The crowd of book bag-toting, backpack-wearing students making their way uphill to class at Franciscan University every day includes an increasing number of religious men and women in full habit.
While Franciscan University was founded by the Franciscan Friars, TOR, and they and various other religious have always served the campus community as teachers, administrators, and pastoral associates, more and more religious orders from around the world have made Franciscan University their preferred educational home in recent years. As they seek out theological formation and specialized training to carry out their apostolates effectively, they turn to Franciscan as a trusted partner.
These orders are drawn to Franciscan for its rigorous academic standards and, even more importantly, for its faithfully Catholic approach to forming the whole human person. All students at the University, no matter their specific discipline, receive holistic, integrated training that forms them intellectually, professionally, and spiritually to carry the light of Christ into the world.
Some religious orders have even purchased houses near campus to allow their members to study full time while continuing to live religious life in community. The religious currently studying on campus are working toward degrees in disciplines ranging from theology and philosophy to education and clinical mental health counseling at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels.
“Light Can’t Stay Under a Bushel”
Father Jonathan St. André, TOR, vice president of Franciscan Life and a 1996 graduate of Franciscan University, sees the growing relationships between the University and different religious orders as a natural outgrowth of the University’s mission and charism.
Fr. Jonathan St. André, TOR, says many students have never encountered religious life before attending Franciscan.
“Franciscan emphasizes personal vocation—the understanding that every single one of us, by virtue of being created by God and baptized, has a unique, unrepeatable call, and that call is unfolding in our life circumstances right now,” Father Jonathan says. “Our state in life (religious, married, etc.) and our career flow from our personal vocation.”
Having so many consecrated religious on campus reminds students of this reality, which is something he experienced personally as an undergraduate at Franciscan, where he says he “began to be open to a sense of being called to the priesthood.” After graduating and serving with NET Ministries for one year, he began seriously discerning with the Franciscan Friars, TOR.
“I knew the friars from my time at Franciscan,” he recalls, “and I knew they loved the Holy Spirit. They were just regular guys, and that attracted me.”
He was also deeply attracted to community life and to Franciscan spirituality. He went on to discern with the Franciscan Friars, TOR, and says, “It quickly became clear I needed to take the next step.”
He has now been in vows for 25 years and a priest for almost 20 years.
Father Jonathan knows most students will not become priests or religious. Instead, they will go forth to serve God in their careers, families, and communities as laity. However, the prophetic sign of religious life invites lay students to respond to their unique call while recognizing the beauty of religious life.
Father Jonathan says, “Many students have never encountered religious life before coming to the University. Now they’re sitting next to religious in class, doing group assignments together, walking to class, and attending Mass together.”
The religious who study at Franciscan receive an incredible intellectual formation, no matter which program of studies they undertake. They also receive powerful pastoral formation, strengthening their ability to minister according to their order’s specific charism and mission. Father Jonathan says, “Rubbing elbows and shoulders with lay students and professors and families is so good for them and their own religious vocation.” It forms them in a deeply human way, strengthening them in their own identity as consecrated religious.
In all this, Father Jonathan sees the University operating in its Franciscan charism. In the spirit of St. Francis, it is a charism that is both contemplative and evangelical, always working to “insert the Gospel into the world.” By providing religious women and men with the intellectual, professional, and spiritual formation they need to carry out their apostolates, the University is faithfully living out its own mission to “be light” in the world. For, as Father Jonathan says, “Light can’t stay under a bushel. It must go out—it must be shared.”
“Still a Very Live Option”
Sister Peter Thomas Burson, OP, grew up Catholic but never thought of being a religious sister. Then one night in high school, while she was working the desk at the parish office, she stumbled across the website of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. It was a slow night, and she hadn’t brought a book, so she perused the website.
Her first thought: “This is insane, and nobody does this.” But she also had to admit: “If I was going to do it, I’d do it like this!”
Steubenville Youth Conferences, the Priestly Discernment Program, and friars on campus contributed to the vocational journey of Br. Simon Mary Arellano, TOR ’22.
The seed had been planted, but she didn’t take action on it until after her freshman year at Notre Dame, where she was studying on an ROTC contract through the Air Force. The idea of religious life kept coming up in prayer, so the summer after her freshman year, she went on retreat with the Dominican Sisters in Ann Arbor. A year later, she entered the order.
During her initial formation, she completed her undergraduate studies at Eastern Michigan University, earning a degree in education. She later taught high school in Michigan and Arizona before moving to the convent in Weirton, West Virginia, where she serves as local superior. Currently, several Dominican Sisters of Mary are in the undergraduate Education Program at Franciscan. Another sister is studying for a master’s degree in theology, and Sister Peter Thomas is studying theology part time.
When Sister Peter Thomas compares her experience studying education at a secular university to that of the sisters now studying at Franciscan, there really is no comparison.
“I had to supplement my coursework with Catholic documents to maintain a Catholic view of education,” she says. “But here, the sisters don’t have to sift through material and ideologies that don’t align with the Church’s teachings. They’re getting rigorous, research-based training but also a rich Catholic understanding of what education is about—the formation of the human person. And this is true no matter what subject one goes on to teach.”
The sisters study alongside lay students, and Sister Peter Thomas says she sees “cross-edification” in this arrangement. Because there are so many different orders represented on campus, lay students get to experience the beautiful variety of charisms and apostolates within the Church. They see religious women and men living joyfully, and they learn that, as Sister Peter Thomas expressed it, “a life of radical consecration is still a very live option—and might be what God is calling them to.”
