History

Dickinson Catholic Campus Ministry (DCCM) has played a fundamental role in the history of Catholic Campus Ministry in the Diocese of Harrisburg. The original version of Catholic Campus Ministry was started by Father (later Bishop) Lawrence Schott, who was the assistant pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Carlisle in the 1930s. He started by distributing bulletins for Catholic students at Dickinson College and Penn State Dickinson School of Law, and a few years later, these bulletins were distributed at all the college campuses in the Diocese of Harrisburg.

Over the years, DCCM has been blessed to have a lot of support from St. Patrick’s in Carlisle, and to this day, we maintain a strong working relationship. Through the hard work of many parochial vicars from St. Patrick’s, DCCM has been blessed to serve the Catholic community of Dickinson College and Penn State Dickinson School of Law. Some chaplains have returned to Carlisle, to serve as pastors of St. Patrick’s, including Fathers William Forrey and Donald Bender.

 

Over the years, DCCM has used a number of spaces for Mass, including Anita Tuvin Schlechter Aufitorium (ATS) and Old West Memorial Hall. Finally, in 2013, Dickinson College bought the old Allison United Methodist Church and converted it to Allison Hall, which contains a the larger Great Hall and smaller Interfaith Chapel, both of which are now used for DCCM Masses.

 

 

 

 

Some of our most recent chaplains include Fathers Olusola “Sola” Adewole, Dwight Schlaline, Brian Wayne, Don Bender (pictured above), and presently, Tiburtius Raja. Many of them have carried their experience of campus ministry over into other colleges where they have served as chaplains, including Bloomsburg University, Shippensburg University, Millersville University, Franklin & Marshall College.

Thus, Dickinson Catholic Campus Ministry has seen many of its chaplains over the years go on to become pastors, administrators, and campus ministers in the Diocese of Harrisburg and beyond.