Father Tom Eckert, CSC, Spiritual Advisor

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​In 2020, Fr. Tom Eckert, CSC, was named the director of the Holy Cross Mission Center at the University of Notre Dame. For him, it represents a homecoming, as it was at the University of Notre Dame he became a “Triple Domer”, earning a Bachelor’s in Spanish and Economics as well as a Master of Divinity and a Master of Spanish Language and Literatures.

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Fluent in Spanish, he studied for a year in Mexico City as an undergraduate and worked in Holy Cross mission schools in Lima, Peru and Santiago, Chile during his seminary formation.

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Fr. Tom was ordained a priest in 2003 for the Congregation of Holy Cross at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame and began his priestly ministry that year at the University of Notre Dame, where he held positions in Student Affairs, Campus Ministry, the Office of Vocations and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

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From 2011-2020, Fr. Tom was pastor of St. John Vianney Catholic Church and School. (It was here a beautiful friendship bloomed, with Fr. Tom supporting the family spiritually. Young Travis even started calling him “Uncle Father Tom”.) During his tenure he shepherded tremendous growth of the parish to over 5,000 families and doubled the school enrollment to over 400 students. He championed completion of a construction project to provide 10 additional classrooms and a gymnasium to accommodate the continued growth.

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When he is not actively educating the minds and hearts of those he serves, he can be found baking pies. It seems he has found the “sweet spot” in his priestly ministry.