FOCUS Missionaries from a national Catholic collegiate outreach program complement the work of Campus Ministry.
When Father Richard Lamoureux, A.A., Ph.D. ’64 was named Vice President for Mission at Assumption University, his new role called for him to advance and strengthen the University’s Assumptionist and Catholic identity and oversee Campus Ministry.
Campus Ministry offers nearly 50 diverse, vibrant Catholic programs, and about 75 percent of Assumption’s student population is Catholic.
Yet there was a disturbing gap: only about 15 percent of students were attending weekend Mass.
“Like most young people in this country, the practice of religion isn’t the biggest priority for our students,” said Fr. Lamoureux. “We needed to address that gap. What could we do about students who might be looking for something, but we’re not reaching them?”
Deacon Paul F. Covino, Assumption’s director of Campus Ministry, readily agreed. “We knew that we wanted to augment our one-on-one outreach to students in the spirit of evangelization, especially to our baptized students who were not active in their faith.”
Typically, Campus Ministry programs focus on communal activities like retreats, service, and Bible studies, “but the problem is that those programs attract students who already have an inclination to develop and explore their faith,” said Assumption President Francesco C. Cesareo, Ph.D. “We needed to reach students on the periphery.”
A year of researching different avenues to achieve this goal led them to FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, one of the fastest-growing college outreach apostolates in the Catholic Church.
Meeting Students Wherever they Are
FOCUS was founded in 1998 by Curtis Martin at Benedictine College in Atchinson, KS, in response to Pope St. John Paul II calling for a “new evangelization.” From that effort, the organization has grown to encompass over 730 missionaries serving on 164 different college campuses nationwide.
The FOCUS mission is to share the hope and joy of the Gospel with college and university students. Its missionaries are recent college graduates trained in teaching, prayer, sacred Scripture, evangelization, and discipleship. By encountering students in friendship wherever they are — from the dining hall to the library — FOCUS missionaries can create opportunities to invite students into more personal relationships with Jesus Christ.
“Our hope was that 25-year-old college graduates might be more successful in reaching students than people in their 70s, like me, or even people in their 30s and 40s,” said Fr. Lamoureux.
Four FOCUS missionaries accepted the invitation to serve Assumption beginning in August 2019: team leader Emily McCall, who previously served as a missionary at Towson University;
Grace Dietz, a recent graduate of North Dakota State; Danny Payne, a recent graduate of St. John’s University, MN; and Ben Marsh, a recent graduate of Christendom College.
“The idea is that these missionaries will work intensely with a few students, and those students will work with others,” said Deacon Covino. “You win the student over, build the student up, help the student grow in faith, and then send those students out to do the same thing with others.”
Facing Challenges with Enthusiasm
FOCUS missionaries were included in Campus Ministry meetings and activities from the start, said Deacon Covino. “We saw that as critical to their successful integration on campus.”
Assumption FOCUS team leader McCall said she was excited to come to the University, since she’d never lived in the Northeast or spent much time on the campus of a private Catholic institution.
A media arts and design graduate of James Madison University, her faith journey began when she “walked with women who had very different journeys than I had, women who taught me about mercy and compassion and how the Lord teaches us to pursue our faith.”
One particular FOCUS missionary “shared her life with me,” and over time invited McCall into discipleship, encouraging her to lead Bible studies by the time McCall was in her senior year.
“It was one kind of joy to encounter Jesus myself, but it totally brought me to the next level of joy to share that with other women,” she said. “Everyone needs to know the love and mercy of Christ.”
Assumption’s Campus Ministry staff has been “wonderfully supportive and generous, helping us thrive here,” McCall said, “and it’s such a gift to be able to enter so easily into conversations with Assumption students, many of whom are taking classes in theology and philosophy.”
Whether students are studying to become teachers, nurses, scientists, or business entrepreneurs, McCall’s hope is that FOCUS missionaries can guide them to ask “questions about their life purpose, how to be in a relationship with God, and how to share that in the context of their own personal lives and careers. My main goal is to show students that faith isn’t something to put in a box and set aside. Faith penetrates all aspects of your life.”
Her biggest surprise since coming to Assumption? “We were all caught off guard by the receptivity and generosity of the students here. Many are so open and kind.
Those of us on the FOCUS team are far from home, so to be able to form genuine friendships with Assumption students is a huge gift.”
One of those students is Alex Ruston ’23 of Syracuse, NY. Despite attending Mass with his family on Sundays, it wasn’t until high school, when Ruston had participated in one of the Steubenville Youth Conferences, that he had his “first personal encounter with Christ,” he said. “That experience really opened my heart and I began to give my life to Him.” Ruston’s faith led him to
Assumption University, where he first met McCall and Payne on a community service trip to help clear litter from trails around Worcester.
“I was really very pleasantly surprised to learn there were FOCUS missionaries on campus,” he said. “One of my biggest worries about going to college was whether I’d find a good community to support my faith.”
After that initial meeting, Ruston attended various FOCUS sponsored activities, including a lawn games event last fall, a movie night, and Bible studies. In this way, he found other like-minded friends who were willing to explore the meaning of faith in their lives.
Success by the Numbers
Typically, FOCUS missionaries commit to spending two years on a campus. Last academic year was unlike any other in history, with the coronavirus pandemic causing Assumption to shift to remote learning and sending students home in early spring. Still, even in that short amount of time, everyone involved agrees that FOCUS has been a success.
“One thing I noticed is that, instead of the usual small handful of students attending the daily five o’clock Mass, we had as many as 20 attending,” said Fr. Lamoureux, noting that more students are also taking part in Bible-sharing groups. “I’ve had several students come up to me because they wanted to talk to a priest, too. That sort of thing didn’t happen as often before.”
In addition, FOCUS runs a national conference every year in a different location. Eighteen Assumption students, including Ruston, signed up to attend the conference held in Phoenix, AZ, during winter break. “You can imagine that this is a highly energetic, enthusiastic group that comes together,” said Fr. Lamoureux. “The event attracted thousands of students from around the country and had a big impact on those who participated.”
The FOCUS missionaries remained in conversation with Assumption students through social media during the pandemic. They hope to continue their steady progress during the 2020–21 Academic Year, building on this first core group of dedicated students to include others in a sort of “theory of spiritual multiplication.”
“I think that, in a very real way, Assumption is striving to root students in the Catholic intellectual tradition,” said McCall. “We’re working alongside the University to foster that tradition. Our goal is to show students that we can use our intellect to come to know more of who God is and to share Him with those around us. We invite students to use the knowledge they gain at Assumption to fortify their relationship with Our Lord. Jesus must not simply be a historic figure that is read about in textbooks. He desires to encounter us all in the depths of our hearts and to transform us more deeply into Himself. In our time at Assumption, the missionaries hope to foster relationships with students in such a way that brings this reality to the forefront of their lives and empowers them to share this beautiful truth with their peers so that all may come to know what it means to be a disciple of Christ.”
For Ruston, his strengthened faith and his association with the FOCUS missionaries have both helped him through the pandemic.
“A lot of FOCUS’s motto is to live life on mission, and that’s so important in the world we live in today,” he said. “A lot of people are hurting and lost. There is no greater purpose than to reflect the light and love of Christ and be an instrument of His life and mercy.”
