Campus Ministry Influences Vocations

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 6/23/05)

As you know, the United States Catholic bishops met last week for our Spring General Assembly. This took place in Chicago from June 16 through June 18.

When we bishops meet in November and June, we are invited to participate in breakfast presentations sponsored by various groups. On Friday, June 17, I attended the 2005 Catholic Campus Ministry Association Bishops’ Vocations Breakfast. During this breakfast, a panel of two recently ordained priests and four novices (two men and two women) shared with us how campus ministry exercised a vital role in their responding to God’s call to priesthood and to the religious life. Their witness was so positive and inspiring! They clearly pointed out how the Lord used campus ministry to turn them back to Him and to the vocation He was inviting them to pursue.

Let me share with you their witness in their own words. Father Matthew Compton, a parochial vicar at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Wilmette, Illinois, stated: "When I finally realized the call to enter the seminary and discern the vocation to the priesthood, I had to look no further than the Newman Foundation for the examples of the priests which I desired to become." Father David Richardson, a parochial vicar at the Church of St. Matthew in Champagne, Illinois, proudly said that the Newman Foundation at the University of Illinois played a central role in his discernment of a vocation. "While there are many stories I can share about the impact, I would focus on the faith community that gathered and the models provided by the priests who served during my college years."

Brother Troy Kelley, a Redemptorist novice, told us that "campus ministry played a big role in my vocation before and after entering the Redemptorists." Another Redemptorist novice, Brother Robert Lindsey, who calls himself a "late vocation," testified how he returned to the church while a student at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. "It was this campus and its ministry that returned me to Mass and helped me find God in my life."

The two Dominican novices were equally emphatic about the central role which campus ministry played in their discernment process. Sister Mary Rebekah Odle-Kemp stated: "The campus ministry at Texas A&M University is absolutely the reason for my vocation. It impacted my vocation immensely….My vocation discernment finds its roots in a program we called the ‘Nun Run’. Exposure to authentic religious life, coupled with daily orthodox catechesis on Church teaching and the Eucharist helped me to grow in my faith and thus to accept my vocation." Sister Joan Agnes Suh stated that "in the midst of a radically secular campus, the Newman Foundation provided me with a Catholic culture where I could find Christ and seek His will – in silence and in fellowship, centered in the Holy Eucharist."

I was so encouraged as I listened to these men and women pointing out the pivotal influence which Catholic campus ministry provided to them as they were seeking out God’s plan for their lives.

As many of you know, I was a campus minister in my early priesthood and saw for myself how essential this ministry can be in the lives of students seeking the Truth as young adults. The witness of the panelists at this Bishops’ Vocations Breakfast last Friday confirmed for me how necessary campus ministry is within our own diocesan church and how important it is for me, whenever possible, to assign priests to serve as chaplains at our college and university campuses.

Our Bishop’s Lenten Appeal includes campus ministry as one of the ministries supported by the generosity of our donors. I remain grateful to all those who support our Bishop’s Lenten Appeal, keenly aware as I am of the tremendous good which results from such support. As I said, the growth in living one’s faith and the encouragement to follow the Lord’s call to priesthood and/or the religious life are directly and positively impacted by a vibrant campus ministry.

I close this reflection with renewed gratitude to those who serve as chaplains on the university and college campuses within our diocese as well as to their staffs, and also to all of you who, with prayer and financial support, enable campus ministry to be the vital instrument which the Lord uses to deepen within young people the living of their Catholic faith and to hear His call to serving the Church as priests and religious.

 Copyright ©2005 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.