Spring break

Richard A. Sokerka

Spring break. Those two words often bring dread to parents of the college students who will be heading south. Within the next few days, warm spots like Florida will be inundated with thousands of college kids looking to have a good time with not a care in the world.

Students at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio will also be on spring break but at far different places with a far different agenda. Wearing T-shirts that state, “Serve. Inspire. Evangelize,” some 300 students will serve the poorest of the poor on 13 domestic and international missions, which are completely student led, organized, and funded.

“In all of our missions, we’re serving and loving people in every stage of life, in every circumstance,” said Rhett Young, director of Missionary Outreach. This year’s spring break missions include Arizona, Belize, New York City, Chicago, Ecuador, Honduras, New Mexico, Nicaragua, North Dakota, Los Angeles, Son Life-Florida, and Steubenville, Ohio. The students must cover all of their expenses for transportation, lodging, meals, and supplies.

The mission in Steubenville focuses on bringing the light of Christ into the downtown areas of Steubenville through door-to-door evangelization, street ministry, serving in soup kitchens, homeless ministry, and various service projects.

On their spring break missions, students will be joined by 32 advisers, including 21 religious sisters, brothers, and priests.

For the first time, all student leaders attended a leadership retreat prior to the start of the academic year, which was aimed to help them grow in the virtues of leadership, humility, love, and seeing Christ in those they would serve.

On spring break at these various locations, students will be sharing their time and talent through various service outreaches — youth ministries, chastity presentations, prayer services, home improvement projects, village ministries, medical outreaches, and other apostolic endeavors.

Through those activities, but also through their personal witness of their love of Christ, students will seek to be instruments of the Lord in promoting the culture of life.

These efforts of its students are one way the Franciscan University lives out the mandate of Ex Corde Ecclesiae (“From the Heart of the Church”), St. Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution, that Catholic universities serve as “a living institutional witness to Christ and his message.”

Across our nation at major Catholic universities, including Notre Dame and Georgetown, many prelates, laity and alumni are questioning their Catholic identity. Not so at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Its motto, “Academically excellent. Passionately Catholic,” says it all, making it the Catholic university others in our nation should emulate and follow in order to reaffirm their Catholic identity.