Tremblay joins Elon community as Catholic campus minister

By Owen Covington, staff

August 9, 2016

The Rev. Peter Tremblay is among five new staff members who joined the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life this summer.

Elon University has welcomed the Rev. Peter Tremblay as Catholic campus minister and associate chaplain for Catholic life. 

Father Peter Tremblay is Catholic campus minister and associate chaplain for Catholic life at Elon University. (Courtesy photo)
Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., Tremblay attended Franciscan University of Steubenville and joined the Franciscan Friars after graduating. He received a master’s of divinity from Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C., and has been an ordained Catholic priest since 2012. He comes to Elon from Baltimore, where he spent the past two years teaching morality and philosophy at Archbishop Curley High School.

Tremblay said at Elon, he’s found a community impressive for “its willingness to dialogue on almost every issue imaginable.”

“I absolutely love the academic questions around where does religion fit in in the world today,” Tremblay said. 

The relationships that come as part of a campus ministry are key to that dialogue, Tremblay said, as well as to the role he will play as Catholic campus ministry. 

“I really think that the greatest struggle most anyone is going to wrestle with is loneliness,” Tremblay said. Going forward, he hopes “to go deeper in continuing to develop a wonderful community that’s already here, and that can give people an escape from loneliness that’s an alternative to other options that are out there.”

Tremblay said he’s excited about having access to the culture and the resources that come with ministering within a university community. 

“I have found in the last couple of years, continuing the advanced study of theology and philosophy is something I was doing a lot of in my free time,” Tremblay said. 

Tremblay follows Father Gerry Waterman in the role of Catholic campus minister at Elon. Waterman left the university this spring to become chaplain with Catholic Campus Ministry at Syracuse University. 

Tremblay is among five new staff members who began work this summer at the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. Others include: 

  • Carolina Seigler, multifaith and intern coordinator, works with student interns and other leaders in the Truitt Center and advisese the Interfaith House: Mindfully Plural Living and Learning community. 
  • Jessica Waldman, director of Jewish life at Hillel, comes to Elon from Cornell University’s Hillel in Ithaca, N.Y.
  • Julie Steed, part-time program assistant, will be working at the Numen Lumen Pavilion and the Sklut Hillel Center. 
  • Shane Atkinson, part-time Muslim coordinator, will be on campus twice a week and his office is on the second floor of the Numen Lumen Pavilion. 

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