Meet Your Chaplains!

We are pleased to announced the all-star lineup of chaplains for the 2015 High School Summer Program!

Rev. Nick Blaha (’02)Although joining the program for the first time, Rev. Nick Blaha (’02) is well accustomed to working with young people. A priest of the Diocese of Kansas City (Kansas), he runs the Didde Catholic Campus Center at Emporia State University, a 6,000-student, public university some 100 miles southwest of Kansas City. After graduating from the College, he spent three years as a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionary before entering the seminary. You can hear podcasts of his homilies via the Didde Center website.

Rev. Paul Raftery, O.P.Returning for his second consecutive program, Rev. Paul Raftery, O.P. is the College’s head chaplain. He, too, has extensive experience in campus ministry. After his ordination in 1984, his first two assignments were at Newman Centers on the campuses of the University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of Oregon in Eugene. He has also served a total of seven years (split over two terms, interrupted by an assignment in Alaska) as a chaplain at the College. An avid hiker, Fr. Paul enjoys sharing the trails and the natural beauty of the Los Padres National Forest above the campus.

Rev. Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem. (’94)Joining Fr. Nick and Fr. Paul is the Summer Program’s long-serving chaplain, Rev. Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem. (’94), who has been ministering to attendees since 2007. Among Summer Program students, he is famous for his commanding presence on the volleyball court, his theology Q&As, and leading nightly consecration in the residence halls. For the other 50 weeks of the year, he is a professor of philosophy at St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California. A graduate of the College, he is also a regular guest on the Catholic Answers Live radio program.