While I readied to capture a photo of the Gettysburg College Catholic Campus Ministry’s 5 p.m. Sunday Mass on August 30, Marie Hopkins, Director of Catholic Campus Ministries, leaned towards me and said, “We just keep getting bigger.”
Gettysburg College went from a minuscule number of students attending Mass in 2021 to roughly one in ten undergraduates worshiping together on a weekly basis. Two hundred students and growing fill the pews each week.
Matthew Kurek, treasurer of the ministry’s executive board, said, “When I first got here, we could barely fill two tables. Now, we may need to ask the college for an expansion of the basement.”
The “basement” is a place the students meet to pray in the chapel, receive guidance and support from Marie, Father Michael Pray and fellow students, and share a meal and conversation.
Isabella Santiago received support when she needed it most. Isabella’s mother thought to contact Gettysburg CCM when Isabella’s father passed away. She was only a sophomore.
“That morning they brought me down into the basement chapel and told me my dad had passed away,” Isabella recalled. In her grief, she was surrounded by people who genuinely cared for her well-being. They stopped what they were doing to help her cope with her pain and attended to the practicalities of getting her home. Marie was right by Isabella’s side all the way to Texas.
Without “her people,” as Isabella said, she would not have found the peace and comfort she needed then, and still needs, as she navigates her personal and collegiate life. Through Gettysburg CCM, Isabella can receive the sacraments and delve more deeply into a personal relationship with Christ. Not only has Isabella found “her people,” but she began a very special relationship with another student who is part of the ministry, her boyfriend, Ethan Composto.
Ethan, now a senior, spoke with The Catholic Witness Magazine in April, as his junior year was winding down. He described how Gettysburg CCM is like a family and how the members are an inspiration to him. Today, Isabella and Ethan are doing their part to be an example of a healthy relationship as well as helping one another live their Catholic faith. During the spring of their sophomore year, they became good friends, but this year brought a more serious depth to their relationship. Isabella calls Ethan her “safe place,” and Ethan draws inspiration from Isabella’s commitment to attend Mass and ministry events despite her busy academic and athletic schedule. Isabella and Ethan are helping one another become saints through “a lot of trial and error,” Ethan said, but persistence in the struggle for holiness is their goal. Gettysburg CCM provides spiritual tools to students like Isabella and Ethan.
Inviting more students to join the ministry is the primary goal of the ministry’s executive board. The board works closely with Marie to organize events to welcome students to the ministry. Father Pray, Catholic chaplain at the college and parochial vicar of St. Francis Xavier Church in Gettysburg, provides sacramental preparation and works alongside Marie to be visible on campus and to invite students to Mass and dinner.
Matthew said, “Obviously the faith is first. We wouldn’t be here without Jesus Christ. But we’ve also got to put companionship and friendship right below faith, because what’s faith without the people to be faithful with?” For Matthew, getting involved with the ministry beyond Mass attendance has provided the grace of friendships and experiences he would not have had without the help of his fellow college Catholic ministry companions.
Isabella McCarthy is a sophomore this year, and she can attest to the importance the Gettysburg CCM has played in her life. She was initially hesitant about joining the group because she did not want to go to Mass alone, but true to the spirit of the ministry, she found herself being invited to Mass by fellow Catholic students. Isabella was introduced to Marie and soon became involved in meal preparation. All it took was for Marie to ask Isabella if she had some free time, and Isabella readily began helping.
Time and time again the same sentiment is expressed. Isabella said it perfectly, “It’s a home away from home. It genuinely feels like everyone here cares about you, and it’s a family.”
Isabella encourages freshmen to come to Mass because she remembers what it was like when she was new to the college environment, and she wants to help her classmates experience the graces poured out by Christ through the Gettysburg CCM.
Father Pray has been praying for the Gettysburg CCM to flourish since the day he was ordained. “I want the students to be zealous and ardent defenders of Christ and to evangelize the campus and the world by their faith — learning to love each other and respect each other, and to recognize that they’re lovable and beloved, and that everything we offer them can help them do that.”
Because Isabella, Ethan, Matthew and Isabella have experienced such love from the Gettysburg CCM, it is easy to see the answer to Father Pray’s supplication.
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For more information about Gettysburg College Campus Ministry or the Newman Association, please contact the office or Father Pray at address: Campus Ministry, Gettysburg College Box 427, Gettysburg, PA 17325; phone: 717-337-6284; or email: catholic@gettysburg.edu or frmpray@hbgdiocese.org.
(Photos by Laura Loose, The Catholic Witness.)
By Laura Loose, The Catholic Witness
