NET Ministries

NET's roots go back to the St. Paul Catholic Youth Center (CYC),[1] 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.

In 1982 the acronym NET (standing for National Evangelization Teams) became name of this movement, inspired by Mark 1:17 and Luke 5:4.

[3]: 39  In depositions between 1988 and 1991, after being accused of engaging in child sexual abuse, Kolar admitted to having abused young adults at the Catholic Youth Center in St. Paul and elsewhere; after being the subject of a lawsuit by alleged victims, Koler voluntarily left the priesthood.