Through growing clubs, new retreats, and the expansion of Campus Ministry, students and faculty have been more active in their faith, and most have noticed a spread of Christian conversations.
Director of Campus Ministry, Ms. Miranda Contreras said she often discusses with Mr. Liam Byrne, Assistant Campus Minister, and Chaplain Fr. Robbie Cotta about the rise in faith at St. Pius X.
“We talk about this probably weekly, Me, Fr. Robbie and Mr. Byrne, of how much the culture is starting to shift, which is the Lord working every single day in the school” Ms. Contreras said.
In the past few years many different student-led and teacher-led Bible studies have become popular and go on almost every day here at St. Pius. We have a girls’ faith club, Luce, led by Ms. Contreras. The group focuses on sisterhood and strengthening their relationship with Christ. Luce Club has five different Bible study groups going on both before and after school to accommodate the availability of students.
“Me, Mr. Byrne, Father Robbie, we have all benefited from Bible studies in our years, and so we knew that it would become popular if we introduced it here at school,” said Ms. Contreras.
The president of Luce, senior Maggie Maloney, reflected on the true focus of the club and what she wants to get out of it.
“I think at the end of it, at the core, you all just want a deeper relationship with God. I think being able to do that with other girls in your grade, in your community, is a really special thing,” said Maloney.
Mr. Byrne also leads a boys’ faith group called Frassati. They meet weekly and have Bible studies and brotherhood meetings. It is a place where boys at St. Pius can meet with friends and freely talk about faith with a leader who has been in their shoes.
“The goal of the club is for the guys to know that they’re not alone. And then, like, the battle against sin and the battle to be a good man, like the man they actually want to be,” said Mr. Byrne.
Fr. Robbie has also played a huge role in this spiritual shift. His presence has helped dramatically because he has given students and faculty full access to the sacraments.
“I think it’s a gift that St. Pius now has access to the sacraments on a regular basis with a priest,” said Fr. Robbie.
Fr. Robbie has also taken several steps to make it possible for students who might not be part of a parish to begin initiation into the church through our school. He started this because many students began to come up to him after his homilies, interested in becoming part of the Catholic Church.
When asked about the process of getting this initiative started, Fr. Robbie explained that it involves “a lot of conversations with the office and the people at our chancery to get special direction on how to help people that want to become Catholic, who don’t belong to a parish.”
Last year, Campus Ministry also started a leadership program for students who want to dive deeper into their faith and help others grow stronger in their own faith.
“We put on different events, and we’re working to make the journey to developing a deeper faith more accessible for everybody and we’re willing to help anybody,” said senior Bella Gratch.
Students on the leadership team are put in charge of different assignments that help to spread out the responsibilities of Campus Ministry and the students in the leadership program.
“We have different committees, and each of us are assigned to one specific thing, like revivals or retreats. And I’m on retreat revivals. And then there’s communications, like social kind of stuff, just, everything, to just promote faith as much as we can throughout the school, while also making it engaging to students” said senior Ceci Romano.
For many students, this faith revival has given people more of a chance to see what a true relationship looks like and realize how rewarding it is. Just a few small efforts have been able to start this, and it is definitely not the end!
