Nicholls State University in Thibodaux’s Newman ministry, also known as the Colonel Catholics, hosts over 100 activities for students per year, offers spiritual guidance and leadership through FOCUS missionary outreach and is bridging a gap between generations, according to the campus ministry staff.
In fact, Cissy Atzenhoffer, director of campus ministry, says that the Colonel Catholics are ranked number 10 among 500 Newman Centers around the country based on what it offers and campus participation.
A Home Away from Home Atzenhoffer aims to make the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center on the NSU campus in Thibodaux a “home away from home,” for students.
“We are here to hug the students when they are away from home. We feed them. We tell them to go to class when they don’t feel like going,” Atzenhoffer asserts.
She explains that the Colonel Catholics is basically a club on campus that requires no fees. It is largely financially supported by parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Many students are initially drawn to the Catholic Center on campus through free weekly meals called Not On Bread Alone (NOBA), which are sponsored and prepared by church parishes and businesses from around the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. Atzenhoffer says about 250 lunches are served to students weekly.
Colonel Catholics offers students the opportunity to build friendships with peers. Together they can become involved in prayer groups or Bible studies, participate in service work, attend sports events on campus and cookouts or participate in the student-run Awakening Retreats which are held in the spring and fall semesters.
This year more than a busload of students also attended the national SEEK retreat. Atzenhoffer says that 55 students have already signed up for next year’s SEEK retreat.
Generations Gather The greater parish of St. Thomas Aquinas includes the surrounding community of residents off campus who attend Mass, which leads to a unique relationship between students and off campus parishioners.
“We can have around 100 attendees at a daily Mass where you will see students, young families, retirees and a mom with homeschooled children,“ according to Father John David (J.D.) Matherne, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas.
“Hope is incarnate,” says Father Matherne, as the older generation sees so many young persons among the congregation at daily Mass. They feared that the church was not going to outlive them, but their minds are changed, he says.
Relationships are formed between older parishioners and students who spill into the café at the Catholic Center for coffee after Mass. Father Matherne observes their laughter, and respect builds between the generations.
“I enjoy seeing the energy between them. It is mutually beneficial,” says the pastor.
FOCUS Mission Work FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) Ministry invites students to dive deeper into their faith. Five FOCUS Missionaries are assigned to Nicholls currently including Peter Manfre who is the FOCUS team director. He says the main mission of FOCUS is to get students “to know Christ Jesus and fulfill his great commission.”
FOCUS can be found on more than 200 campuses in the U.S. and Europe.
Manfre and the other missionaries introduce themselves to students on campus and invite them to the Catholic Center.
“We do our best to meet students where they are, to build authentic friendships through one-on-one coffees and then if the student desires to come to Bible studies, we host them at Bible studies.”
Students who have said yes to make Jesus Christ the center of their lives will be invited to one-on-one discipleship or small group discipleship.
“We form in them the truths of the church,” Manfre explains. He believes that classmates are more effective with reaching each other than missionaries are. He teaches the students “how to pray and to be who you are as a beloved son or daughter of the Father.”
Manfre works with Atzenhoffer and Father Matherne to strategize different evangelization opportunities for students.
Colleges can be a dark place, he says, although he finds Nicholls more open than other colleges to prayer expressions such as accepting the walking rosary that his ministry leads through campus nearly every day. “Almost 80 percent of those who leave the Catholic faith do so by the age of 23,’ says Manfre referring to the 2009 study “Faith in Flux: Changes in the Religious Affiliation in the U.S.” He also cites the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from 2008 which states, “The fastest growing religious demographic in the United States are people who list their faith as ‘unaffiliated.’”
When noting how much time young people spend on their phones daily, he says, “We’ve lost a connection with reality and our Lord is reality. What is feeding their minds?”
“The hope of the church is the young. The church is in the hands of the young and youth are currently being attacked by the world,” says Manfre. “The world says you should be comfortable. The world says you need power. The world says you shouldn’t be humble. The world says that if you have too much on your plate you should disappear, but the message of the Gospel says, ‘You are more, you are loved and the cross is the only way and I am always with you.’”
