Nathan Kropp doesn’t need a place. He just needs people.
With the Fredonia Newman Center now closed down, Kropp, the Fredonia Catholic minister, now looks for new places and ways to build spirituality on campus.
“I think it’s important for students to grow in all aspects of their lives, and recognize there are different aspects,” said Kropp. “[Education] is the central thing, but there is so much more that happens. People grow emotionally.”
Kropp met me on campus, wearing a vibrantly red button-up shirt, with socks to match. He sported a pair of black slacks accompanied by a brown pair of dress shoes.
Kropp is a shorter man who wears his blonde hair short, and can always be found in a pair of glasses.
Newman Centers are Catholic-run ministries that operate at non-catholic universities and colleges.
The Fredonia Newman Center operated up until this year, when it was closed by the Buffalo diocese.
“For various reasons, parish income in recent years has been declining, and this has impacted the budget of the Central Administrative Offices of the Diocese of Buffalo. Thus, the Diocese has been forced to make some hard financial decisions,” said the Buffalo Diocese in a statement. “It is with heavy hearts that we announce that the eight team members of Daybreak TV Productions will be laid off in July, and the Fredonia Newman Center will be closing.”
Since the Newman Center’s closing, Kropp now looks to build spirituality using the Fredonia campus.
Kropp now holds mass every week on campus in the Williams Center, and works with the Catholic Student Fellowship.
Kropp was not the only person affected by the closing of the Newman Center. Many students used the center as their primary place of worship and now, like Kropp, they have to look to new places, both on campus and off, to find and build their faith.
“The Newman Center to me was a place where you could go to escape your normal everyday life and relax,” said sophomore MaryClaire Haseley.
“I felt like I could get through the upcoming week when I went to mass [on Sunday] so it helped me a lot in that aspect,” said fifth-year senior Merlin Joseph, who also played drums at the masses held at the Newman Center.
Through all of this, Kropp has kept an extremely positive and loving attitude.
Kropp also reaches out to groups on campus. He is a consistent supporter of the Fredonia cross country and track teams, often showing up to meets. Kropp also used to host dinners at the Newman Center for the teams while it was open.
“The dinners that Nathan invited us to were always a pleasure,” said men’s cross country member Ryan Dunning. “He was always incredibly generous and kind towards us and treated us like family.”
Kropp can often be found walking around the Village of Fredonia, or running with his dog.
He always takes the time out to say hello to the students and community members he knows and is inviting enough to welcome a conversation with anyone and everyone.
He was even very accomodating of me when I explained to him my experience with religion.
“I think it’s unfortunate when people don’t realize that there’s something deeper. That there’s a depth dimension to life that’s easy to miss. And it often doesn’t come through the normal avenues at college,” said Kropp.
I was a Catholic school student from preschool up until middle school, and I explained to him my distaste for having the religion forced on me.
“I think that a particular tradition is a way to get to the deeper dimension,” said Kropp. “But there are many ways to get to that deeper dimension.”
I later said that time away from closely practicing Catholicism has allowed me to think for myself about how I view religion and reassess my connection with faith and spirituality.
“So often religion is presented that way where it’s just given to you,” said Kropp. “When you get to college you’re growing beyond that. If you don’t have something to help you grow out of that childhood religion way you had, you’re just going to let go of it. ”
Moving forward, Kropp looks to use the Catholic Student Fellowship and the Fredonia campus and community to continue fostering spirituality at SUNY Fredonia.
Kropp also strongly believes that being physically present on campus is important to his work.
“Being visible [is important] even at things like Activities Night. Just having a table there,” said Kropp. “Presence. That’s how we have our ministry continue here.”
Even though the Newman Center has closed, Kropp has not abandoned the importance of faith and spirituality on campus.
He looks to the future as an opportunity to connect people to people rather than connect people to a building.
“The most important thing to remember is that church is people,” said Kropp. “Christians follow a person, not a building or a temple where a god resides. It’s a people-centered reality and a people-centered mission.”
Kropp works with the Fredonia campus community to bring faith to those who want it, and lets it adapt to people’s lives naturally. He doesn’t force it into the community.
Whether or not you choose to let it in, faith and spirituality will always be in and around the Fredonia community, as long as Nathan Kropp is there to foster it.
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