By Dara Harper
Change is coming to the SU Catholic Center this fall, and it’s the good kind. As Fr. Gerry Waterman prepares to depart from campus ministry after ten years of faithful service at Syracuse University, two new Conventual Franciscan friars are stepping in to carry that legacy forward: Fr. Emanuel “Manny” Vasconcelos, OFM Conv., and Br. Nicholas Romeo, OFM Conv., together with Campus Minister Patrick McLaughlin, will form the next chapter of Catholic life at Hendricks Chapel.
Fr. Manny Vasconcelos: A Homecoming to Community
Fr. Manny is moving to Syracuse from Washington, D.C., but his roots trace back to New Bedford, Massachusetts, “once the whaling capital of the world,” he likes to note. He grew up in a tight-knit Portuguese community there, the kind his parents found when they emigrated from Portugal in the early 1970s. “Their faith really was what brought them an anchor and made them deepen their relationship with God, being so far away from family and home,” Fr. Manny said. “And so they found a home in the church.”
That sense of a faith-as-home would shape his own path. Before entering religious life, Fr. Manny spent four years as a high school campus minister and religious studies teacher at Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was there, working alongside two Franciscan friars on the school’s ministry team, that he felt the first pull toward community life. “I started feeling a draw to living out a call to ministry in community,” he said, “and I knew I would live it out best with the help of a community rather than on my own.”
He’s now been a Franciscan friar for 15 years and a priest for eight, having earned a BA in theology from Providence College in Rhode Island, a master’s in education, and a Master of Divinity from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. His first assignment took him to St. Anne’s parish in Columbus, Georgia, where he also served as chaplain to a small but devoted group of Catholic students at Columbus State University, about 15 students in a heavily Baptist community. That small group left a big mark: in the years since, Fr. Manny has officiated a surprising number of their weddings. “They know a priest, so they call me,” he said with a laugh.
Fluent in English and Portuguese, Fr. Manny is already looking forward to Syracuse University’s choral music scene. He caught a glimpse of the Hendricks Chapel Choir’s talented student singers during the SU Catholic chapel’s dedication and Fr. Gerry’s farewell celebration, and he’s hoping to find his way into a pew, or maybe even a choir loft, himself.
Br. Nick Romeo: Faith Rooted Early
If Fr. Manny found his calling gradually, Br. Nick found his early, very early. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, in a family anchored by Sunday Mass, Br. Nick was, by his own admission, “a big church dork.” He decorated his childhood bedroom for the liturgical seasons, sourcing his colored decor from the linen closet without his mother’s full knowledge, and built tiny Advent candles out of Legos. In eighth grade, he played the role of Jesus in a Stations of the Cross performed in mime. “It was cool, it was the ’90s…,” he added, laughing.
Like most people, he went through what he calls his “fake atheist phase,” until a junior-year morality teacher, himself a friar, changed his perspective. Br. Nick joined the Franciscans right out of high school, at just 17 years old, requiring his parents to sign a permission form. Twenty-two years and 19 professed vows later, he hasn’t looked back. “My dad thought his son might follow in his footsteps,” Br. Nick joked, referencing his father’s 30-plus years as a Baltimore County police officer. “I do not strike fear into the hearts of any criminals, so that wasn’t meant to be.”
Br. Nick holds a BA in religious studies from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio and a master’s in education from Boston College, earned during summers while he taught high school ministry: nine years in Buffalo, eight of them as a campus minister, followed by two years in Baltimore. Most recently, he spent time as a vocation director alongside Fr. Manny, the two working together for the past four years to help young men discern a call to Franciscan life.
Guiding Words and Wisdom
Ask either friar who shaped them, and the answers come quickly and with real affection. For Br. Nick, it’s Brother Mike Duffy, who once handed him a card with a single line on it: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Mike told him to hang it on the wall by his desk, and Br. Nick did, even though he’ll be the first to admit he still fights the instinct toward prrfectionism daily. “I don’t actually ever follow that,” he said with a laugh, “but I know I’m supposed to.”
For Fr. Manny, the guiding presence has been Fr. Joseph Guido, a Dominican friar he met during his time at Providence College and still talks with regularly. Fr. Guido, who has a background in psychology, introduced him to a simple check-in tool built around the acronym HALTS: hungry, angry, lonely, tired, stressed. Fr. Guido added his own letter to the front of it, turning it into PHALTS, with the P standing for prayer. “How’s your prayer life? Are you hungry? Are you angry? Are you lonely, tired, stressed?” he explained. “Those are all things to gauge within myself.” When everything feels like too much at once, he said, the trick is simple: “Just start with prayer and work your way down.”
