'Hello! I'm a Catholic Priest!' How one coffee shop ministry attracts student seekers

(OSV News) -- "Hello! I'm a Catholic Priest!" greets the cheerful, large-font sign taped to the back of the laptop computer of Father Richard Miserendino, chaplain of the University of Mary Washington's Catholic Campus Ministry and a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.

The notice also invites passersby at the campus coffee shop -- in Fredericksburg, Virginia, about an hour from Washington -- to ask him a question, chat, or just say hello.

Everyone has heard of faith sharing, even if Catholics can sometimes find the concept more than a little intimidating.

So is this cafe evangelism?

Evangelization is admittedly an essential component of any Catholic priest's professional toolkit, but Father Rich -- as he is affectionately nicknamed -- would probably also tell you that his usually twice-weekly station at a small, round patio table with chipped paint is not equivalent to a pulpit -- and evangelization is not always his first or only mission while he's sitting there.

Sometimes, it's just to listen.

In the course of a couple of hours on a recent bright and clear fall day -- the first after the 110-plus-year-old secular university's fall break, when the leaves were turning and a jacket seemed like a good idea -- Father Miserendino exchanged brief greetings with dozens of students who walked past.

Others, however, took a seat -- and it's then that the priest's ministry of presence was especially evident.

A former U.S. Marine was adapting to civilian challenges in the wake of an intense deployment. Another student recently lost a grandparent. A young man wearing a white cowboy hat and clutching a cellophane-wrapped bouquet of bright flowers was on his way to present them to his girlfriend, to mark the six-month anniversary of their relationship.

Different people with different stories -- but each trusted the bespectacled and affable man in a clerical collar with their confidences as they sat or stood in the early afternoon sunshine.

"Sometimes, they're a bit more theological. Sometimes they're a bit more heart -- you know, things that people are working through," Father Miserendino, who began his alfresco ministry about a year ago, shared with OSV News. "Sometimes people are just lonely, and they just want to talk. And so, it varies."

The UMW Catholic Campus Ministry features both the St. John Bosco Center -- its official "headquarters", with a large multipurpose room for Sunday Mass and social events, a daily Mass and Adoration chapel, student lounge, kitchen, conference room, and staff offices -- and the next-door St. Dominic Savio House -- used for preparing people for entry into the Catholic Church, Bible studies, and other events. But catching the sometimes fragmented attention of students can still be a challenge.

"We do a lot of stuff on campus," Father Miserendino explained, mentioning a recent Eucharistic procession -- the rugby team gave way as it passed -- as well as public Eucharistic adoration.

"But it's amazing how -- in the cell phone age, with earbuds in, and everybody's looking at their phone -- you can have big billboard signs that say 'Catholic Campus Ministry' and they're going to walk right by."

Father Miserendino said that, as he pondered his outreach predicament, a Gospel passage -- Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17 -- came to him.

"So how do I go where they are? Jesus says, 'I'll make you fishers of men' -- and that's always stuck with me," he recalled. "If I'm going fishing and I'm constantly fishing in this one spot and there's no fish -- try moving the boat, you know?"

"I don't think I'm the first priest to try something like this; I think there are others," admitted Father Miserendino. "But I've always wanted to do it. I've got to get my computer work done -- send out emails; the bureaucratic part of the vocation," he said. "But I can do that as easily out there as I can in the office."

He was, however, duly warned about the potential success of the idea with the student body of approximately 3,800 from 33 states and 15 countries, around a quarter of whom Father Miserendino estimates are Catholic.

"I was given the impression coming in that they would, you know, break my bones to make their bread," he laughed. "And it would just be adversarial around the clock."

But that never happened.

"It became this thing where I was like, 'Wow, this actually is really working. People are coming up, and they're asking me questions,'" said a still somewhat surprised Father Miserendino, who praised the support of university administration. "It's been really edifying to see that this generation of college students, it's not adversarial. There's a lot of really great openness to asking questions."

"I would not say that every conversation I have leads to immediate conversion where somebody says, 'Oh my gosh -- now I'm going to be Catholic.' But," he added, "usually it's the start to another conversation, and another conversation."

Relationships develop gradually.

"The interesting thing is, sometimes people will see you for a couple of days and they'll wave, or you'll get a couple of head nods, or whatever," observed Father Miserendino. "And then after three or four days, that's when they'll finally work up the courage to come talk to you. It's a labor of love, and it takes time -- but you've got to be out there, being present."

And while American college campuses are often portrayed as fiery ecosystems of confrontational political and social advocacy, that hasn't been his experience.

"It's not as much driven by current events as you might think. Very few people ask me about politics," Father Miserendino noted. "And nobody has ever tried to buttonhole me on a hot topic. They really want to know about the human topics."

The length of his chats basically depends upon the subject matter.

"The longest, I think, was two-and-a-half hours -- it was about God and gender and everything in between," said Father Miserendino. "But more often, it's like, 'Hey, you know, I don't really believe in God or I don't really practice -- but I have had some questions.' That type of thing. And then maybe after a while, if you drill down, then they'll ask some more topical questions."

Such conversations have resulted in Mass attendance -- even with a large Catholic church just a few blocks away -- and commitment to classes for becoming Catholic through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA.

"One of the things that our culture is starved for now is community," suggested Father Miserendino. "I get to become a part of these people's lives, and evangelize through the ordinariness of conversation. Just being present and being open to it is good, in the sense that it invites them to come on their own terms."

Asked if he'd like to see others imitate his effort, Father Miserendino doesn't hesitate.

"My hope would be that more people would be willing to give it a try -- and they'd find it less adversarial than they'd probably expect," he said.

He admits that might not, however, be true of every college campus.

"But I think priests in general -- and lay faithful -- would find that there's a great hunger out there for it, and that people are often more curious," he said. "And if you are willing to just have a patient conversation and teach from the perspective of, 'It's not your fault that you don't know these things; here's what we believe,' I think that would bear great fruit."

"It's not some special charism that I've been given," concluded Father Miserendino. "We just have to kind of bring the faith to where the people are. You can do it too."