‘The closest you can be to heaven’

College students finding the Catholic faith through campus ministries


Chloe Burgar, like most students, headed to the University of Oklahoma in search of knowledge.

She found her faith there, too.

“Coming to college was where I started my faith, because that was where I received my First Communion, First Reconciliation and Confirmation,” said Burgar, a health science and technology major from Keller, Texas. “I didn’t grow up Catholic, but grew up non-denominational.

“This is where I started exploring the Catholic faith.”

Burgar found her Catholic faith through campus ministry at OU, becoming active with Saint Thomas Moore Catholic Church, which operates the Saint Thomas More University and Parish Student Center. The ministry provides a friendly and welcoming place for Catholics and non-Catholics alike on campus, with the hope of engaging the faith or reigniting it.
 
It’s the same at many colleges across the archdiocese.

In Edmond, the St. John Catholic Student Center offers daily Mass, bible studies, social events, and other activities in connection with Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church. At Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, there’s SWOSU Catholic. The Green House is the Catholic Campus Center at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. At Oklahoma City University, the Catholic Student Association is in place.

Lawton, home to Fort Sill, one of the oldest U.S. Army posts in the country, stands as a focal point for the community, along with the Wichita Mountains. It is also home to Cameron University, where Billy Gonsler is the campus minister for Cameron University Youth and Young Adult Ministries at Blessed Sacrament and Holy Family Catholic Churches.

“We have about 12-15 members meeting,” Gonsler said. “We go and have signs, we have tables with signs inviting anyone interested in learning more.”

Tyler Block serves as the student minister at SWOSU, with the assistance of Father Kelly Edwards, through Saint Eugene Catholic Church in Weatherford.

SWOSU Catholic claims around 20 active members, with several diving deeper into the faith. 

“About 25% of our students now are in OCIA,” Block said, referring to the program known as Order of Christian Initiation for Adults.

The program has worked for college students, like Burgar, who has found a deep faith in Christ and the Catholic Church through the program.

“My family wasn’t religious, and it feels so complete and whole,” she said. “When I went to the meetings, I had friends going through (OICA) and it was comforting to see people at (OCIA) also growing in their faith as a Catholic.”

As for church, that is now the center of her life.

“I always look forward to Mass and receiving the Eucharist, because that is the closest you can be to heaven,” she said. “I can’t even imagine my life without it.”

Everett Brazil, III is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.


Photo: (Above) SWOSU Catholic in Weatherford. Photos provided. 
Broncho Catholic in Edmond.
Sooner Catholic in Norman.