Saint Robert Bellarmine Chapel

Here follows an excerpt from the George Mason University library website:

George Mason University: A History
Bringing the Mason Community Together:
Patriot Center, the Center for the Arts, and the Bellarmine Chapel

During President George W. Johnson’s tenure at George Mason, construction was commonplace; new dormitories and academic buildings sprouted all over campus. Residence halls and classroom space resulted from the practical needs of the student body, but Dr. Johnson desired George Mason serve not only its students, faculty, and staff, but also the Fairfax and Northern Virginia communities as well. Three special buildings have left their unique mark on the campus and continue to shape its legacy today.

The Bellarmine Chapel

The Center for the Arts was not the only dream fighting to become reality in the early 1990s. Active student ministry programs have been involved at Mason since its inception, and as early as 1961 the University of Virginia planned for the eventual construction of a chapel at Fairfax, as had existed at Charlottesville. Mason’s Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM), which serves a large student population at George Mason, was one such group that desired a chapel in which to hold services and social events. Students often gathered in a small house that served as rectory on Roberts Road (behind President’s Park), overtaking the first floor. The Reverend Robert Cilinski, who came to George Mason in 1986—the year that the Bishop of Arlington, John Keating, first assigned a full-time priest as chaplain of the campus—joked that “For eight and a half years, I was basically living above the store.” Services were also held on-campus in Student Union Building I and Lecture Hall. The Diocese of Arlington purchased the property on Roberts Road, just off-campus, that housed the rectory to establish a Catholic Campus Center, but the fast-growing community outgrew the space quickly.

In 1992, the Diocese purchased the adjacent property, which had at one time belonged to the Kappa Sigma fraternity at Mason, to build a chapel. Interestingly, the property is very near the former St. George’s United Methodist Church, which is actually part of George Mason’s Fairfax campus and is located on Rockfish Creek Lane, just off of Shenandoah River Lane. The building was donated to the university and named George’s Hall. It was later renamed Carow Hall for the family who gave it to the university, and it now houses the Center for Study of Public Choice. Construction began in August 1993 to create what Rev. Cilinski called “a modern version of a colonial chapel.” Architects sought to reflect the style of buildings within the City of Fairfax as well as older churches in the area, like the historic St. Mary’s. The tract had a forty-foot slope which had to be built up so the front of the chapel would be level with Roberts Road. Rev. Cilinski reached out to people from all backgrounds: “We wanted to be a beacon. We wanted to be a ‘welcome to worship’ to the campus community.”

Rev. Cilinski declared that the completion of the Chapel was the result of the students’ shared dream and made possible by the “generosity of the Northern Virginia Catholic community.” Funds were contributed by students and their parents, the Diocese of Arlington, and other local churches. After much discussion, the chapel was named for St. Robert Bellarmine, a cardinal from Sienna, Italy, who lived from 1542 – 1621 and according to Rev. Cilinski was “known as a scholar, a defender of the faith, and a lover of the poor. He dedicated his life to working with youth.” The name seems an apt choice for the chapel, which continues to serve the campus community today under the direction of its chaplain, Rev. Peter Nasetta. During the Friday of freshman move-in, the Chapel hosts a luau and pig roast that attracts well over a thousand new freshmen and provides a way for them to meet new people and learn about the community. It also offers a wide variety of service and community outreach programs.

A common thread links these three buildings: each was the result of a dream to serve and develop a close relationship with the larger community and to provide enriching cultural and social experiences for those associated with the University. George Johnson’s goal to expand George Mason’s influence beyond the boundaries of the university is reflected in part of the school’s mission statement: “To maintain an international reputation for superior education and public service that affirms its role as the intellectual and cultural nexus among Northern Virginia, the nation, and the world.” It is a role George Mason will continue to strive for, and it will be achieved by recognizing itself, in Dr. Johnson’s words, as “a university that conceives of itself not as a place, but as a state of always becoming, dreams realized and dreams begun.”