Training Missionaries

 A Benedictine ‘Raven’ soccer missionary.

If the Gregorian Institute promotes Catholic identity in public life, a new Benedictine College initiative promotes the number of places to keep your Catholic identity in.

On January 25, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Benedictine College announced the formation of the Institute for Missionary Activity, becoming the first Catholic college in America to create a program designed to help future missionaries be more successful in their work and their ability to effect change.

“The goal of the Institute is to send out the most dynamic Catholic missionaries our country has to offer,” said David Trotter, director of the Institute. “As the flagship college of the New Evangelization, Benedictine College has founded the Institute for Missionary Activity to train students to be disciples of Jesus Christ in the modern world and advance the mission of the Church.”

Trotter, who has worked for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) for more than six years, said many young missionaries enter the field with a degree in theology but little practical experience in things like human resources, managing budgets, marketing, pedagogy and other things that would make them more effective.

The Institute will host its first event this spring.  The Symposium on Advancing the New Evangelization is set for March 23-24, 2012 in the new, state-of-the-art Ferrell Academic Center on the Benedictine College campus.  The facility is the new home of the school’s Education, Businesss, Theology and Philosophy departments.

For more about the Institute for Missionary Activity, click here.

For Benedictine College Minister Father Brendan Rolling’s Our Sunday Visitor article on college missions, click here.

Founded in 1858, Benedictine College is a Catholic, Benedictine, residential, liberal arts college located on the bluffs above the Missouri River in Atchison, Kansas.  The school is proud to have been named one of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report as well as one of the top Catholic colleges in the nation by First Things magazine and the Newman Guide.  It prides itself on outstanding academics, extraordinary faith life, strong athletic programs, and an exceptional sense of community and belonging.  It has a mission to educate men and women within a community of faith and scholarship.