'The ministry of presence'

Chaplain’s apprentice uses out-of-the-box approach to connect with college students

As a chaplain’s apprentice to Father Jeffrey Godecker at Butler University in Indianapolis, Kaitlyn Willy, center, always looks for different ways to connect with the college’s Catholic students. Here, she shares a laugh with Meggie Gallina, a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Carmel, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese, and Steven Meuleman, a member of St. Lawrence Parish in Indianapolis. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)

By John Shaughnessy

Kaitlyn Willy knew the college students were feeling stressed by exams, professors and even the actions of their roommates.

She also knew she needed something different, something imaginative to help the Catholic students relax for a while, focus on the good in their lives and remind them that God is there for them through the challenges and the tough times.

So the 23-year-old chaplain’s apprentice to Father Jeffrey Godecker at Butler University in Indianapolis invited the college’s Catholic students to the campus’ Center for Faith and Vocations. Then she spread out coloring books and boxes of crayons.

“It was during finals week,” Willy recalls. “There were days when 30 students came in and colored with me because they just wanted to hang out and talk—about roommate troubles, frustrations with finals, problems with professors. But they were also excited about going home, and being with friends and family. And sometimes it led to deeper conversations about what is the Christian way to respond in a bad situation or to be thankful to God in a positive moment.

“It’s what we call ‘the ministry of presence.’ We do a lot of catechetical stuff with the students, but the big thing is being present with them. Father Jeff and I love them because they are made in the image and likeness of God. No matter what’s going on in their lives, we’re not going to judge them. We’re going to be there for them.”

An out-of-the-box choice

If the use of coloring books and crayons to connect with college students is an out-of-the-box choice, then so is the presence of Willy as a chaplain’s apprentice at Butler.

Willy is a first-year student in Echo, the University of Notre Dame’s two-year master’s degree program that trains prospective parish administrators of religious education. She is the first student in the eight years of the program to be assigned full time to a non-Catholic college.

“We partner with dioceses that in turn look at the parishes and the different places where apprentices can be used,” says Colleen Moore, director of the Echo program. “Our focus has been primarily in the parish setting, but we also want to be open to new settings. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis proposed this to us. Kaitlyn has experience in campus ministry, and she has a welcoming presence. And it fit Father Jeff’s emphasis on relationship building with students.”

Father Godecker has appreciated that connection ever since Willy started at Butler at the beginning of the 2011-12 school year in August.

“For me, it’s great having someone to work with who has a high interest and a background in theology,” says Father Godecker. “It’s also an advantage for the Butler Catholic Community because I’m 69 and she’s 23. She works with students in a very different way. She’s more chatty in a way I’m not. I like having that presence here. I know it’s opened up conversations about faith and Christ and theology that probably wouldn’t have happened without her.”

Catholic students at Butler agree. For freshman Maggie Di Renzo, this year is the first time she hasn’t attended a Catholic school. It’s a transition where Willy has made a difference.

“We have women’s ministry every Tuesday night,” says Di Renzo, 19, from Fort Wayne, Ind. “It’s a faith-sharing night, and we talk about what’s been going on in the week, issues we’ve had and things we encounter. It’s provided a spot where we can all gather, and we all have the same belief system. I wouldn’t be as much a part of this group as I am if it wasn’t for Kaitlyn. She’s a mentor. She helps in every possible way.”

“She knows what we’re going through,” says Trey Meehan, a 19-year-old freshman from Huntington, Ind. “She knows we’re trying to balance college life, academics and making religion a part of our lives. She knows the religious questions we have. Here, a lot of people don’t share our Catholic faith. So it’s good to have someone to talk with about it. If I need anything, I just feel that she and Father Jeff are the people that I can count on.”

Big plans, harmful decisions, one goal

The key for Willy is being accessible to students—an approach she learned when she helped with campus ministry during her undergraduate years at the University of Dallas, a small Catholic college in Irving, Texas.

So she’s always looking for ways to connect with the students, whether it’s in the faith-sharing group on Tuesday night, conversations after the mid-day Wednesday Mass, the leadership dinner on Thursday evening or the afternoons when she finds an empty table inside the Starbucks at Butler and makes herself available to anyone who wants to stop by, sit down and talk.

“I think the students are excited to have another person here,” Willy says. “I know the women enjoy the opportunity to have the women’s group and a woman they can talk to.”

The conversations sometimes focus on the troubling and harmful decisions that college students can make.

“Very frequently, it’s roommate trouble,” Willy says. “They see their friends make moral decisions they’re not comfortable with. They want to talk about how to love their friends through those times when their friends make decisions that they don’t agree with.

“When I’m working with students, every once in a while I’ll say, ‘OK, if you don’t remember anything else, remember this: Every person is made in the image and likeness of God. They have dignity whether you agree with them or not.’ More than anything, my hope is to bring them closer to Jesus. If I can do that, he takes care of everything else.”

While she strives to support the faith of students, she also relies on the support of others in her own faith journey.

“Father Jeff has taught me a lot about patience and trusting in the Holy Spirit,” she says. “I’m a big planner. Father Jeff makes plans, but he trusts a lot in God as to how those plans will work out.”

Willy also draws support from the three fellow Echo students currently serving at Indianapolis parishes—Joseph Sheehan at St. Joan of Arc Parish, Patrick Sullivan at St. Monica Parish and Amy Yeagle at St. John the Evangelist Parish.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to leave work and know I’m going home to three people who are just as drained and just as exhausted as I am, and know we’ll be there for each other,” Willy says about the group that lives at the former St. Elizabeth/ Coleman Center in Indianapolis. “They show me what it means to be a family.”

‘I’m seeing God’s grace’

Willy’s unique situation at Butler has all the makings of a successful experiment, according to Ken Ogorek, the archdiocese’s director of catechesis who helps guide the Echo students here.

“It’s a constant reminder to us as Catholics that part of the great commission that Jesus gave us was to literally go everywhere,” Ogorek says. “We have to think outside the box. Even though parishes are very important places to be, we need to be on college campuses and in other settings.”

Willy is just thrilled to have the opportunity to help students notice and embrace the presence of Christ in their lives.

“In Echo, we talk a lot about where we see God’s grace, and where we see God acting in our lives,” she says. “More and more, I’m seeing God’s grace in my students. I’m sometimes amazed at the capacity that the students we work with have for joy, trust and love.

“Even while I’m trying to teach them and trying to bring them closer to God, I always feel that they are equally teaching me and bringing me closer to God.” †