Chosen to Bear Fruit

For Katrina Zeno ’86 MA ’26, commencement marked the end of a journey 40 years in the making.

Zeno first came to Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1982, taking a bus from San Diego to begin her bachelor’s degree in theology. Four decades after graduating in 1986, she crossed the stage again—this time with a master’s in catechetics and evangelization.

“We sometimes say God writes straight with crooked lines, but my experience is that God rarely writes with straight lines,” Zeno said.

Katrina Zeno ’86 MA ’26 completes an academic journey 40 years in the making.

After years of writing, speaking, and teaching on St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, Zeno returned to Steubenville in 2021. When her plans for doctoral studies changed, she discovered Franciscan had begun offering graduate classes in catechetics on campus.

“I was immediately smitten!” she said.

Over the next four and a half years, through both in-person and online study, Zeno said the “crooked lines started to look straighter” as she deepened her understanding of “the Church’s heart and mind on teaching the deposit of faith.”

She also found something familiar still alive on campus.

“I was most grateful to experience Father Michael Scanlan’s spirit alive and well through the leadership of University President Father Dave Pivonka and to see life in the Holy Spirit making a comeback on campus,” Zeno said.

Zeno was one of 928 graduates in Franciscan University’s Class of 2026—the largest graduating class in University history for the sixth consecutive year. The class also included 239 online graduates from 40 states and 15 countries.

The celebration began May 8 with the Baccalaureate Mass, during which Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, preached on Christ’s command in John 15 to “love one another as I have loved you.”

Father Spitzer, a former president of Gonzaga University, co-founder of the Magis Center and the Napa Institute, and a leading Catholic voice in philosophy, science, ethics, and apologetics, received an honorary doctorate in catechetics and evangelization during commencement.

In his Baccalaureate Mass homily, he urged graduates to remain faithful to the sacramental life, prayer, moral teaching, and the mercy of confession. He described these practices as the foundation for a life rooted in friendship with Christ and capable of enduring suffering, uncertainty, and the pressures of the modern world.

“You will leave a legacy of true good in the world,” Father Spitzer said. “That’s something every graduate can do with a formation like you’ve gotten here at Franciscan University.”

He reminded graduates that the Christian life is ultimately not about worldly success but about helping others reach heaven.

“What more could you possibly ask for than to help people through your actions and sometimes through your crosses?” Father Spitzer said.

“Continue to say yes to the call he’s placed on your life, and your life will bear great fruit.“

During the morning commencement ceremony for graduates in the sciences and professional programs on May 9, Timothy Busch, founder of the Busch Firm and co-founder of the Napa Institute and the Magis Center, received an honorary doctorate in humane letters and delivered the commencement address.

Busch praised Franciscan as “the gold standard of Catholic education” and pointed to its fidelity as the reason behind its continued growth.

“There’s no secret as to why your class sizes are growing,” Busch said. “It’s because you’ve been faithful to the authenticity of the magisterium.”

Drawing from decades of experience in business, entrepreneurship, education, and Catholic leadership, Busch challenged his fellow graduates to bring their faith boldly into the world and not hide their Catholic identity in professional life.

“We are in the world, and we have the ability, through our example and our preaching, to convert souls,” he said. “I do not hide the fact that I’m Catholic, and it has never hindered me in the secular world.”

Busch also pointed to Franciscan’s culture of prayer and eucharistic devotion as the true source of its strength. After visiting the Portiuncula Chapel, he described perpetual eucharistic adoration as the “nuclear energy” of the University.

“This is where you recognize God is the center of your lives,” Busch said. “Don’t forget the benefit of adoration, of daily Mass … and to seek regular confession.”

He encouraged graduates to remain rooted in prayer as they navigate cultural challenges, technological change, and questions surrounding artificial intelligence, which he called the next industrial revolution.

“You’re receiving a degree, but you’re receiving a commission, a commission to go out and pursue your purpose,” Busch said. “Be a history maker, not a history writer. Everybody can write history, but very few people want to make history.”

During the afternoon ceremony for graduates in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, Father Spitzer delivered the commencement address.

“No one brings together the secular and the sacred disciplines better than Franciscan University of Steubenville. For that reason, it is a real honor to receive this degree,” he said.

Father Spitzer encouraged the graduates to make three daily choices: 1) to be contributive rather than ego comparative, 2) to always look for the good in others, and 3) to put Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God first.

Throughout his address, Father Spitzer warned graduates about the subtle influence of secular culture and the temptation to define life by achievement, status, comparison, and recognition. “The secular world can and will creep up on you,” Father Spitzer said. “Before you know it, you can be so easily slipping into a mentality that was never meant to happen to you by the Lord.”

