Newman ideals shape St. Thomas More College

St. Thomas More College is celebrating 100 years of the Newman Movement at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and 90 years of federation with the university, two milestones that highlight a century-long commitment to integrating Catholic faith with academic life.

From Oct. 1 to 4, STM saw upwards of 200 alumni, students, faculty, staff and members of the wider community join together for a homecoming weekend complete with an academic lecture and seminar, historical displays in the STM Art Gallery, a book launch, Eucharistic celebration, banquet and more as part of its year-long celebrations. 

President Carl Still spoke about the grandeur of the two anniversaries being marked together.

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“This year has been a time of tremendous celebration, and it has been exactly what we hoped it would be,” he said. “The Newman movement was founded on this idea of bringing Catholic students together through faith and intellectual life, and while that original vision has since carried on for some time, it still shapes St. Thomas More's mission today.” 

While the Newman Movement was known for creating groups on secular university campuses where Catholics could gather, and of course named after St. John Henry Newman, a cardinal concerned with the intellectual renewal of the Catholic Church in 1800s England, it wasn’t until 1926 when a group of Catholics in Saskatoon came together to form the Newman Society on the University of Saskatchewan campus, joined Newman groups formed at the University of Toronto, McGill University and Dalhousie University. 

Jacquie Berg, the director of communications and marketing at St. Thomas More College, wrote about how the Toronto priest and scholar Dr. Basil Markle first came to Saskatoon a century ago to teach philosophy at the university and to serve as chaplain to Catholic students. The following year would see the Newman Society build the Newman Hall, which included a chapel and clubrooms for the students.

The hall would serve as a gathering place for Catholic students at the university for 30 years, and over the next century, the Newman Society would become the Newman Centre, a hub for hosting coffeehouses, retreats, lectures and more. 

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“That very premise of the Newman Centre, here and elsewhere, is that there were Catholic students on campus who couldn't be part of St. Thomas More College if they were not arts and science students. Because of Newman's great emphasis on integrating faith and academic life, which I think is one of his great insights, that's always been at the heart of the Newman Centre and our school,” Still said. 

This year also marks 90 years since the 1936 federation agreement that enabled STM courses to count toward University of Saskatchewan degrees. Still credited Basilian Father Henry Carr as architect of federation, having worked with university president Walter Murray and Bishop Gerald Murray to establish the arrangement. Still notes that the fundamentals of the agreement remain the same today.

Both milestones are a testament to the school’s immense growth over the years, with STM beginning with just 39 students in its early years. Today, upwards of 5,800 students are enrolled in STM courses, 1,400 identifying as STM students, while the much larger course-enrollment figure includes students from across the wider campus, thanks to the federation agreement. 

For Still, something about that growth and the growth of certain program interest reflects the continued demand for their academic disciplines and appreciation for its approach to teaching at the Catholic, undergraduate liberal arts college.

“In terms of programs, we've seen tremendous growth in peace studies and Catholic studies, especially now that it is offered in a web-based form, and it's good to see those programs so closely linked to our mission starting to attract more students,” he said. “The students are telling us something by their interest in peace studies: that as a program it was the right thing at the right time. With the recent message from Pope Leo about peace, I think our students are responding to that at the right time as well.” 

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As staff and students celebrate this year’s commemorations, the college is teasing the commissioning of new history continuing from Heartwood, the existing history collective that covers STM’s first 50 years.

Still hopes to also  continue to work on other ways of making the college even more accessible, such as micro-credentials that would make enrollment more accessible to people already in the workforce.

A version of this article appeared in the November 01, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Newman ideals shape St. Thomas More College".