Outgoing Outreach At DePaul University

Contributed by Father Mark Pranaitis, CM


	Young people at DePaul in prayer

DePaul University offers its faculty, students and staff many opportunities to reach out to the poor. The following provides a brief glimpse into how the university provides a faith foundation for service, stimulates intellectual discussions about same and helps focus the good will and energy of 25,000 people to help the poor.

Religion is an important and complex term at DePaul. While it is the largest Catholic university in the United States, it serves thousands of men and women who are not Catholics. Providing services to foster the faith lives of many people has its challenges. But, in many ways, the university fosters Catholic faith and builds a foundation for Christian service to the poor and many hearts can be converted.

Daily and Sunday masses are offered at DePaul. The Sunday evening mass is coordinated by University Ministry (in cooperation with St. Vincent DePaul Parish) wherein students serve as musicians, readers, and Eucharistic ministers. They organize hospitality and take charge of things…a great training ground for when they will move into parishes after graduation. It is an inspiration to see hundreds of young people wrap up their weekends in church worshipping God. And, several retreats are offered throughout the year including overnights in rural settings as well as the “busy-person” model in which students or employees make retreat while continuing to study and work.

Catholic students have organized an informal evening reflection time to which they wear their PJ’s (those flannel things they wear all the time anyway) and share faith in a casual setting. This is a time when they speak from their hearts about God’s activity in their lives frequently connecting the sufferings of the poor people they meet in their service work with this faith and prayer.

While there are other programs and activities to stimulate faith, those sponsored by the Vincentian Studies Institute and the Office of Mission and Values specifically help to connect the intellectual nature of the university with the multi-dimensional life of St. Vincent and the Vincentian family. Thanks to the Office of Mission and Values, it is easy to find images of St. Vincent and other Vincentians in our work and study spaces. These images remind us that as people of faith, we are about more than just study and work. It is from this base that Vincentians formed at DePaul University can reach out to those who are most abandoned — those in whom the Risen Christ dwells.

The Vincentian Studies Institute houses archival materials of interest to serious scholars and oversees the publication of Vincentian books and journals. The Institute sponsors a lecture series that welcomes authors to the campus to speak on topics related to Vincentian history and thought. In the last few years, we have enjoyed lectures on St. Louise de Marillac and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Service opportunities are organized in various ways. The Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning (CbSL) combines service with academic programs so that students serve as part of their class. In addition, there are many student organizations founded to provide service to the poor as well as address other social needs. Students volunteer to help build Habitat for Humanity homes and work with Amnesty International writing letters for the release of those unjustly imprisoned.

University Ministry organizes many service opportunities as well. These deliberately attempt to connect faith and action. Two of these programs stand out. The first is the alternative spring break trips wherein students go to the back hills of Appalachia, Native American reservations, and other sites where they spend a week working to help the people. They give up the chance to go to the beach and party. . .and they are the better for it. The second outreach is the university sponsored service day each May for every student, faculty member and staff member who wants to participate. On that one day classrooms are painted, parks are cleaned, people’s homes are repaired, alleys are swept clean, children are read to and seniors are visited. It is a stunning amount of work done in the name of St. Vincent de Paul.

Those of us who follow St. Vincent know him to be a man of deep faith and a tireless organizer. DePaul University follows in his tradition by deepening the faith of students, faculty and staff and organizing their good will and energy so that thousands of poor people are brought closer to God’s love.

Vincentian is published bimonthly by the Midwest and Southern Provinces of the Congregation of the Mission, the Vincentian Priests and Brothers, to promote the apostolic works of its members and those of the larger Vincentian Family.

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