About

FAQ | Mission Statement | History

Welcome to the website of Baltimore Catholic, dedicated to Jesus, our Lord and Savior, Our Lady of the Americas, John Paul the Great and our Holy Father, Benedict XVI!  We hope to further John Paul the Great's call to usher in the New Evangelization on a local level by bringing together Catholic young adults and college students who desire to grow in holiness and are seeking to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

Mission Statement:

The mission of this organization is to help Catholics to grow deeper in their Catholic Christian faith. We hope to help non-Catholic Christians grow deeper in their own Christian faith; in addition, we hope to help them better understand the Catholic Church and eliminate incorrect stereotypes they may hold. We will spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. We hope to gather together any and all interested Catholics, those from campus or parish organizations or those not affiliated with any group just looking for a group of young adult Catholics. We hope to increase communication between Catholic young adults in Maryland, provide a network through which to keep others apprised of Catholic events, and provide an atmosphere for growth and an opportunity to hold and be held accountable as Catholic Christians in the new millennium. 

History:

The concept of Baltimore Catholic evolved over a few years before it was fully realized, and by the grace of God it continues to grow and we are excited to see where He will lead us.

The very roots of BC go back to four people at two different schools in Baltimore, who didn't know of the other two at the time they started their own clubs. In the Fall of 2000 Peter Nizner and Katy Zeitler (now Sr. Mary Bethany) with the help of seminarian Collin Poston (now Fr. Collin Poston) and Fr. Leo Patalinghug started Jubilate Deo, a Catholic club for Goucher College in Towson, MD. Fast-forward to Spring 2001, Bridget Cooney (now Bridget Vidmar) and Richard Legendre started putting together Agnus Dei, a Catholic club for Villa Julie College in Stevenson, MD.

The summer of '01 Fr. Collin organized a trip to the Young Adult/Defending the Faith conference in Steubenville, OH. On that trip the leaders of the two clubs first met and immediately decided to work together (you could even say this was the first BC event).

In the Fall of 2001 Agnus Dei became officially approved by VJC and the two clubs got together in the Fall to go to the National Shrine and JPII CC and many times for Mass, in the spring the two groups would again join for a road trip to a Festival of Praise at Steubenville and Mass in Erie, PA with Fr. Larry Richards.

One thing JD learned in its two years and AD in its one was that they were two small to have big events and needed to work with other college Catholic clubs to offer more to its members. Also, Agnus Dei had a website from the very start of the club (that was developed by Seminarian Brian Douglass and Richard), while Jubilate Deo didn't. Katy had requested that Richard create one for JD before the Fall 2002 semester. Unfortunately, Goucher wouldn't supply JD with server space, so we had to get our own.

Combining the need of a website and the need of working with other colleges, Katy and Richard came up with the idea of Baltimore Catholic. Richard changed some things on the Agnus Dei website and two days later BC was ready. Seeing the great opportunity of advertising the site at World Youth Day in Toronto, we decided to launch the site before we left. On July 18, 2002 BaltimoreCatholic.com went live on the internet.

We figured you couldn't have a better kick-off event than World Youth Day with the Holy Father!

During the first few months, the site was mainly the photo album of the 14 people who went to WYD and the websites for AD and JD. However by spring 2003, business cards and nice placement on search engines started to pay off as people learned about us. On Thanksgiving of 2003 we were featured in the Catholic Review, which helped get the word out to more young adults.

2003 was also a transitioning year for us. As the group grew, most people were either just out of college or not involved with their college's Catholic club. So, our group changed more from an affiliation of college Catholic clubs to just a group of young adults.

Early in 2004 we started working with the North Arundel Catholic Young Adults, West Count Young Adult Ministry, St. John's Young Adults in Westminster, St. Mary's Young Adults in Annapolis. We also combined with another group to start a Theology of the Body Study Group, where we have experienced tremendous growth.

Over subsequent years my life has changed a lot, I've been commuting to my job in DC and now in 2008 I got married to my beautiful wife Jen. With my life changing BC has returned to what it was originally intended, as a site that advertises other groups.

Please send us any ideas you may have or inform us of any events we don't already have listed. But most importantly, keep us in your prayers that God's grace be with us and that we continue to follow His will for BC.