AUC Catholic Student Coalition

Newman Club/AUC Catholic Student Coalition History

The Newman Club is the representative body of Roman Catholic students on college campuses across the United States, and here in the Atlanta University Center. In order to understand the origins, importance, and meaning of this organization, we must first know its historic and humble beginnings.

The Newman Club originally started out as a movement initiated by several students in order to identify and understand their roots as Catholics. During Thanksgiving dinner at the home of a Mr. and Mrs. John C. Melvin, John J. McAnaw, a student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, mentioned the growing anti-Catholic sentiment that was arising among a few of the professors on campus. Deeply troubled and feeling as if he was along and unable to answer questions about his faith, the Melvin’s urged McAnaw to form a group with other Catholic students that would meet to discuss and study issues important to Catholics. Under their guidance and tutelage, McAnaw formed the very first Melvin Club in 1883. Timothy J. Harrington, a member of this same Melvin Club, attended graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and started a Melvin Club there, as well. After reading the book Apologia Pro Vita Sua (Apology for His Life), written by Cardinal John Henry Newman, Harrington and the members of the Melvin Club on campus decided to change the name of their organization to the Newman Club in 1893 in order to honor the life and beliefs of this English cardinal.

Born in England in 1801, John Henry Newman was an Anglican priest that was a part of what is known as the Oxford Movement, which consisted of a group of Anglican clergymen that were beginning to question the validity of the apostolic orthodoxy in the Anglican Church. After leaving his ecclesiastical duties in 1843, Newman was accepted into the Roman Catholic faith in 1845, and after writing Apologia Pro Vita Sua, was ordained a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879. Cardinal Newman died August 11, 1890, and it was because of his study, faithfulness, and dedication to the Catholic faith, that Newman Club bears his name.

The Newman Club and Newman Movement continued on into the 1900s, and were introduced in state universities by 1908. The National Newman Club Federation was formed later, and in 1969, Newman Clubs nationwide began to popularize campus ministry.

Continuing this same legacy on the campuses of the Atlanta University Center, the students in the AUC Catholic Student Association and of the Lyke House Catholic Center joined together in an attempt to become more in union with the community of Catholics nationwide, especially African American, African, and Caribbean Catholics.

Page last updated: January 31, 2009