Besides Ohio State University (OSU), where the St. Thomas More Newman Center for students is just steps away from the northern edge of the campus, several other college and university campuses within the Diocese of Columbus have ministries serving student needs.
The Otterbein Catholic Student Ministry (OCSM) at Otterbein University in Westerville is in its 15th year since being founded in 2007, said Maria Tarbell, an Otterbein faculty member who has been the group’s adviser for seven years. She said the group has a strong relationship with Westerville St. Paul Church and with the Pontifical College Josephinum, which has assigned seminarian Jake Asuncion to the parish for the 2022-23 academic year.
The group meets weekly at St. Paul Church for Sunday Mass, sometimes followed by a gathering for brunch and fellowship. Masses also are scheduled in the Otterbein campus chapel at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10 and on All Saints Day, Tuesday, Nov. 1; the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Thursday, Dec. 8; and Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023.
In addition, OCSM is sponsoring weekly chats on Monday evenings, with an emphasis on guest speakers, videos and group discussion, and a weekly Bible study of the coming Sunday’s Mass readings on Thursday evenings.
It will be bringing a prominent speaker to the campus during the 2023 spring semester and sending representatives to the diocesan Catholic Young Adult Conference on Saturday, Oct. 15 at Sunbury St. John Neumann Church and the diocesan men’s and women’s conferences in February at the state fairgrounds. It also has supported an annual trip to the March for Life in Washington.
Columbus St. Patrick Church is beginning its second year of an outreach ministry aimed particularly at students attending Columbus State Community College and the Columbus College of Art and Design, both of which are across the street from the church, said Father Stephen Alcott, OP, pastor. The group meets at 9 a.m. on Fridays, will attend a Columbus Clippers game on Saturday, Sept. 17, and is planning hikes and other events.
Father Alcott said the weekly meetings will present overviews of various topics related to faith formation, including prayer, the Lectio Divina method of Scripture study and Father Michael Schmitz’s Bible in a Year program. It also is working with the Newman Center on its October Buckeye Awakening retreat at the Damascus Catholic Mission Campus.
Ohio Dominican University in Columbus has Masses at 7 p.m. Sundays and noon Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in its Christ the King Chapel. Eucharistic Adoration takes place there from noon to 1 p.m. on the first Friday of each month. Father Dan Millisor, a diocesan priest, is the campus chaplain.
The chapel at Ohio Northern University (ONU) in Ada has Sunday evening Masses scheduled at 7 p.m. on Sept. 11, Oct. 16, Nov. 13 and Dec. 4. In addition, Ada Our Lady of Lourdes Church is not far from the campus. Its pastor, Father Ed Shikina, said ONU’s long-established Catholic student organization recently changed its name to ONU Catholic from the Newman Club. He also said FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) has lay missionaries helping with campus ministry and leading ONU students in Bible studies online.
Capital University’s Catholic Student Organization (CSO) sponsors a Mass at 5 p.m. Sundays in the Kerns Religious Life Center on campus. Drew Tucker, director of Capital’s Center for Faith and Learning, said CSO also hosts weekly rosary recitation and Bible study on Thursday evenings at the center.
A message on CSO’s website says, “Our mission is to be a family for Catholic students on campus, to be a welcoming place for students to learn about Catholicism, and to serve the community as God calls all Christians to do. We are different from other religious organizations on campus first because we are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. We are also different because, while we affiliate with a specific Christian denomination, we welcome all students to come learn and grow with us.”
For the second year. Aaron Wagner, a parishioner of the Scioto Catholic Consortium, is offering students at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth one of the Bible studies of Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, who is seen regularly on the EWTN network, said Father Brian Beal, Scioto Catholic pastor.
In addition, newly hired youth minister Lexi Graf will be forming initiatives to invite college students into greater participation in Catholic life within the consortium. Father Beal said Father Adam Streitenberger, diocesan evangelization director, has been in contact with him about establishing a household of FOCUS missionaries to serve Shawnee State students and faculty, beginning in August 2023.
Father David Sizemore, pastor of Newark St. Francis de Sales Church, said parish youth and young adult minister Molly Loy is assembling a team to establish a Bible study at Ohio State University-Newark within the next couple of months. This will be the parish’s first step into ministry at the OSU branch campus.
Loy also is working with OSU Newman Center assistant director Patrick McNulty on creating training resources for campus ministry with the goal of helping college ministries throughout the diocese with planning, logistics and timelines so they can better focus on their mission of evangelizing students.