newman Center are so helpful and loving and nice,” added Krysta Rodriguez, a current Sac State student.

Rodriguez, completing her fourth semester, started attending service at the Newman two years ago. “I remember going to the Sunday mass—the whole room was basically filled with grandparents and children and everyone had a smile on their face,” she said. “I could just sense the community that they all had with each other.”

After most Sunday services, parishioners would continue congregating off-site over caffeine and sweets, said Paula Curren, a member for the past 40 years. “I swear to God, donuts and coffee are the thing that brings everyone together,” she said.

Newman is less traditional than most Catholic parishes, with Curren calling it “a last stop” for Catholics in danger of lapsing.

The center is welcoming of divorced Catholics, people with mental illness and members of the LGBTQ and deaf communities. (“Hallelujah” is sung and signed, for instance.) The center created a class specifically geared for children with autism spectrum disorder, to accommodate families whose specials-needs children are often excluded from other parish daycare services. And it has served Western Agricultural Workers Association, Sacramento Loaves & Fishes and the Get on the Bus Program, which buses youth to visit their incarcerated parents.

But those volunteer-run partnerships were facilitated by longtime community members who won’t have a place in the Newsman’s next incarnation.

It was also a spiritual meat market—in a good way.

“The Newman Center is a place where some Sacramento State students come to look for that special someone,” said Curren, whose three children met their spouses at the Newman.

That certainly gives another meaning to May 22’s season-ending mass, titled, “To Newman, With Love.”