The Rev. Chris Collins, a St. Thomas alumnus and the current vice president for mission, will be leaving the university for a new assignment in Belize City, Belize, at the end of the academic year.
Collins returned to St. Thomas in 2021 after graduating in 1993, according to the St. Thomas Newsroom. He is also the parochial administrator at St. Peter Claver Church in St. Paul in addition to holding various Catholic board positions around the Twin Cities.
“Within the Catholic Church, there’s different religious orders; there’s Diocesan priests that are local that basically take care of parishes, and then there’s religious orders that do different things in schools. And so I’m a Jesuit, so since we’re not a Jesuit university, I never thought that I would work here,” Collins said.
Collins said it was “neat” to come back to St. Thomas and recalled a similar sense of community and great people upon his return, including faculty he knew when he was a student. He said it has been an exciting time to be at the university.
“I blessed the new arena, like, about a month ago, and then it occurred to me, I’ve blessed five new buildings, like very impressive, beautiful, big buildings, in five years here, which is really saying something,” Collins said. “I like sports, too, so I go to a lot of games when possible, and that’s been a whole new thing to be excited about, and with the Morrison College of Health and everything going on there, and Dougherty Family College, it’s just kind of amazing, all the stuff happening.”
Collins said he is excited about his new assignment, and that he will be the pastor of a church in a poor and violent part of Belize City, though he also said the area contains a vibrant community. He is also in charge of building a new church there.
Collins is already discussing bringing St. Thomas students to Belize.
“I’m hoping to get, maybe some people from, for example, the school of education and social work to perhaps come down and explore,” Collins said. “Maybe we could do some St. Thomas, like, practicum experiences for social work students, or education students, or, you know, like a J-term course or Vision trips, things like that.”
Collins said that his work building and fostering a community at St. Thomas has been a blessing.
“When he first came on campus, I remember that he was the vice president for mission, and I’m like, ‘What does that mean?’” said Eva Solomonson, director of social work field education. “Well, it became really clear because he just lives mission, and I hear that from a lot of people.”
Solomonson first met Collins through conversations about the importance of social work and Collins’ Jesuit background. She said she continues to interact with him through organizations such as the Engaging the Mission cohorts, the Morrison Family College of Health and a faculty book club.
“I was on a little subcommittee of faculty and staff who are just really interested in helping to get his help with thinking about, ‘How does a department or a major think about actually animating the ideas of our mission into the actual classroom and into formation of our students?’” Solomonson said.
Solomonson also said that thinking about Collins brings to mind a few places on campus.
“You’ll see him outside, you’ll know he’s a priest because he always wears his clerics, and he’s there and I think symbolically of, he’s in a space in the center, making himself present on the campus,” Solomonson said. “He’s talking to students, he’s talking to faculty, he’s talking to staff; everybody knows him, he knows everybody because he must say ‘Yes’ to everything because he does so many things on campus. Plus, he’s over in his parish, at St. Peter Claver. I don’t know how he does it.”
Senior Seth Borne also said that it is nice to see Collins around campus and at events, including the March Through the Arches event and at the blessing of the new Lee and Penny Anderson Arena, showing “that the school invests and cares about its faith.”
“Having that representation in faith is also super important, you know, because we are a Catholic campus, having a priest in a higher role like that, I think is super important,” Borne said.
Solomonson said Collins invites faculty, staff and students to experience his offerings as a priest with “an incredible amount of grace and ease.”
“You don’t feel like he’s trying hard to do it; you just feel like he’s being who you’d want to have your parish priest be in your space,” Solomonson said.
Borne has known Collins for the three years that he has been a student at St. Thomas. He converted to Catholicism his first year and got involved with Campus Ministry.
“I took a THEO class, and I was like, ‘Oh,’ and I kind of started getting serious about my faith and with a lot of the people in campus ministry, Father Collins included, you know, just being kind and welcoming and answering some of those questions I had,” Borne said.
Borne said that if he wanted, he could talk to Collins about anything personal or spiritual and that Collins had a role in the “initial spark” of his faith journey.
“I still remember, like, some of those first few homilies, like there were just a few little words or passages or things they said that really resonated with me about, you know, whether it be, like, students that have been seeking or lost or whatnot and me kind of coming into that and going like, ‘Oh, that’s me, like I deeply empathize and feel with this’ … a lot of those, you know, were from Father Collins,” Borne said.
When Collins started at St. Thomas, he took over from Larry Snyder, the previous vice president for mission.
He has continued Snyder’s program, Engaging the Mission, a program for faculty of all disciplines to come together and discuss what it means to be a Catholic university, how that is defined across the world, and what Catholic intellectual tradition and the Common Good are, according to Professor of Earth, Environment and Society Lisa Lamb.
Lamb met Collins through this program, starting as a participant with Snyder and becoming a leader when Collins took over. Lamb said the program consists of monthly meetings where the group discusses readings.
“And then you go to Rome, ground zero for all things Catholic, and you have this amazing week where you’re kind of doing tourist stuff but you’re doing behind the scenes activities — I mean behind the scenes at the Vatican,” Lamb said.
Lamb called Collins “understated,” saying he knows a lot but is subtle about it.
“You couldn’t pay to have a tour that was better than what we got to do, in terms of who we got to meet, things we did,” Lamb said. “This has just been, I think, an amazing program. And he’s kept this program going, led it for several years.”
Lamb said that Collins is knowledgeable about the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and Catholic Social Teachings, yet he is also down-to-earth.
“It’s like, he can do the philosophy/theology side, but then he’s also very down-to-earth and out there interacting with students, interacting with faculty, making his faith real instead of just proselytizing or saying ‘Do this.’ Instead, he’s like, living through his actions, his beliefs and faiths,” Lamb said.
Lamb recalled that these characteristics were on display in a funny story from the Engaging the Mission Rome trip in 2023, when the St. Thomas faculty were talking with a group of American college students.
“We’re like, ‘Oh, where are you from?’ And I don’t even remember the name of the college, it was like a small college in Pennsylvania, and Father Chris was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard of that!’And they’re like, ‘You have? How do you know that?’ And I have to remember his exact quote, but it’s something like, ‘Oh, I know a little bit about Catholic things,” Lamb said.
The original quote, “I know Catholic stuff,” was turned into a T-shirt by Mary Daugherty, one of the faculty members on the trip, the summer following when the participants held a reunion.’
Lamb said that Collins is also dedicated to making the world a better place.
“He does a lot of things, and I think he’s able to play different roles really well. He can be down-to-earth and funny, but then he can turn around and lead a mass, or, you know, respond to the shooting at Annunciation; I was really appreciative of the emails we got,” Lamb said.
Both Lamb and Solomonson wished Collins well for his future assignment.
“You know, he’s a Tommie, so I always think that’s a really special thing that he graduated from here years and years ago, came back, still a Tommie,” Solomonson said. “I hope that he continues somehow this gift of being able to enact the mission, the mission of St. Thomas, which is ensconced in the tradition of the best of the Catholic Church.”
Solomonson said that she hopes Collins remembers his friendships from St. Thomas and that the St. Thomas community will miss his easy approachability but that he will offer the same gifts in Belize. Additionally, Solomonson appreciated Collins’ support for collaboration across the university and hopes that continues once he leaves.
“I just think he has been a great blessing, I think for our whole community, and we’re grateful to have had the time,” Solomonson said. “And we want to see him continue to be so successful.”
Bridget Schmid can be reached at schm1520@stthomas.edu.