He contrasted what he called an “ego comparative” life— focused on success, admiration, power, and comparison—with a “contributive” life centered on making “an optimal positive difference” for family, friends, the Church, and the Kingdom of God.

“If I want to make an optimal positive difference, I’m engaged in what Christ would call love for the kingdom, for others, for family, for friends,” Father Spitzer said.

He also encouraged graduates to reject cynicism and deliberately search for the good in others rather than the faults and weaknesses so often emphasized by modern culture.

“When we look for the good news in the other and empathy occurs, then we can love in Jesus’ way,” Father Spitzer said. Ultimately, he reminded graduates, Franciscan had prepared them not simply for careers, but for lives ordered toward truth, holiness, and eternity. “We were meant for the kingdom,” Father Spitzer said. “We were meant for perfect truth, love, goodness, beauty, and home.”

In his closing remarks, Father Dave Pivonka, TOR ’89, president of Franciscan University, reflected on his own discernment as a student praying in the Portiuncula Chapel before graduation.

“I heard the Lord say to me, ‘It was not you who chose me. It was I who chose you,’” Father Dave said.

He told graduates the same truth remains for them.

“I would like you graduates to know that you have been chosen,” he said. “He’s chosen you for a purpose, for a plan. He has a desire for your life.”

Father Dave urged the Class of 2026 to continue saying yes to the Lord and to bear fruit that endures.

“Continue to say yes to the call he’s placed on your life, and your life will bear great fruit,” he said. “Understand that he’s chosen you, and he’s got a great adventure in store for you.”

For many graduates, that adventure has already begun even as they reflect on lessons learned at Franciscan.

Members of the Class of 2026 who responded to an initial survey reported moving into careers and vocations across the country and around the world, with graduates accepting positions at major companies and apostolates, serving in missionary work, and continuing their education at highly respected graduate and professional schools.

Graduates reported plans to pursue advanced degrees at institutions including Notre Dame, Baylor University School of Law, Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry, and the University of Minnesota Medical School, while others will begin careers with Westinghouse Electric, the U.S. Department of Defense, UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Texas A&M, and Damascus among many others in business, education, health care, engineering, information technology, ministry, and public service. Several graduates also reported entering seminary or religious life, continuing Franciscan University’s long tradition of forming faithful Catholic leaders for the Church and the world.

Leah Belleque ’26 will teach high school theology at Lourdes Academy in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The theology and catechetics and evangelization double-major and recipient of the Father Daniel Sinisi, TOR, Award in Theology, said, “I am a firm believer that Jesus Christ works in every single season of our lives wherever we are, and he has done so profoundly in my life over the last four years.”

She said Franciscan’s catechetics faculty prepared her to teach in a way that fosters “both understanding and change, all aimed at relationship with Jesus.”

Dylan Barker ’26, recipient of the Computer Information Science Award, plans to remain in the Ohio Valley and work in the IT department of a local school system. He said Franciscan prepared him not only for work but for understanding how that work fits into life.

“Franciscan gave me the understanding not only of the concepts in my major but also the deeper meaning of my major within business and within the context of society and life,” Barker said.

Fr. Dave and Dr. Hildebrand assist Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, with the academic hood signifying his honorary doctorate in catechetics and evangelization.

Theresa Antony ’26 will remain in Steubenville to pursue her master’s in theological studies. A theology and classics double major and recipient of both the John M. Welsh Award and the Sister M. Regina Pacis Award in Classics, she said her time at Franciscan was “immensely formative, intellectually, spiritually, and socially.”

“I graduate with a far clearer sense of my identity before my God and my community, and with a remarkably more secure sense of joy,” Antony said.

Through her professors, classmates, and coworkers in Chapel Ministry and Steubenville Conferences, Antony said she saw what “integration of virtue looks like in the real world, even in the midst of suffering.”

“I have never seen joy in distress, commitment in uncertainty, and hope in the face of the unknown so beautifully as I have at Franciscan,” she said.

Kathleen Benson ’26, a film and theology double major and recipient of the St. Gabriel Award in Communication Arts, is now working as a missionary in Texas.

President Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, and Provost Dr. Stephen Hildebrand present Timothy Busch with an honorary doctorate in humane letters.

“I came to Franciscan, not just to learn how to make films, but how to make films as a Catholic, in a way that will effectively lead others to the love of Christ and his Church,” Benson said.

Her household, Metanoia et Missa, also helped form her as a missionary disciple.

“I came to Franciscan as a young Catholic seeking to center my life on God,” Benson said. “I left as a wellformed, passionate missionary for the Church, desiring nothing more than to do whatever God calls me to for the salvation of souls.”