NET Ministries of Canada - NET's Beginnings

NET's Beginnings

NET Ministries was founded in the United States and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota in the diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. NET's roots go back to the St. Paul Catholic Youth Center (CYC) which offered a variety of programs from 1939 to 1989.

In 1980 NET's founder, Mark Berchem, through CYC organized eighteen high school youth retreats around southern Minnesota. Young adults traveled in a van giving these retreats over a three-week period in January. The following January three teams of youth were sent to Winona, Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1981 these missions extended to a full year commitment. In 1982 the acronym NET (standing for National Evangelization Team) became name of this movement, inspired by Mark 1:17 and Luke 5:4.

CYC closed in 1989 and NET was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In 1988 NET teams first travelled and gave retreats in Canada. In 1994, the sister organization, NET Ministries of Canada, was established by James Mikulasik and came under the ecclesiastical vigilance of the Archbishop of Ottawa.

In August 2001, along with traveling retreat teams, NET Canada started a parish-based program in which a team of young adults minister in a parish instead of travelling. NET Canada is now in the process of helping establish NET Ireland as an autonomous organization. NET Ministries of Canada is governed by a Board of directors currently made up of ten members. Most Rev. Terrence Prendergast, S.J. of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa is the Chairman of the Board and James Mikulasik is the President.