During the Fall Semester of 2015, our FOCUS missionaries and ministry staff were delighted and surprised at the number (6) of non-Catholic students from University of Memphis and Rhodes College who shared that they would be interested in learning more about the Catholic Church. We have not experienced this much interest from non-Catholic students in at least the last five years! We realized with a greater visibility of Catholic Campus ministry as a result of the work of FOCUS there may be a high demand in the future for even more potential converts for the faith. In response, Mark Pica, FOCUS Team Director, and Sam Mauck, Director of Catholic Campus Ministry, put together a curriculum to teach the basics of the Catholic faith. We called it Catholicism 101.

Each member of the Campus Ministry staff and FOCUS missionary team as well as Fr. Patrick Gallagher, Chaplain, and Fr. Joey Kaump, Pastor of St. Anne, are teaching courses on the following topics:

Thus far in the semester, we’ve seen not only non-Catholics attend, but also some of our established student leadership, too. The courses are being audio recorded and made available to students who cannot attend. Our hope is to inform the curious and prepare the serious for eventual RCIA or entrance into the family of the Catholic Church.