Megan Nevlud Some students go to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center on fire for their faith; some are looking to make friends, and some just go for the free food, says Megan Nevlud, interim president of the Colonel Catholics, with a laugh. “Everyone is looking for something, and when they come, they find a community of people who make you feel at home. Once you get through the doors, you are going to come back.” Nevlud, a junior from Round Rock, TX, majoring in elementary education, was looking for a campus with a strong Catholic Center. A member of the track team, she visited St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center on her official visit with the team.
During this visit, she says, “The Catholic Center blew me away. I thought, ‘I can imagine myself going to church here. I want to be a part of this community.’”
Although she started Nicholls during the beginning of COVID-19, and masks and social distancing were required, she still met other students and they would talk about all the exciting things they had done with Colonel Catholics pre-COVID-19.
“All of my best friends are people I met during that time,” says Nevlud.
Nevlud has recently begun leading a Bible study and participates in nightly prayer with friends that she has made through the Catholic Center.
“What’s interesting about being from Texas, it is not a very Catholic area, but this area is very Catholic. A lot of people were raised Catholic and at this point ask themselves ‘am I going to continue my faith more than just attending Mass on Sunday?’”
For these students at that crossroads, she says it is a plus that Nicholls has a Catholic Center visible to students on their way to class and a place to stop in and get a free meal.
Grant Dupaty “I was lost. I didn’t know how to live like a Catholic man,” says Grant Dupaty, a junior pre-med student from Plattenville, LA.
“It’s hard to get guys interested in the church, especially at a young age, but recently we are seeing more leadership coming from the guys around here, and it’s been super awesome,” he says. “The community of men is growing very rapidly, and this is something that I am excited about.”
Through his affiliation with Colonel Catholics, Dupaty has found role models in the faith, not only Father (J.D.) Matherne, and Peter Manfre, FOCUS missionary team leader at Nicholls, but fellow students in his fraternity, Kappa Sigma, and from members of the Thibodaux Fire Department of which he is a member.
Creating relationships and building trust are important when inviting others to the church, Dupaty reflects. He has found that seeing joy in those who are spiritually fulfilled has a waterfall effect.
One of the most memorable moments of his college life was listening to Joe Bourg, a fellow firefighter and now a graduate of Nicholls who gave a testimony of his life to fellow students. He, like Dupaty, was a member of a fraternity. “He was living in the ways that I was living at the time. It didn’t fulfill him. He didn’t gain any happiness and that really spoke to me. The connection for me was like, ‘Wow.’” He was like an older brother to me. Watching someone who in my eyes was a true masculine Catholic man was not something I had ever seen.”
It took Dupaty a while to find his way to Colonel Catholics. He, like Nevlud, started college as COVID-19 concerns loomed. His cousin had steered him to the Catholic Center, but Dupaty walked away because not much was going on due to COVID-19. It took an invitation to a meal of enchiladas from Peter Manfre to get him back.
“He said ‘Hey man, do you like food?’ And I said, ‘I love food!’ Then he invited me to a Bible study. That invite from Peter to his Bible study is really what kicked it off.”
“Being a part of that group of guys is what allowed me to stay here,” he says. It’s expanded his connection to his faith beyond Sunday Mass attendance.
He has also found a community of role models through Catholic men in the Thibodaux Fire Department who have happy family lives and full-time jobs, he says.
Being around other men, his age and older, has been such an inspiration. “That’s what all men want, right? A community. A brotherhood. Whenever I found this, I thought, ‘this is enjoyable. It’s fun to be around these guys.’ I felt free to be myself.”
Dupaty will be emcee for the upcoming Awakening Retreat. These retreats are held twice a year, spring and fall semesters, and are attended by roughly 35 to 50 students. Students run the retreats which focus on relevant topics they choose each semester.