For alumni, the University of Dallas usually calls to mind either the urban energy of Irving or the quiet vineyards of Due Santi. Few would associate the University of Dallas with the mists and evergreens of the Pacific Northwest. However, in the small town of Elmira, Oregon, there’s a deep University of Dallas legacy in the home of Carl Olson, MTS ’00, artist, author and editor of The Catholic World Report and the e-zine Ignatius Insight. 

He and his family live on five acres nestled between Eugene, Oregon, and the Pacific Ocean with some horses, dogs, a sizable flock of chickens and the “largest private library in Elmira,” according to Olson. He earned his Master of Theological Studies through an old partnership between the University and the Diocese of Portland. The university, he says, has been a prime influence on his professional, personal and spiritual life, even two decades later. 

Olson grew up as an evangelical Protestant and learned the Scriptures from a young age. However, while attending a Bible college in Canada, he encountered writers like St. John Henry Newman, Flannery O’Connor and T.S. Eliot. He was drawn to the beauty and history of the Catholic tradition and entered the Catholic Church on Easter of 1997. 

His Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program was taught by Deacon Jack Luz, who introduced him to the MTS program, which was then offered in Portland through the University of Dallas. Classes were taught at a local Franciscan convent by UD professors.

“I met so many amazing people through the program,” says Olson. He attended classes under the late UD legend Mark Lowery, PhD, “one of the most exemplary teachers; an amazing man and amazing professor.” He received spiritual direction from Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, now of EWTN fame. One of Olson’s closest friends from the program is his “long-lost brother” Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, MTS ’00, now a prominent public evangelist of the Catholic faith. 

The program, he says, had a “great contemplative quality” while always primarily concerned with a “spiritual liveliness, an alertness to the salvation of souls.” Even his hardest class, Canon Law with seasoned canon lawyer Edward Peters, JCD, was made tolerable by the high quality of instruction.

“I think I got a B+,” Olson amiably admits. “It was my last semester; I may have been flagging a little bit.”

These University of Dallas connections have followed Olson throughout his life. His instructor Mark Brumley, MTS ’95, eventually brought him on board as a writer and editor at Ignatius Press, and then ultimately helped him revive The Catholic World Report, where Olson still works as the chief editor. 

The relationships Olson forged at UD have reached to the very heart of his own family. 

“While I was a student, one of my classmates at UD called me and said there was a 10-day-old baby girl in need of a new home,” Olson remembers. The girl's mother decided to choose life and find her daughter an adopted home. After an intense 24 hours of prayer and discernment, Carl and his wife Heather welcomed Felicity (pictured left) into their home and ultimately adopted her into the Olson family.

His University of Dallas roots still remain deep in Olson’s life almost two decades later. Even when busy or overwhelmed with family responsibilities and obligations, Olson says Fr. Mitch would call and encourage him to finish his writing and editing.

In addition to his work at The Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight, Olson has published widely for a popular Catholic audience. In 2009, he published with Ignatius Press a Catholic response to Protestant rapture theology, titled Will Catholics be Left Behind? He also contributed to the popular Ignatius response to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, titled The Da Vinci Hoax. His articles are widely distributed, appearing regularly in Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire, The Imaginative Conservative, National Catholic Register and more. 

When he’s not tracking papal controversies for Catholic World Report, spending time with his family or tending to his animals, Carl can be found at the Nativity of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Springfield.

Joe Toates, MA ’24, is a Dallas native and freelance writer currently studying humanities and classical education in the Braniff Graduate school. He studied history at Hillsdale College and currently serves as an educator in Detroit, Michigan. He enjoys reading, writing and helping his students do the same.