I have been in Tampa for the past week at the Catholic Campus Ministry Conference. It’s amazing when you bring a bunch of people together for a conference and you’re able to see all the wonderful ministerial outreach that is being done around the country.
In particular, I was pretty proud this year. The pastor/director of our North 
Campus Newman Center, Fr. Pat Keleher, was awarded the Archbishop Hallinan Award for his efforts in building a new campus ministry center and for raising all the money himself. I got to introduce him for his big moment and I couldn’t have been more honored to do so. Fr. Pat has been a wonderful colleague and an even better friend in Buffalo. He’s been at this over 30 years and built that new building with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. It’s not easy to raise 3 million dollars in Buffalo, but Pat did it with a bit of help from old and new friends. His acceptance speech brought the house down and he was giddy with joy. I’ll post some video of the speech tomorrow–it’s taking a long time to load between stops here.
So we rejoice today with Msgr. J. Patrick Keleher, who we all just know as Fr. Pat. Seconds before he got the award presented to him, Fr. Pat whispered to me, “I can’t believe I’m getting this award.” Well, the rest of us can and are so proud.
Today let us pray that there are a lot more Fr. Pat’s out there. Ministers of honor and prayer who serve the needs of students and university. For myself, I am glad to call him friend and blessed daily by his presence.