For their part, the sisters experience Franciscan as a community of vibrant faith. Sister Peter Thomas was particularly struck by the way the University community came together in January to mourn the accidental deaths of two undergraduate students, Luke Reimer and Mary Mich. She says it was beautiful to see the student body be mentored through dealing with tragedy, “letting the Church minister to us through the sacraments and at the same time being available to minister to one another.”
While the education the sisters receive is practical and essential for their teaching apostolate, studying at Franciscan is spiritually nourishing for them as well, and it integrates beautifully with the formation the sisters receive in community. Moreover, in keeping with their Dominican charism, they see their studies as an opportunity to encounter truth, always seeking to develop the life of the mind and grow in their understanding of the things of God.
“The Mystery of the Human Person”
Sister Beata Victoria Loughheed, SV, came to know Jesus in a deeply personal way while involved in Catholic Christian Outreach at the University of Ottawa. She participated in a retreat during her second year, where she “experienced the Lord inviting me to surrender my time, money, and emotional life.” This invitation cut her to the heart, as she saw what her life could be if she surrendered these areas where she was not experiencing freedom.
After graduation, she went on to study journalism and later interned with the Holy See Mission to the United Nations in New York. She then landed her dream job working in public relations for the Archdiocese of Toronto. She had a life she loved, complete with a downtown apartment, a walk-in closet full of clothes, great friends, and opportunities to follow her love for adventure. She did triathlons, went backpacking, and enjoyed trying out the latest restaurants in the city. But deep down, she says, “I knew I had a really big gift of love to give.” And nothing was fully satisfying her heart.
Then, during the Year of Consecrated Life in 2015, she did a project at work profiling different religious orders in Toronto. As she edited video footage of an interview with one of the Sisters of Life, she felt an internal pull.
“It scared the heck out of me!” she admits. “Seeing how Sister loved was totally new, but it already felt familiar.”
Later, on retreat with the sisters, she recalls playing Ultimate Frisbee and watching a sister launch a crazy Hail Mary pass into the end zone. A girl on her team caught the Frisbee and made the point. Later that day, the moment kept coming back to her in prayer.
She realized, “This is how I am with my heart and my love. It’s in my hands, and I’m looking around for where to throw it, but I don’t see a clear opening, so it feels safer to hold it.” She heard Jesus inviting her to launch her heart to him, promising her, “I love you too much to fumble it.”
She eventually responded to the Lord’s invitation of love and entered the community in 2017.
She made final vows last year and was sent to Franciscan to study clinical mental health counseling. She says she still can’t believe she gets to spend two years just receiving and growing, “marveling at the mystery of the human person, which is how I’d summarize the study of counseling.”
Sr. Peter Thomas Burson, OP, part-time student and full-time local superior of the Dominican convent in Weirton.
Two Sisters of Life are in the program this year, both of whom have spent a number of years serving in their community’s missions to the most vulnerable. The community wants more sisters to be trained in counseling and social work as they live their charism of reverence for and protection of the sacredness of all human life. This training will help them accompany women who are pregnant and vulnerable and those seeking healing after abortion. The master’s in counseling at Franciscan suits their needs wonderfully, incorporating the highest clinical standards with a deeply Catholic understanding of the human person.
Sister Beata Victoria says her studies are deeply formative for her personally. Her time at the University is allowing her “to contemplate the mysteries of God and our charism and to receive the intellectual formation we need to share the charism that has been entrusted to our hearts.” Her studies feed her contemplation, and when she returns to the mission, her training will equip her to accompany women who have experienced trauma in their lives, especially the trauma of abortion.
She says the experience of studying alongside lay students “mutually blesses us.” She feels blessed “to receive their hearts and walk with them in this season when they’re headed toward professional life and other big steps.”
For her part, she is edified by their lively faith—and she says they help keep her young!
“A Man Meant for Community”
Brother Simon Mary Arellano, TOR ’22, first thought about becoming a priest when he was a high school sophomore attending a Steubenville Youth Conference in San Diego. The host invited young men who felt called to the priesthood forward for a blessing, and he joined the group.
At that time, he had never been exposed to religious life—in fact, he had his first encounter with a religious community when he began his undergraduate studies in the Priestly Discernment Program at Franciscan University. He saw the Franciscan TOR friars ministering on campus and thought, “I’ve never seen a priest look like that in my life.” He was mesmerized.
He says his four years in the University’s Priestly Discernment Program “revealed how much I was a man meant for community.” He explored a few different religious orders, but he fell in love with the TORs—their ministry, their intentional relationship with the Triune God, and their acceptance of each friar’s unique personality.
He says, “I didn’t feel like I had to lose myself to become a friar in the community.”
Now that he is in his second year of theology in preparation for ordination to the priesthood in the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, he especially loves the order’s charism of ongoing conversion, seeing every day as an opportunity to grow closer to the Lord.
Brother Simon Mary enjoys studying with other religious at Franciscan, as it allows him to befriend religious from many different communities. He also loves ministering to the lay students, especially in his role as chaplain of the women’s swim team, which lets him “exercise a pastoral role overseeing the spiritual wellbeing of the team.”
As a young brother, he recognizes that he can build strong relationships with his fellow students because he can “match their energy”—meeting them in their challenges and engaging with their sense of humor. And he loves that being a brother allows him to create a fun, familial atmosphere for lay students to interact with the friars.
He also sees the University contributing in a powerful way to his own formation as a religious. In addition to the classes offering him practical and spiritual preparation for ordination, his day-today interactions with students are preparing him for the priesthood as well. Few seminarians get to study in an environment that includes lay men and women, but he is learning to build meaningful relationships with those studying alongside him. Brother Simon Mary knows this formation will be invaluable in his ministry when, God willing, he is ordained to the priesthood.
Mary Beth Giltner is an editor and writer in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
