With the Apostolic letter of October 11, 2011, Porta Fidei (door of faith), Pope Benedict XVI declared a Year of Faith, which commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In Porta Fidei, the Holy Father challenges us to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the Catholic faith in the New Evangelization. Here on Elon’s campus, we fully accept this challenge.

Already, our annual beach retreat revealed many enthusiastic students, alive in their faith, active in their former churches and thus open to sharing their faith journey. The retreat also revealed students who are seeking to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ, to offer themselves in service to their sisters and brothers, not only on campus, but in the local community. All of our small faith-sharing groups focus weekly on the gift of faith we have all received, and how particularly and practically it manifests itself in each of our lives.

Once a month, I will afford students the opportunity to offer a brief witness to their faith at a Sunday Mass. We will also offer an evening program each month called Renewed in Faith, with topics such as: our life in Christ, our devotion to the Eucharist as the focal point of our lives as Catholics, the many forms of prayer and the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We will encourage students to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation more often as they grow closer in faith to the Jesus they have come to know and serve. Finally, each Sunday at Mass we will close our Prayers of Intercession with a special prayer for the Year of Faith.

I am excited and privileged to begin this process on a campus with such wonderfully engaging students, thirsting for a greater faith and the love that our Catholic community here at Elon University provides.

- Fr. Gerry