by The Leaven
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Fellowship of Catholic University Students honored Father Nick Blaha for outstanding service to the new evangelization at its national event SLS20, held Dec. 30 to Jan. 3 in Phoenix.
Father Blaha is pastor of three Kansas City, Kansas, parishes: Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady & St. Rose, and Christ the King.
He is the fourth recipient of the St. Francis Xavier Award, given to alumni, but the first to be awarded at a national Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) event.
Father Blaha was a FOCUS missionary from 2003 to 2006. He has an ongoing investment in the men who attended his Bible study while he was a missionary at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Six men from his Bible study are priests — seven, counting Father Blaha.
He also began a group — consisting of two FOCUS missionaries, who went fishing every year — that has grown to include seven priests and four married men who continue to develop their relationships and brotherhood rooted in Christ.
