Credo President Dr. Robert Hurley is Stepping Down

Credo President Dr. Robert Hurley is stepping down from the post after five years’ service, but will remain a Board Member. He spent countless hours and a considerable amount of his own money to contribute to the success of Credo. Perhaps his most important contribution was the wisdom and organization he brought to our board meetings. Because of his leadership Credo has become more successful in our efforts to cooperate in the New Evangelization. Dr. Hurley never missed a meeting, always arrived early and had distributed an agenda that covered the important topics we needed to cover. Under his leadership Credo have made a number of strides. For the first time, we have had our slate of speakers in place at the beginning of the year. We established an Advisory Board to help us identify and secure speakers for our Forums; we enhanced our membership process, implemented a new and improved web site, a Facebook page, an e-newsletter to improve our outreach and communication efforts. He certainly deserves our heartfelt thanks for the fine job he did in his years as Credo President.

Credo Founder and first President Tom Gates is resuming the Presidency. Tom was baptized Catholic but raised as a Methodist until age 18. While growing up, he was influenced by his mother and friends and was motivated to take instructions in the faith. He was received into the Church in 1965, immediately before the whirlwind following Second Vatican began in earnest. This left him confused and disillusioned, and looking for  answers. He recognized that things were getting worse instead of better, and he and Howard Brandt decided to found an organization to promote orthodoxy and loyalty to the Holy See in 1986.  This was the birth of Credo of the Catholic Laity.

Tom’s move to the new role left a vacancy at Vice President, which will be filled by Dana Cole. For the time being will continue also as Membership Chairman. Dana, like Tom, suffered greatly in the turbulence following Second Vatican, drifting in and out of the Church, disillusioned with its confusion and unhappy with its liturgy. She even explored the Orthodox and Anglican churches. But at the election of Pope Benedict, she was given the grace to recognize her duty to return absolutely to the Catholic Church.

At this time she also learned about the resurgence of the Latin Mass from hearing Msgr. Schmitz on EWTN. As she checked out several locations where the Institute of Christ the King had missions, she came across the Credo webpage and the city’s sobriquet, “Rome of the West.” The Latin Mass plus the evidence of a still-breathing Catholic culture were the deciding factors in her decision to move to St. Louis in 2006. Dana joined the Credo Board of Directors in 2011. The Board is pleased she’s accepted this new role.