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Ministry

Embracing our Catholic Identity

The Office of Mission and Ministry at Calumet College of St. Joseph advances the Catholic identity and Precious Blood heritage of the only Catholic college in Northwest Indiana by supporting the integration of learning, faith and service through a broad array of programs that engage students, faculty, staff, College leadership, and alumni in the understanding and practice of our religious identity, values and commitments.

Each year, many persons participate in the programs of the Office of Mission and Ministry: retreats, seminars, lectures, mission and immersion trips, service projects, and opportunities for worship and spiritual reflection on campus, on location, and on-line. As a Catholic college in the Precious Blood tradition, we respect and value the wide variety of religious and humanist perspectives of our colleagues. We strive to represent a “centered pluralism” in our offerings and respectfully engage the particular traditions represented in our community. We invite you to explore these pages and immerse yourself within the Calumet College of St. Joseph experience.

Father Tim

Our Goals

In solidarity with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, we aspire to instill a basic knowledge and understanding of the six aspects of Campus Ministry outlined in the 1985 U.S. Bishop’s Pastoral Letter “Empowered By the Spirit: Campus Ministry Faces the Future.” The six aspects are:

  • Forming the Faith Community
  • Appropriating the Faith
  • Forming the Christian Conscience
  • Facilitating Personal Development
  • Educating for Justice
  • Developing Leaders for the Future

In light of these aspects, our goals follow:

  • To form the faith community in the Catholic and Precious Blood tradition, as well as provide our ecumenical and interfaith population with opportunities to gather with others of their faith tradition.
  • To aid the Calumet College of St. Joseph community in the appropriation and appreciation of their faith.
  • To provide opportunities that form the conscience and character in light of Catholic Social Teaching.
  • To facilitate the personal development of our student leaders.
  • To educate the community in a “faith that does justice.”
  • To develop students as discerning who will excel in learning, leadership, and service in the region and in the world.
Sandwich-making

Catholicism at CCSJ

MISSION & MORE

Mission Statement

Calumet College of St. Joseph is a Catholic institution of higher learning informed by the values of its founding religious community, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood (C.PP.S.). The mission of the College is to cultivate the academic, spiritual, and ethical development of our students by affirming the inherent dignity of all people, promoting social justice and an ethic of service, and providing opportunity and empowerment.

At Calumet College of St. Joseph, our vision is to be a vital and valued resource for the region and beyond where students can be known, be successful, and belong.

For more information, visit our Mission Page.

Distinction

Our students, whether traditional or non-traditional, undergraduate, graduate or professional, come to Calumet College of St. Joseph to share our commitment to learning as a lifelong endeavor. They come to join a community whose members — faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni and friends alike — believe that education must encompass the whole person: spiritual and moral as well as intellectual, the heart as well as the mind. And they come seeking the educational, professional and cultural advantages of a college located in a busy metropolitan area within minutes from the City of Chicago. We, in turn, take seriously our responsibility to foster and support excellence in Catholic higher education, to keep a Calumet College of St. Joseph education accessible to a diverse population of students, and to offer personal attention and care to each member of the Calumet College of St. Joseph family.

Faith

As a Catholic college in the Precious Blood tradition, we are committed to the unfettered pursuit of truth under the mutually illuminating powers of human intelligence and Christian faith. Our Catholic identity is expressed in our choices of curricula, our sponsorship of programs and activities devoted to the cultivation of our religious character, our ecumenical outlook, and our support of Catholic beliefs and values. Precisely because Catholicism at its best seeks to be inclusive, we are open to all who share our mission and seek the truth about God and the world, and we are firmly committed to academic freedom as the necessary precondition for that search. We welcome and benefit enormously from the diversity of seekers within our institution, as we freely choose and celebrate our own Catholic identity.

Leadership

As a Precious Blood college, Calumet College of St. Joseph embodies the intellectual and religious traditions of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Through a comprehensive academic program and a values-centered curriculum, our students receive a firm grounding in the liberal arts, preparation for work in a world of increasing complexity and diversity, and formation for life as ethical and informed leaders in their religious, cultural, professional and civic communities. They work with and learn from faculty who are true teacher-scholars, whose research not only advances the calculus of human knowledge, but also informs their teaching, and whose commitment to students is fundamental to their intellectual and professional lives.

Service

Through both our academic and co-curricular programs, Calumet College of St. Joseph strives to develop persons who will dedicate their lives to the service of others, actively entering into the struggle for a more just society. We expect all members of the Calumet College of St. Joseph family, whatever their faith traditions, to give concrete expression to their beliefs by giving of themselves in service to those in need.

C.PP.S. AT CCSJ

The Missionaries of the Precious Blood (C.PP.S.) have sponsored and staffed Calumet College of St. Joseph in various capacities since the institution began in 1951.
These C.PP.S. members are currently serving full-time at CCSJ:

Br. Jim Ballmann, C.PP.SBr. Jim Ballmann, C.PP.S.

