As ReligiousLife@MU takes off, we will be profiling the religious organizations at Mizzou. This should help aid the goal of ReligiousLife@MU being the #1 place for anyone to go and learn about the different organizations and what exactly they do. For the first profile I will be covering the Catholic Student Association.
The Catholic Student Association is run out of the St. Thomas Moore Parish and Newman Center, located on 701 Maryland Drive. The main Newman Center building was built in 1963, with an addition being added in 1994. The program reaches around 600 students from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Stephens College, and Columbia College. However, most of the students are from MU, which makes sense since the Newman center is right next on campus directly across the street from the Cornell Hall, home to the Center on Religion & the Professions. The program hosts a wide variety of activities.
The first group of these activities falls under the spiritual category. The main spiritual activity is the mass. The parish offers masses at 5 pm on Saturday, 9 am, and 11 am on Sunday. Then there is the 9 pm Student Mass. Not only is this mass the main part of spiritual life within CSA, but according to Campus Minister Emily Wenzlick, “It’s the heart of what we do here.” Another important note about spiritual life at Newman is that all of the Catholic sacraments can be received through the center. If a person is looking to be confirmed into the Catholic community, there is a RCIA program. One of the other spiritual opportunities is Eucharistic adoration. Adoration is offered the first Friday of every month from 12-6 pm. In addition to the weekend masses there are also daily masses offered at the center. Daily mass is at 12:00 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Thursday daily mass is offered at 5:00 pm.
One of the other major spiritual components are the retreats. There are a variety of retreats offered throughout the year. In September they offer a Freshmen Overnight retreat. This is just a one-night retreat that helps freshmen to get to know the CSA and Newman center, but also to meet new people. Shortly after the Freshmen Overnight, there is another weekend-long retreat called “Awakenings”. This retreat is held in Edina, MO, and is open to anyone. Also in the fall there is a “Busy Persons Retreat.” This retreat is a one-on-one spiritual director style retreat.
The second major category of activities offered by the Catholic Student Association is service. Throughout the year CSA offers many service opportunities. The group frequently helps out with Habitat for Humanity, Central MO Food Bank, and Loaves & Fishes. The group also participates in campus wide service activities.
Of course, CSA is a student organization, so naturally they do have social events as well. These events include: a welcome back BBQ, Pizza & Movie nights, ballroom dancing, corn maize and many more. The events will vary from year to year, but there are some perennial events. Many of the events can be catered to the season. For instance the night before the first home football game, the group watched the Replacements after making their own pizza.
CSA also offers trips that extend outside the boundaries of Columbia, Missouri. During spring break every year the organization offers ASB or Alternative Spring Break. Last year the group went to New Orleans to help with reconstruction. The year before that there were groups one went to Alabama and the other to Juarez. The group is not sure exactly where they will be going this year, the details should be finalized in the next couple of weeks. In addition to service trips, this year CSA will be offering a pilgrimage to Italy. This ten day trip will take place at the end of the academic year from May 18, 2008 until May 28, 2008. During the pilgrimage the group will be touring many important religious sites throughout Italy. They adventure will be led by the pastor of the center, Fr. Thomas Saucier.
The Newman Center also offers intellectual opportunities for students to broaden their theological knowledge. On Thursday nights at 7 pm, Fr. Thomas offers a Theology class. There is a different theme each semester. This semester’s theme is Catholic teachings about Morality. In addition to the theology class, the Newman Center has combined forces with the Hillel of the Jewish Student Organization to begin an interfaith dialogue program. Contributor Kryssy Pease has previously discussed this amazing new program on ReligiousLife@MU.
The CSA also offers a separate component for graduate students. They have their own dinners once a month. They also do separate service campaigns; they recently did some work for Ronald McDonald House. The graduate students also have their own retreats that are catered specifically towards graduated students.
One other important thing that the Catholic Students Association puts on every year is the Newman week. Newman week serves as the group’s main philanthropy week. Each year the association picks a different charity. Last year the group raised money for various women’s charities. During this week, the students put on an entirely student run musical. Students do everything from the writing, choreographing to the actual acting and directing of the musical. This year the musical will be “Building the House” and will be shown from February 14th-16th. During the week, a guest speaker always comes to give a talk. This year’s guest speaker will be Arch Bishop John Foley, the Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
One of the things that makes the program “very unique” according to Angelle Hall of the campus ministry staff, is that the students do more than just CSA. Many students are involved in parish life. Half of the parish council is made up by students and the president of the council is in fact a student. That is vary rarely seen on college campuses. In addition to serving on the parish council students fill the roll of being catechists and aid in teaching CCD to the children of the parish. Other students help out by working with the youth group program. Many students participate in the 9 pm choir, which practices once a week and then sings at the 9 pm student mass on Sunday. Other students help out by serving as Eucharistic ministers or mass coordinators. Many go as far as to serve and help with the other masses outside the 9 pm student mass.
So now that we know everything that CSA does, how does one join this wonderful program? Well, the program is open to everyone, whether they are a Catholic or not. If someone hears about an event they are more than welcome to show up. Some events do require a fee or advance notice, but the majority of them do not.
CSA allows for many leadership opportunities. Students can serve on the Steering Committee, which currently has twelve members for this academic year. Others serve on the parish council. Students can also serve as retreat leaders or help out with the spring musical. Outside of the student leaders there are three primary staff members responsible for the Catholic Student Association. The two campus ministers are Emily Wenzlick, a Mizzou Alum, and Angelle Hall who graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans. Dana Bocke is also the campus ministry intern. Dana is a Mizzou alum as well, and currently teaches sign language at the university. In addition to the campus ministry staff, the Parish has a full staff just like any other Catholic parish. There are two Dominican Priests on staff, Pastor Fr. Thomas Saucier and Associate Pastor Fr. Joachim Culotta.
If you want to learn more about the Catholic Students Association feel free to leave a comment or contact Emily Wenzlick at campmin@socket.net Angelle Hall at angellehall@socket.net
Also if there is anything you didn’t see covered here but would like to see covered in future organization profiles, leave a comment and I will do my best to accommodate your wishes.
Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!
Posted by: digital dissertation | December 31, 2008 at 03:10 AM
Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!
Posted by: digital dissertation | December 31, 2008 at 02:59 AM