At the St. John Bosco Conference this summer, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the Vatican’s delegate for catechesis from the Dicastery for Evangelization, made his sixth visit to Franciscan University. He listened to the diocesan representatives present at the conference, so he might better understand the nature, progress, and challenges of the Church’s evangelizing work in the United States.
“In the dicastery,” he said, “we are speaking a great deal about evangelization, and on this front, there is much debate in Europe. But the United States is far ahead of us. With characteristic American pragmatism, you ‘Just do it.’”
Having been sent from Germany to the United States in the 1990s to do research on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, he recounted the impact of observing the fruit of the catechumenate during those years. Following Pope Francis’ 2013 Evangelii Gaudium and the 2020 Directory for Catechesis it inspired, Bishop Tebartzvan Elst said the solution to the challenge of the New Evangelization is the modern catechumenate. On this front, he noted again, the United States is well ahead of Europe, and indeed, the rest of the world.
His message was encouraging, especially at Franciscan where, for decades, we have worked to grow our evangelization efforts—both here and abroad.
At Franciscan, the late Professor Barbara Morgan put catechumenal ministry firmly at the heart of the St. John Bosco Conference, which she founded along with our Catechetics Program. One of her students, Dr. Bill Keimig MA ’00, took up that work, and through the Catechetical Institute, he and his colleagues have brought formation to countless participants.
Recently, the Catechetical Institute’s innovative approach to remote learning through FranciscanatHome.com has brought that formation to a growing number of dioceses outside the United States. We even have been blessed to host institute representatives at Franciscan from Canada, Ireland, Germany, Nigeria, Australia, and China, as well as from Eastern Europe.
Bringing the Gospel message abroad was also part of the late Franciscan President Father Michael Scanlan, TOR’s vision for our Austrian Program. For him, it was to be a place where our students could experience the rich history of Christian Europe. But he also meant it to serve as a launch point for our graduates to serve the Church in Eastern Europe as it emerged from Communist rule in the ’90s.
In fact, I met a former classmate from Lithuania at the Bosco Conference who told me how it was good to be back at Franciscan University. She had attended the first of these conferences for catechists and religious educators in 1995, and she recounted what the Lord had done through her in Lithuania in the intervening 30 years.
Her return was made possible through the efforts of Jennifer Healy of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Bobette (Querin ’92) Huzovic of our own Catechetical Institute, both of whom taught in the Language and Catechetical Institute in Gaming, Austria, for decades. They not only coordinated my classmate’s visit but also those of colleagues in the catechetical work from Latvia, Slovakia, Croatia, and Ukraine. Their stories all demonstrated the visible fruit of the University’s efforts to serve the Church where it has suffered persecution.
I am always astounded by how many people from all over seek out Franciscan because they find this a place at which the Lord is actively and visibly working. This place makes it possible for them to lead students into deeper encounter with Jesus Christ and equips them to advance his Kingdom as evangelizers and missionary disciples. The work of Franciscan University continues in Steubenville and well beyond the shores of the beautiful Ohio River. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to be “Just Do(ing) It!”
Dr. Ronald Bolster ’97 is an associate professor of theology and dean of the School of Theology and Philosophy at Franciscan University.
