For many years,
Catholic students at Shenandoah University in Winchester didn’t have a priest
on campus to celebrate Mass on Sundays. Some students would catch a ride across
town to Sacred Heart Church or gather on campus for fellowship, reading
Scripture together and sharing a meal.
“It’s hard to
maintain your faith without community on a college campus. We want to create a
place for students to come and feel known and loved and supported,” said
Samantha Libasci, president of the small Catholic campus ministry at
Shenandoah, which operates as a student club.
Today, the diocese
provides Mass on campus at Goodson Chapel. Father Ramon Dominguez, a Youth
Apostles priest from McLean, has been driving to Shenandoah to celebrate Mass
at 6:45 p.m., after hearing confessions, said Kevin Bohli, executive director
of the Office of Youth, Campus and Young Adult Ministries, which was expanded
two years ago to include campus ministries.
“We wanted to be
able to provide Mass for every student who goes to college within the
boundaries of our diocese,” Bohli said. “So many young people fall away from
the faith during the college years. This is a prime time for us to be providing
fellowship and sacraments to keep them involved in their faith.”
The four other residential campuses in the diocese,
Christendom College in Front Royal, George Mason University in Fairfax,
Marymount University in Arlington and the University of Mary Washington in
Fredericksburg, all have robust campus ministries, Bohli said. The ministries
at George Mason and the University of Mary Washington are run by the diocese,
while at the two Catholic schools, Christendom and Marymount, campus ministers
are hired by the school, he said. The diocese also is working to create
Catholic student clubs on each of the Northern Virginia Community College
campuses, he added.
Libasci said students like the Sunday evening Mass
time. “It’s the last Mass in the area,”
she said. Some community members and students who aren’t Catholic come too;
Father Dominguez is preparing one student to enter the church, through the Rite
of Christian Initiation of Adults. Members of the student group also have attended
state and national conferences together.
Bohli said Cindy
Martin, pastoral assistant at Christendom College in Front Royal, has been
instrumental in growing Shenandoah’s campus ministry. Martin used to drive a
group of students to Sacred Heart every Sunday; one of those, James O’Reilly,
was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Richmond in June.
The ministry maintains a list of about 100 students;
about 30 attend each weekend, Libasci said. She added that since fall classes
began Aug. 24, the group has been adhering to Shenandoah’s COVID-19 policies,
wearing masks and placing seats 6 feet apart in the chapel. Names of students
present are tracked in case they need to be contacted later. For now, singing
is limited to the cantor to reduce the risk of airborne virus transmission, she
said.
“We started off so small and every year we get
bigger,” Libasci said. “We’re really thankful for the diocese’s support, for
Father and Cindy and all the students who help.”
Find out more
Get more information on the diocesan campus ministries website, arlingtondiocese.org/catholic-campus-ministry