A Vision for Ministry
to Higher Education
in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew  28:19-20.

Campus Ministry as Evangelization

Campus ministry is part of the Church’s essential ministry of evangelization. As Pope Paul VI said, “Evangelizing is . . . the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity.  She exists in order to evangelize.”[1]

“Evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity.”[2]  This mission extends not just to individuals, but to institutions and to cultures—and “not in a purely decorative way, as it were, by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots.”[3]

The culture that we are to evangelize to its “very roots” is the culture of the university.  We “must not remain on the margins of the academic community but must accept the call to bring the light of the Gospel to the very center of that world.”[4]  But we do not enter this culture as strangers and aliens.  The university’s medieval European origins spring “from the heart of the church” (ex corde ecclesiae).  Despite the secularization of modern times, we may still affirm that “the university as an institution . . . [is] an incomparable center of creativity and dissemination of knowledge for the good of humanity, the universitas magistrorum et scholarium is dedicated to research, to teaching and to the education of students who freely associate with their teachers in a common love of knowledge. . . . [All universities share] that gaudium de veritate, so precious to  St. Augustine, which is that joy of searching for, discovering and communicating truth in every field of knowledge.”[5]

We are guided by the principles outlined in the U. S. Bishops’ 1985 pastoral letter, Empowered by the Spirit.  Within the academic community, as full participants in the search for truth, we seek to live out a full vision of a ministry which forms the faith community, appropriates the faith, forms Christian conscience, educates for justice, facilitates personal development, and develops leaders for the future.

Campus Ministry and the Church

In light of St. Paul’s image of the Body of Christ, addressed to a divided church, we acknowledge that our particular ministry to higher education is not exercised in isolation, but in union with the universal Church, and, in particular, the bishop.   Campus ministry is the expression of the bishop’s “serious pastoral concern for students.”[6] We minister under his direction, and in collaboration with the other ministries of the archdiocese.

Because of the high numbers of commuter students in our archdiocese, our ministry must include a partnership with the parishes that remain the students’ primary contact with the Church.  Many of these students may attend Catholic universities, which have not traditionally been a focus of the work of Newman Centers.  In the early years of the Newman movement, there was often a tension between Newman Centers and Catholic universities and colleges.  In today’s situation, therefore, the parishes of the archdiocese, the Newman Centers, and Catholic universities must see themselves as partners in ministry. 

What forms this partnership may take are for us to discern and to develop.  This is a new endeavor, rich in possibilities.  We can encourage parishes to develop Newman Clubs for commuter students and faculty.   With the administrators of Catholic universities, we can investigate ways they might reach out in evangelization and campus ministry to neighboring community colleges with whom they are already partners in academic areas.  Parishes might consider using campus ministers as resources in developing young adult ministry.  In turn, the Newman Centers can aid young adults in the transition back to parish life, equipping them for ministry as leaders in the parish.[7] 

Collaboration affirms the gifts of each member of the Body, as well as the role that each member plays within the Body.  Our individual gifts contribute to the unity of the whole, rather than serving as means of division.  We see this most clearly in the Eucharistic liturgy, the “summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed,” and “the font from which all her power flows.”[8] Within the context of faithfulness to the Church’s common prayer, which unites us to all other Catholics, we offer the unique gifts of the academic culture in which we live.[9]

Liturgy and Catechesis

In addressing the topic of adult faith formation, the U. S. Bishops drew inspiration from the story of the supper at Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).  The breaking of bread is the moment of revelation.  It provides a pinnacle from which they can look back and recall their journey with him on the road, and the way that he had broken open the scriptures to them—“Were not our hearts burning within us?”  That is the kind of encounter which should happen when we gather to celebrate the Eucharist.

