About JP2

Named in honour of John Henry Cardinal Newman, Newman Centers, are residence and Catholic ministry centers throughout the world. The centers provide pastoral services and ministries to their Catholic communities.

The John Paul 2 Catholic Newman Center is an outreach of the Diocese of Phoenix. In the Fall of 2006, Bishop Thomas J Olmsted, seeking to serve Catholic students at ASU Polytechnic campus , appointed a chaplain. The name, "John Paul 2" was chosen for the Newman Center, because of the late Pope's love for university students and his rich and academic teachings which continue to inspire young Catholics. The Pope's cause for beatification is advancing.

At this time the John Paul 2 Catholic Newman center is a community of Catholic students, professors and staff members connected to the Polytechnic campus. Although there is no physical center, the Diocese of Phoenix has initiated negotiations with the university administration to procure adequate property to erect a small "Catholic Village."

Meanwhile, Catholic students at the ASU Polytechnic campus have formed the John Paul 2 Catholic Newman Club which has been officially recognized by the university.

All those involved at the John Paul 2 Catholic Newman Center are eager to grow with the rapid pace of the ASU Polytechnic campus.

Chaplain

The founding and current chaplain of the John Paul 2 Catholic Newman Center is Fr Michael Goodyear, LC.

After initiating a career in Industrial Design, Fr Goodyear set out on the inspired path to the priesthood in 1983. After two year of novitiate studies in Connecticut, he traveled to Salamanca, Spain where he completed his classical humanities formation and then headed on to the Eternal City of Rome.There he pursued a degree in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and then after a three-year internship in the United States, returned to fulfill his theological studies at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1994 in Mexico City.

Fr Goodyear has been instrumental in the foundation of various youth programs and has taken students on missions and educational trips to Mexico, Canada and multiple European countries. In September of 2006, Fr Goodyear was appointed by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted as Catholic chaplain of the John Paul II Catholic Newman Center serving the ASU Polytechnic and Maricopa community colleges on the Williams campus.

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