Br. Jim is a member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood and currently serves as database administrator and instructor of Computer Information Systems for Calumet College of St. Joseph.

Br. Jim has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Saint Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, IN., a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Information Systems from Calumet College of St. Joseph, and a Master of Arts degree in Education from Purdue University, Calumet.

Br. Jim spent the first nine years of ministry working in the dairy at the CPPS motherhouse, West Central, OH., and in maintenance at St. Joseph’s College. For the next six years, he was manager of the Sorrowful Mother Shrine, Bellevue, OH., sponsored by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. For the past thirty-one years, he has served as facilities director, payroll manager, and computer services where he installed the College’s first internet connection in 1996.

Br. Jim enjoys swimming, cycling and walking. In addition to swimming on a regular basis, he also teaches Red Cross lifeguarding and swimming lessons. Until recent health issues, Br. Jim supported the Red Cross by donating blood. In forty-four years Br. Jim has donated twenty-one gallons of blood.

“I was reluctant to accept the assignment to Calumet College of St. Joseph in 1984. My provincial superior asked me to try it for a year. That was 37 years ago. The years here at Calumet College of St. Joseph have been rewarding and, at times, challenging.”

Br. Ben Basile, C.PP.SBr. Ben Basile, C.PP.S.

Br. Benjamin Basile, C.PP.S., is a member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood and currently serves as faculty member in the Mathematics program at Calumet College of St. Joseph.

Br. Ben has earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Saint Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, IN., a Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame, and he pursued further studies in Education at the University of Akron in Ohio and in Computer Science at Depaul University, Chicago.

A native of Moorestown, New Jersey (fifteen miles outside of Philadelphia), Br. Ben made his first religious profession as a member of the Precious Blood Missionaries on August 15, 1969, two weeks after the first Lunar landing.

Br. Ben was a high school math instructor for his first teaching assignment at a school where he eventually became principal. He then joined the faculty of Calumet College of St. Joseph in the Fall of 1981 as a computer and mathematics instructor, eventually co-founding the College’s first Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems in the mid-1980s. He also served as Registrar of the College and enjoys teaching “all-math-all-the-time” for almost two decades.

Concurrent with his duties at Calumet College of St. Joseph, he has participated in liturgical music ministry as organist and music director at St. John the Baptist and Sacred Heart Catholic Churches, Whiting, IN., and The Cathedral of the Holy Angels, Gary, IN.
Some of his other interests include audio restoration of vintage recordings, vintage audio equipment, historic pipe organs, and he most recently completed the project of restoring a Kimball pipe organ from 1898 and installing it in the Bernard Art Gallery at Calumet College of St. Joseph.

“I am amazed at how quickly and with how much joy three and one-half decades have passed at Calumet College of St. Joseph.”

Fr Tim McFarland, C.PP.S., Ph.D.

Fr Tim McFarland, C.PP.S., is a member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood religious order. He is Director of the Theology Program at Calumet College of St. Joseph, Hammond, IN., and is also Director of Mission and Ministry and the Faculty Athletic Representative.

Before CCSJ, Fr. McFarland was a full-time member of the faculty and administration at St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, IN for 32 years, serving with many different titles during that time such as the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, the Chairperson of the Faculty Athletic Committee, and as Director of Compliance. While at St. Joseph’s College, Fr McFarland received a Teaching Excellence award and was recognized several times for service to students.

Fr McFarland holds a Ph.D. in Theology with a specialization in Medical Ethics, having worked in Catholic health care facilities and working to bridge the ideas of sponsorship of Catholic Institutions.

In his spare time, Fr McFarland enjoys photography, especially at student and sporting events, and his pictures can be found linked to games on the athletics website.

MASS & SACRAMENTS

Eucharist and Mass

The Eucharist is the “source and summit” of Catholic spirituality. It is the ritual offering of sacrifice and thanksgiving that draws the community of Catholics into the Body of Christ. Mass occurs every weekday, 8:00 a.m., in the College’s first-floor chapel.

Mass Times and Sacraments

Monday – Thursday
7:00 a.m. St. John the Baptist, Whiting

Saturday
4:30 p.m. St. Adalbert, Whiting

Sunday
8:00 a.m. St. John the Baptist, Whiting
10:30 a.m. St. John the Baptist, Whiting
10:30 a.m. Sacred Heart, Whiting (Spanish Mass)

Parish Addresses

St. John the Baptist
1849 Lincoln Ave.
Whiting, IN 46394

St. Adalbert
1340, 121st Street.
Whiting, IN 46394

Sacred Heart
1731 LaPorte Ave.
Whiting, IN 46394

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Monday – Saturday Morning
After the 7:00 Mass at St. John the Baptist

Saturday
3:30 – 4:00 p.m. at St. Adalbert

Sacraments of Healing at Calumet College of St. Joseph

For the Sacraments of Reconciliation or Anointing of the Sick at Calumet College of St. Joseph, please contact Fr. Tim McFarland, C.PP.S. at tmcfarland@ccsj.edu or (219) 473-4351.

For other Sacraments, please contact your parish.