A generation ago Harvey Cox predicted the coming of a Secular City in which religious symbols and language would cease to have meaning.  Many campus ministers of that generation believed his analysis and sought to remake catechesis and liturgy to have “relevance” for the modern world and to be a “prophetic voice” to the Church. But Cox admitted twenty years later that time had proven him wrong.  We live in a time not of secularism, but of longing for the sacred. The symptoms include the tremendous interest in spirituality, lingering nostalgia within the Church for liturgies that evoked a sense of mystery, and in extra-liturgical small communities of faith. Paulist president Frank DeSiano has noted,  “If liturgy could present people with an experience of Christ, with contact with Jesus, it would come closer to what people are actually seeking today.” [10]

Liturgy in campus ministry does not need gimmicks or novelties.  This is not the place for advancing personal agendas.  Respect for both the students we serve and the Church which sends us means that liturgies will be faithful to universal and diocesan norms. As the US Bishops have said, “We will trust the capacity of prayer and sacrament to open their eyes to the presence and love of Christ.”[11]

One place where this encounter especially needs to occur is in the preaching of the Word.  Pope Paul VI said that evangelistic preaching will be “simple, clear, direct, well-adapted, profoundly dependent on Gospel teaching and faithful to the magisterium, animated by a balanced apostolic ardor coming from its own characteristic nature, full of hope, fostering belief, and productive of peace and unity.”[12] It will “contain—as the foundation, center, and at the same time, summit of its dynamism—a clear proclamation that, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of God’s grace and mercy . . . a transcendent and eschatological salvation, which indeed has its beginning in this life but which is fulfilled in eternity.”[13]

The Dominican and Franciscan traditions speak of preaching as “naming grace,” affirming that our proclamation of the Word does not speak into a void, but reveals the presence of the grace already present and at work in this setting, and in the lives of the men and women we serve.  Our preaching must recognize and reverence that grace, neither “dumbing down” the content of Church teaching nor undermining the faith of young adults who come to have that faith strengthened.

Campus Ministry and the Gospel of Life

“The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus’ message.”[14]  It takes on particular relevancy for our ministry to higher education in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, a center of medical, legal, and criminal justice education.  In presenting the claims and the promises of this Gospel of life, “A special task falls to Catholic intellectuals, who are called to be present and active in the leading centers where culture is formed, in schools and universities, in places of scientific and technological research, of artistic creativity and of the study of man”[15] — they are to be agents of transformation.   But “the first and fundamental step toward this cultural transformation consists in forming consciences with regard to the incomparable and inviolable worth of every human life.”[16]

To accomplish this calls for new perspectives, and new patterns of collaboration.  The specific goals and objectives will vary from one institution to another.  What must remain consistent is our commitment to engage students, faculty, and institutions with the radical claims of the Gospel message.   We must go to the source, and engage professionals at the beginning of their training.  At Sam Houston State University, we will place particular emphasis upon the criminal justice system.  At the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, it may be the law schools.  At the Schools of the Texas Medical Center and the University of Texas, Medical Branch, it will be the medical profession.

Extending the Call

We minister to young adults who are actively discerning their vocation and preparing for it.  We assist them in discerning the moving of the Spirit, and the gifts they have been given.  We challenge them to use these gifts for the good of others, in the world and in the Church.  We encourage all to be faithful to the unique call God has given to them.  But our talk of vocation cannot be only a generic message to all; we must be willing to challenge specific individuals in specific areas. 

The vast majority of the students, faculty and staff with whom we minister are called to the lay vocation.  We need to renew our catechesis on the precise nature of this calling. They are called to use initiative in “discovering or inventing the means for permeating social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life.”[17]  They are to “consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.”[18]  Besides catechesis and preaching on these themes, we can connect students with mentors in their fields of study.  We can arrange volunteer opportunities, using a praxis methodology (action, followed by reflection upon it, which leads to further action).

We need to challenge those called to marriage and family life to a full and conscious awareness of marriage as a vocation and a sacrament.  This cannot wait until they are engaged, but must be an ongoing component of preaching, catechesis, counseling and retreats.  Working with the Office of Family Life, we need to connect young adults with couples who can be role models of Catholic marriage and sexuality. 

We especially need to encourage awareness and support of vocations to priesthood and religious life.   In this, we will work with the Office of Vocations to provide programs and materials and prayers to support and to challenge young adults in vocational discernment.  We will also work with other organizations committed to vocations awareness, such as Serra International (and the Young Serrans in particular).  As part of this prayer and encouragement, we should support Archbishop Fiorenza’s request that “each parish and institution with a chapel in the diocese . . .  have a period of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament one day a week . . . in prayerful devotion to our Eucharistic Lord for the intention of vocations to the priesthood and religious life in our diocese.”[19]