The Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center, located adjacent to the Ohio State University campus, welcomed 30 students into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil Mass on March 30.

The Newman Center, which ministers mainly to students on Ohio State’s campus, has experienced continuous growth in the number of students coming into the Church in the past few years. Last year, 20 students entered the Church. A a decade ago, in 2014, that number was eight.

Most of the 30 students who came into the Church this year were undergraduates. A handful were graduate students, said Will Kuehnle, coordinator of the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) program at the Newman Center.

This is Kuehnle’s second year with the Newman Center’s OCIA program, which brings individuals who are unbaptized or baptized but not Catholic into full communion with the Catholic Church. Last year, he served as a co-leader of the program.

Kuehnle, who works full time as the associate director for social concerns at the Catholic Conference of Ohio, attributed the growth to several factors, including a combination of student leadership, evangelization to students on campus, investment in OCIA from Newman Center leadership and ultimately, God’s grace.

“There’s a lot of invisible grace that’s at work here,” he said.

Kuehnle said some students who entered the Church this year desired to go through the OCIA program though they had never set foot in the Newman Center. For those students, Kuehnle said, that could be because of a personal encounter with the Lord, such as in prayer or their studies.

There is also a vitality to the Newman Center, he said, which might be attracting several students to the Catholic faith.

“I think there’s been a lot of life flowing through the Newman Center recently – this year and last year – and there are students who aren’t Catholic who are going to be caught up in the tide, so to speak, and they themselves are now joining the Church,” Kuehnle said.

He noted that there is a cohesion among students at the Newman Center. Several students who came into the Church had previously met a Catholic student at an event there. 

Father Adam Streitenberger baptizes Aidan Braughler during the Easter Vigil at the Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center. Photo courtesy Buckeye Catholic

The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) and Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO) apostolates are both present on campus. The apostolates minister to university students and offer men’s and women’s small groups or Bible studies at the Newman Center.

Students are introducing each other to the mysteries of the Catholic faith that, Kuehnle believes, accounts for much of the growth.

“Some of the vitality is a reflection of the fact that students are being not just equipped but I think actually commissioned to be disciples and to be disciple makers, and they’re succeeding in doing that,” he said.

Undergraduate student volunteers were directly involved in the OCIA program. They were available to prospective students and dispersed throughout the halls and sat with students during OCIA classes.

“My sense as an observer is that the undergraduates are a much more central part of the life of the Newman Center,” Kuehnle said.

He said undergraduate leaders were a great asset and a model of Catholic life. A number of Catholic students involved in the Newman Center are converts, he said, and they give credibility to the OCIA process.

“You find in this person not only a kind presence but also you learn that they, too, are a convert, and I just think that makes the process of conversion so much easier,” he said.

Kuehnle said undergraduate volunteers set out to intentionally meet each person in the OCIA program. He said students interested in converting could then picture themselves living the Catholic life.

“So much of actually converting is a psychological, social question: Can I imagine myself as a Catholic?” Kuehnle said. “And so, when you meet somebody who did convert, they’re nice, they’re still a normal person, they are very much thriving as a Christian, (and) suddenly it makes it much easier to imagine yourself being a convert too.”

Several small group leaders served as sponsors for the catechumens, who are unbaptized individuals seeking the sacraments of initiation, and the candidates, who are baptized Christians seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.

FOCUS and SPO connected missionaries with students who needed a sponsor. 

Many students who entered the Church previously met their sponsor through a formation opportunity, such as a small group or Bible study, at the Newman Center. Kuehnle said the undergraduate leader had walked with the individual for months before serving as their sponsor.

“Students are leading each other,” Kuehnle said. “There is a certain empowerment of student disciples in the form of student leaders in small groups or Bible studies or elsewhere so that they’re then bringing each other into the faith.”

Of the 30 who entered the Church this year, 12 were catechumens, 13 were candidates, four were baptized Catholic and completed their sacraments, and one belonged to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and entered full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

Kuehnle attributed the catechumen-to-candidate ratio as a sign of success. He recognized the near-equal number of catechumens and candidates entering the Church this year as noteworthy.

“That, I think, is another way that this program stands out among other (Order of Christian Initiation) OCI programs I’ve been involved in or observed is the proportion of those who are coming into the faith from nothing,” he said.

A convert himself, Kuehnle entered the Catholic Church in 2015 while a college student at the University of Chicago. He has been involved with or observed parish-based OCIA programs throughout the years.

Kuehnle said it is a testament to the vitality of the Newman Center at Ohio State that individuals with no exposure to the Christian faith or no personal or family experience are being fully initiated in the Catholic Church.

“I think we’re actually really doing our job as evangelists when we’re also bringing someone into the faith who doesn’t know Jesus Christ in any way,” he said.

He also noted that the Newman Center was more intentional about avoiding limitations to the OCIA program this year. More than 50 individuals reached out or expressed interest in converting to Catholicism at the Newman Center.

Kuehnle said there can be attrition, or a reduction in numbers, if the community is not well built. He said the OCIA program was deliberate about building community well this year.

Each OCIA class began with a meal after the 6 p.m. Sunday Mass. The shared meal gave catechumens and candidates an opportunity to get to know one another and the undergraduate student volunteers.

“There is a strong one-on-one dimension where I feel like I’ve developed some kind of relationship with everyone,” Kuehnle said.

OCIA classes were also largely discussion based. 

Kuehnle said students asked questions, and each class included a discussion on a theological issue, a Catholic practice, Scripture and prayer. He said classes weaved together various elements of the Catholic life.

“Ideally, OCIA is an occasion where people are wrestling still and they do still have questions and they want to see if the Church has answers; they believe the Church might have answers,” he said.

A handful of students will enter the Church at the Newman Center in the next few weeks, he said. The program allowed students who needed more time to pray before coming into the Church an opportunity to do that.

Kuehnle also attributed growth to evangelization efforts on campus.

“That’s one of the stunning developments I’ve seen at the Newman Center over the last two years – just how present they are,” he said.

FOCUS and SPO missionaries are often on campus, Kuehnle said. They can be found playing games in the heart of campus on The Oval, a grassy area stretching from the university’s Thompson Library to College Road. Missionaries are also present to students at orientation events.

Buckeye Catholic ministry at the Newman Center coordinates Eucharistic processions in which the Eucharist on display in the monstrance is processed through campus.

“I feel like, if you’re a college student at Ohio State and you go to class, you’ve got a pretty good chance of walking by a Eucharistic procession at some point, and that’s a marvelous thing,” Kuehnle said.

He added that the Newman Center has invested in their OCIA program. From providing a weekly dinner before OCIA class to providing each student a copy of Scripture, the rosary and theological literature, Kuehnle said the Newman Center is investing in the Church and evangelization efforts.

He recognized Father Adam Streitenberger, executive director of the Newman Center, and Pat McNulty, the assistant director.

“I think that the Newman Center has been supporting OCIA, and that also accounts for the pretty tremendous growth that’s happening there and the number of students who are being brought in,” Kuehnle said.