Member Log In
Meet my friends, Matt Kemnitz and Dave Trotter (photo at right.) Matt and Dave serve as FOCUS Directors of Philanthropy. They get to talk to people about FOCUS and why supporting FOCUS is the thing to do.
Dave is known as a “lifer.” He was a FOCUS missionary and now works for the mission. Matt joined FOCUS about 15 months ago, after working alongside FOCUS for years while in other roles. He helped bring the first FOCUS team to KU’s St. Lawrence Center in 2009 while he was on Staff at there.
FOCUS is an acronym: Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Its mission statement is simple: To know Christ Jesus and fulfill His Great Commission. Its purpose not so simple: Launching College Students into Lifelong Catholic Mission. Statistics tell us the task is daunting. Dynamic Catholic states that 85% of Catholic young adults stop practicing their faith in college (most of them within their first year of leaving home).
We met in Westport at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. I directed them to a coffee shop that, I thought was on Westport Road. Turns out the shop I expected wasn’t, but we landed in a nearby First Watch. The conversation was brisk, to say the least. We talk more about statistics. FOCUS began at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS, in 1998, with two missionaries. Founded by Curtis Martin, the mission was established to address a generation in crisis – of identity, of purpose, and of belief. Today, FOCUS exists on 203 college campuses in the U.S. and 6 campuses in Austria, England, Ireland, and Germany. There are 24,337 students involved in 4559 weekly bible studies around the world; 1,035 FOCUS alumni are pursuing religious vocations. Since 2004, 12,000+ students and missionaries have served on 700+ mission trips to five continents.
Among the most phenomenal of all stats: in 2020, the United States Council of Catholic Bishops surveyed men in priestly formation and found that one in every four seminarians in the United States identified a FOCUS influence in their vocation discernment.
Women entering religious life also increasingly report the influence of FOCUS on
their vocational discernment. In August 2019, eleven women with varied backgrounds professed first vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life as Sisters of Life in New York. Of these eleven women, four related FOCUS influence in their vocation. (Photo b
elow, right)
Prior editions of Serran Sphere have featured local young men and women who reported the same: little sister Oliviana (Little Sisters of the Lamb, Serran Sphere, Vol. 2, Issue 11, November 2021); Deacon Colm Larkin (Serran Sphere, Vol. 3, Issue 1, January 2022); Sister M. Maris Stella Larkin (Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George, Serran Sphere, Vol. 3, Issue 4, April 2022); and Seminarian Dan Mauro (Serran Sphere, Vol 3, Issue 5, May 2022).
On hearing the statistics, an inspiration came to me: FOCUS and Serra are a match made in Heaven!
Our breakfast conversation turned to the topic of Serra and the similarities of the missions of both organizations: to foster relationship with Jesus Christ in response to the vocational call to holiness and spread the invitation of Jesus to intimate relationship with Him, walking with those who – for many reasons – may be hesitant to step into the unknown. Dave and Matt acknowledged the obvious. Dave commented, “Every FOCUS alum ought to be a Serran!” Serra membership is a natural segue into life-long living out the mission to which we are called. If you know a FOCUS missionary or a FOCUS alum, talk with them about Serra and the common missions we share. Invite them into Serra membership!
Serran Sphere will continue this series next month with part two of “FOCUS and Serra: a match made in Heaven!” – the story of a current Serran who, as a college student, was challenged in his faith by a FOCUS missionary.
