OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY MINISTRY

The Office of University Ministry is staffed by a Director and a team of eight professionals, working in close association with many student leaders.

Fundamental Viewpoint

The primary goal of the Office of University Ministry is to get each student what he or she needs to grow in his or her relationship with God. The habits we teach through University Ministry aim at focusing and realizing the Catholic and Jesuit mission of the University in our students and for their sake, doing so in a way that fits the development and openness of each student.

The Roman Catholic identity of Gonzaga University grants us the means to be skillful, competent, unitive, and collaborative in the way we practice our religious habits with and for our students, both Catholic and non-Catholic. We are Roman Catholic when we are true to ourselves, but also when we have found the proper ways to relate courteously and profoundly to what is finest in our students and to the great religious traditions of holiness and service our students represent. After four years, we want our students, because they have been interactive with our Catholic and Jesuit habits and attitudes, to have become better Catholics, better Protestants, better Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and the like. We want also that our non-believing students really catch on to who believers are, and why they proceed with their lives as they do. In the end, the grace lies in our ability to learn how to work together through our faith traditions and for the good of all.

The Jesuit identity of Gonzaga University, which governs most profoundly the educational philosophy of the University, directs us to help our students understand how intellectual growth in each of them is essential, if we are going to find a way together to unify and heal our world—to be "the people our world needs most."

We will do whatever we can, in accord with our principles and alert to what fits each student, to keep our students growing spiritually, as they also grow intellectually and socially towards their vocations and careers.

Activities

Please see our website for a fuller presentation of all aspects of University Ministry at Gonzaga University, of which the following is a compact version.

As a Catholic University, and in the spirit of our fundamental viewpoint (see statement above), we practice on campus habits meant to unite and deepen us as a community. The most important habits practiced in common within the Catholic Church we call Sacraments. Our conviction is that these unifying habits make such obvious spiritual sense, that any student would feel welcome and spiritually inspired, if he or she chose to participate in these rituals. To these rituals, therefore, we invite students of any religious path and degree of commitment, if they come with a sincere heart.

The most important unifying religious habit on campus is the Sacrament of the Eucharist, a ritual of great importance to Catholics, but some form of which all the mainline Protestant churches practice. On campus five times every day, and at different times of day, the Eucharist (also called the Mass or the Liturgy) is offered for students to attend. Catholics deeply engage this ritual, so essential to their communal identity in Christ; those of other religious paths are invited to engage this ritual in ways appropriate to their own religious integrity.

Moreover, students are not only invited to attend these Masses, but also they are actively encouraged to train for positions of leadership at these Masses. Some of these positions obviously are for Catholic students, but other positions are open to non-Catholics who are committed to attending and participating in these Masses.

At any time, a student may seek out a priest for the sake of having the Sacrament of Reconciliation, an important means among Catholics for staying honest and responsible and actively growing in their commitment to Christ, to the Church, and for the good of others. University Ministry makes available to students this Sacrament at three different times during the week, either in the University Chapel or at St. Aloysius church, so that students desiring it may find it predictably available to them.

University Ministry deliberately and consistently articulates the relation existing between its habits and the habits of Gonzaga’s Center for Community Action and Service Learning (CCASL). University Ministry and CCASL interweave our programs, so that, on the one hand, students understand how their religious experiences have a natural (and supernatural) end in the service of others and that, on the other, students grasp how service to those most in need expresses a preference that is God’s own.

One of the most important habits available to all students is the Retreats that the University offers through University Ministry. All of the Retreats rely heavily on the students to run them, prepared and under guidance of the University Ministry team. The Retreats, available to all students, regardless of religious background, are the following.

The Freshmen Retreat (six per year).

For thirty to forty students each time, this Retreat is for the sake of establishing in the students’ mind a clear sense of the key relationships that make Gonzaga University what it is: a Catholic, Jesuit-sponsored institution of higher learning, which was founded to form students intellectually, socially, spiritually, and for the common good. This weekend Retreat takes place at Gonzaga’s Bozarth Retreat Center located at the northern edge of the city.

The Pilgrimage (one per year).

For up to two hundred students, this twelve-mile hike (four miles on Friday night; eight miles on Saturday) has as its goal to bring together the new freshmen with members of the sophomore, junior and senior classes, as well as with members of the faculty and staff, on a pilgrimage through the Idaho wilderness to the Mission of the Sacred Heart at Cataldo, Idaho. The Pilgrimage reminds all of us that Gonzaga University came from the work of Jesuits who first worked among the Native Americans in the region, and that the present grace of the University is linked to that historical grace of the Jesuit missionaries and their friendship with the Native Americans.

The Search Retreat (four per year).

For fifty students each time, this Retreat is the longest running Retreat in the University (since the 1960s) and is for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Each Retreat deploys the largest corps of student leaders of any Retreat at the University. This weekend Retreat takes place at Gonzaga’s Bozarth Retreat Center.

The Cardoner Retreat (four per year).

For thirty students each time, this Retreat guides students into a deep awareness of their most important friends, through which each are led to understand how God works in such friendships, how God finds each person through friendships, and how the Kingdom of God is about building friendships that are defined by certain key habits (virtues). This weekend Retreat takes place in Wallace, in the heart of the historic Silver Valley of Idaho.

The Senior Dawgs Pause Retreat (one per year):

For thirty to forty senior students, this Retreat was put in place to offer to seniors a chance, just prior to their graduation, to reflect with their friends on all that unfolded in their lives during their four years at Gonzaga. This one-evening Retreat takes place at Gonzaga’s Bozarth Retreat Center.

You can find this office in the Crosby Student Center, main floor, and at extension 4242, or on Gonzaga’s website at www.gonzaga.edu/um.