Br. Nick’s favorite book of the Bible is Ecclesiastes, which he describes, only half joking, as “a very dark book.” It carries a lesson about not clinging too tightly to what we build, since the people who inherit our work might be wise, or they might not be. He’s lived that lesson himself, having spent eight years building up a campus ministry program at a high school that has since moved on without him. “That didn’t make the eight years worthless,” he said. Now, stepping into a legacy shaped by Fr. Gerry, he’s carrying that same posture: build with care, hold loosely.
For Fr. Manny, a favorite passage comes from the letter to the Hebrews: the word of God is living and effective, able to discern the thoughts and reflections of the heart. “That to me is the heart of what we do,” he said. “It’s not just a historical text we remember. It’s living. It’s right now.” On harder days, he returns to Psalm 34: the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and those who are crushed in spirit, he saves.
What They Hope to Bring to SU Catholic
Both friars are thoughtful about stepping into a community with deep roots and a beloved former chaplain. Fr. Manny isn’t interested in replacing Fr. Gerry’s relationship with students; he wants to earn trust slowly and walk alongside them as his own connections take shape. Br. Nick, characteristically, expects some students will gravitate toward his more direct, “gently blunt” style, the kind of accessibility he noticed as a brother rather than a priest during his years teaching high school. “I hope to bring some of that,” he said, “if they’re willing to chat about figuring things out, or just giving them good questions to ask.”
Ask either of them what draws students to a place like the SU Catholic Center in the first place, and the answer is simple: they feel safe, and they feel loved. Br. Nick points to the Franciscan charism itself, something Fr. Gerry brought in his own way and that every friar carries a little differently, as central to that feeling. “If you ask most people what comes to mind when you think of the Franciscans, they’d say joy, and some version of the word authenticity,” he said. “There are some approaches to Catholicism that seem to think you have to check your humanity at the door, which is actually the opposite of Christianity. God took on all of this mess. So just be a real person.” His hope for the year ahead is straightforward: that students experience the center as a place to simply be themselves, and that he and Fr. Manny find ways to be present well beyond the walls of the building itself.
A Warm Welcome for Patrick
Both friars are eager to build on the strong foundation already in place with Patrick McLaughlin, who has served as campus minister at the SU Catholic Center since July 2024. “I’m very excited to work with Patrick because I know that he and Fr. Gerry got along well,” Fr. Manny said. “I first interacted with him at the accepted student days in April, and even in that short time, I got to know him really well. I know we’re going to get along great.”
Br. Nick agreed. “He’s extremely practical. I think we share a similar sense of humor. We’re both very comfortable with the spotlight not always being on us. Patrick is welcome to share some of the light.”
Part of a Larger Home
The SU Catholic Center doesn’t operate on its own. It’s one of many faith communities that calls Hendricks Chapel home. Since 1930, Hendricks Chapel has served as the spiritual heart of Syracuse University, a home for all faiths and place for all people. Today, it’s the home to 15 chaplains and more than 20 religious and spiritual groups under one roof. For Fr. Manny and Br. Nick, that means their ministry to Catholic students will unfold alongside, and in conversation with, colleagues from Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Protestant, and many other traditions, all working toward the same goal of supporting the entire student body.
Carrying Fr. Gerry’s Legacy Forward
“I’m passing the baton with great confidence,” said Father Gerry. “Both friars have worked with young adults and I feel certain they will pick up where I left off. Both are vibrant and talented speakers, organizers and ministers; and they’ll relate well with our Syracuse University students. I’m confident they will take what I’ve built and bring it to the next level. They have my confidence and my prayers.”
As Fr. Gerry moves to a friary in Washington D.C., he will minister to the disenfranchised in Baltimore City at The Franciscan Center, closing out a ministry marked by deep care for Syracuse students. Fr. Manny and Br. Nick are ready to carry that spirit forward, bringing their own stories, their own humor, and their own sense of home to the SU Catholic Center. If you see them on campus, drinking coffee and having lunch in their traditional gray friars’ robes, feel free to say hi. Masses and office hours/confession are all listed on the Hendricks Chapel and SU Catholic websites.