Yale University breaks ground on $50 million Catholic center addition

Published: 2004-11-09

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CNS) -- St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University will be getting a $50 million 30,000-square-foot addition. At a groundbreaking ceremony in October for the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Catholic Center, internationally renowned architect Cesar Pelli said the new facility was "designed with much skill and love where you will find an echo to your soul." Kerry Robinson, Yale's director of development, credited the idea for an addition to the existing center to the vision of former Major League Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent Jr., a 1963 Yale graduate who joined the university's board of trustees several years ago. She said Vincent felt that because students attended lectures all day they needed an opportunity to share ideas with others. He proposed daylong conferences: morning, lunch and afternoon sessions with 25 different students at each, followed by evening forums open to all. His sponsorship of the Fay Vincent Fellowship in Faith and Culture launched a capital campaign in 2002. Since then, there has been a yearlong schedule of such fellowships at the St. Thomas More Chapel and Center. Demand for additional Catholic intellectual discourse at Yale has become so great that the center has been forced to move events off-site.

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