Campus Notes

In what can only be deemed very exciting news, the University of Mary President Father James Shea told the Cardinal Newman Society today that Most Reverend Paul A. Zipfel, the newly retired Bishop of Bismarck, will make the University of Mary his home starting next month as a way of promoting vocations on campus.

The Catholic school in North Dakota recently purchased the on campus priory from the Benedictine Sisters of the Annunciation and the growing school knew that it would necessarily go towards increasing the amount of student housing.

Father Shea said although there were many ideas as to how to best utilize each wing, he wondered, “What if we made a hall for men that are thinking seriously about God’s plan for their lives?”

The idea caught on and he decided to open up a hallway for “serious Catholic men” who were discerning their vocations, whether it be the priesthood or becoming a family man.

Fr. Thomas Richter, the diocesan vocation director, is planning to move in shortly and Bishop Zipfel will move into the St. Joseph Residence for Men the following day to acts as a spiritual directors to students.

Father Shea said he is excited about the new dorm and expects nothing less than “a fountain of vocations” from the arrangement.

And besides, he said he’ll be glad to have the bishop on a personal level as well. “The bishop’s a great guy,” said Father Shea. “If there was a contest for nicest priest on campus he’d win hands down. He’d beat me.”

“The more I think about it the more living at Mary among the students is in keeping with what I wanted to do with my life here in Bismarck all along,” Bishop Zipfel told a campus publication.

Father Shea said he believes the move by the school is a bit “counter-cultural.”

“I attend conferences and we’re constantly told that this is the most narcissistic generation of young people. We’re told  we have to stroke their egos and tell them it’s all about them but that’s not what we’re about,” he said. “We want students to come to us with a broader sense of mission in their lives. Their lives are about giving themselves away in love to others. They were created by God to do something unique for Him.”

Father Shea said the new dorm will help students who are “asking the serious questions about what God’s wanting from them.”

Students there are given the opportunity to attend Mass several times a week at 7:30 a.m. in a small chapel dedicated to St. Ann.

Currently, the school has about ten students living there but as the school just announced its plans this semester Father Shea said he’s pleased with the response and he expects it to grow in coming semesters.

Applicants must have completed 24 semester credits and maintain a 2.5 GPA, have good student conduct,  go through an interview process where they exhibit a sincere desire to grow in faith and holiness, write essays describing their current faith life and how often they attend Mass or take part in the sacraments, and produce three letters of reference.

A plan to do something similar for female students in Saint Scholastica’s Hall for Women on the first floor of the same building is in the planning stages.