While ministering to the needs of the student body has long been performed by the Servite friars themselves, the Campus Ministry department of Servite High School evolved gradually over the past sixty years to the status it enjoys today.
In the 1970s, Fr. Stephen Ryan, OSM, and Tony Verhallen led various food drives and weekend Search retreats to meet the spiritual needs of students. The work continued through the 1980’s by priests and religious counselors, Fr. Dave Kondik, OSM, Fr. Ed Penonzek, OSM, and Fr. Jack Topper, OSM, to name a few. Campus Ministry as a department came together in the early 1990s with peer ministry programs, spiritual counseling, Christian Service hours and continued retreats. In 2000, Fr. Rick Boyle, OSM, led a team that brought the four-day Kairos retreat model to the student experience of Servite. In 2005, Pasquale Talarico, ’92 directed the expansion of the program with Dave Glaudini ’85, through the 2000s to encompass various grade level day retreats, streamline the service hour program, and raise the quality of all-school Masses.
Campus Ministry today seeks to expand on this history of excellence and facilitate students’ encountering the person of Jesus Christ through various pro-life ministries, Bible studies, accountability and discipleship groups, daily Mass and weekly Adoration opportunities, parent outreach, and hospitality provided in their new office space. In 2017, the Campus Ministry Department moved their office into the priory and increased their space to include meeting rooms, an atrium and a student commons area. On any given day, hundreds of students visit the campus ministry space for fellowship, to eat lunch or to play an intense game of ping pong. Our formation themes of Primacy of faith, Mastery of Self, Necessity of the Other and Centrality of Christ are fostered and nourished through this amazing ministry.
