{"id":362122,"date":"2026-10-01T19:52:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T19:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362122\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T19:52:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T19:52:50","slug":"catholic-students-at-brooklyn-college-embrace-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362122\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Students at Brooklyn College Embrace Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FLATBUSH \u2014 From the outside, 2401 Glenwood Road in Brooklyn looks like just an ordinary, two-story house. But inside, something special is happening, according to Kayla DeWitt.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>DeWitt is the Catholic campus minister at Brooklyn College, where the Glenwood Road house serves as the headquarters of the college\u2019s Newman Center, which is undergoing a revival she and other campus leaders hope will attract new members. \u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different things that we\u2019re going to have throughout the semester, and I think it\u2019s going to be a fun time for students to experience that,\u201c DeWitt said.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Named for St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890) \u2014 the British writer, philosopher, and theologian \u2014 Newman Centers are Catholic organizations on secular college campuses nationwide that offer students a place to gather to share faith and fellowship. According to the Newman Connection, 585 centers currently exist on college campuses.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Located two blocks from the Brooklyn College campus, the Newman Center on Glenwood Road offers Mass on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Bible study on Mondays, and is open most days for prayer and contemplation. The center also hosts Catholic-themed parties, like the All Saints\u2018 Day get-together scheduled for November.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thetablet.org\/newman-center-at-queens-college-adds-chapel-for-student-prayer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">RELATED: Newman Center at Queens College Adds Chapel for Student Prayer<\/a><\/p>\n<p>it had recently become too secularized, shifting the focus away from its core mission of providing students a place to share their Catholic faith, according to DeWitt, a parishioner of St. Thomas Aquinas\u2013Holy Family Parish in Park Slope.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really didn\u2019t feel at home there,\u201c she explained.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The center\u2019s members previously met in a student center on Brooklyn College\u2019s campus. Working with Father Jose Diaz, director of College Campus Ministry for the Diocese of Brooklyn, DeWitt refocused the Newman Center last year and guided it back toward its original purpose. The Glenwood Road building was offered, and members jumped at the chance to have their own building.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Beyond the center\u2019s spiritual mission, DeWitt is leading an effort to repair and renovate the center.\u00a0The 96-year-old house needs new floors, doors, and pipes, she said, adding that they will soon be organizing a fundraising drive to pay for the work.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>To help the house feel like a home, volunteers came forward to move furniture and decorate the Holy Spirit Chapel, living room, and other areas of the center. Local churches donated paintings with religious imagery to hang on the walls.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The goal is to turn the center into a warm and welcoming place that more students will discover as the school year goes on, said DeWitt, a graduate student at Brooklyn College working toward her master\u2019s degree in industrial-organizational psychology.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I really want it to be somewhere where people can walk in and feel like they\u2019re in a second home,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd I think having a place that physically looks beautiful can really make a difference, and students may want to stay here.\u201d\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Newman Center members said it already feels like home.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thetablet.org\/pope-adds-feast-day-of-st-john-henry-newman-to-universal-calendar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">RELATED: Pope Adds Feast Day of St. John Henry Newman to Universal Calendar<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically, I found a home here, and it\u2019s great,\u201c said Agnieszka Wysocka, a Brooklyn College sophomore and the center\u2019s vice president. \u201cBefore this, we didn\u2019t have any place where we could come and hang out or even celebrate Mass.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere, it\u2019s our own place.\u201d \u00a0<br class=\"SCXW229463215 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Newman Center\u2019s revival comes as America\u2019s youth are increasingly turning to faith. According to a Harris poll released on Sept. 24, members of Gen Z are the most likely of any generation to describe themselves as religious \u2014 33% compared to millennials (20%), Gen X (21%), and Baby Boomers (23%).\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW140208796 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Brooklyn College Newman Center\u2019s immediate objective is to spread the word, DeWitt said. Current members are trying to draw attention to the center in a variety of ways, including maintaining a presence on social media, starting a WhatsApp chat, ensuring the center is listed on student activity directories, distributing pamphlets on campus, and simply talking to fellow students on campus between classes.\u00a0<br class=\"SCXW140208796 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>DeWitt admitted to having a particular goal in mind. \u00a0<br class=\"SCXW140208796 BCX0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope it continues to grow,\u201d she said. \u201cHonestly, our chapel is pretty small, but I hope we outgrow it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLATBUSH \u2014 From the outside, 2401 Glenwood Road in Brooklyn looks like just an ordinary, two-story house. But&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,134508,100,99,23130,134509,134510,134511,9,24,63,134512],"class_list":["post-362122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-college-newman-center","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-diocese-of-brooklyn","tag-father-jose-diaz","tag-gen-z-catholics","tag-kayla-dewitt","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-st-john-henry-newman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}