Campus Ministry to Sell Walk with Francis T-shirts to Benefit Mission Trips
The Office of Campus Ministry will be selling Walk with Francis T-shirts to commemorate Pope Francis’s upcoming visit to Catholic University, and to raise money to help support CUA’s mission trips.
At least 1,500 shirts will be available in the Campus Ministry office beginning on Thursday, Aug. 27, for $10 each. They were designed by Philip Goolkasian, B.S.Arch./B.C.E. 2013. The text “Walk with Francis” emphasizes that the Mass is not simply a visit by a world dignitary, but that Pope Francis has issued a call to action for people to serve others and live out their faith.
In order to support this call to action and in particular the Pope’s emphasis on honoring the rights of workers, the Office of Campus Ministry has invested more in the production of the T-shirts to ensure they are produced ethically in the United States. The money raised by the sale of the shirts will support the four mission trips planned by Campus Ministry for the upcoming year. Students will travel to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica over Spring Break and to Belize and Jamaica in May after the close of the spring semester.
In the months leading up to the papal visit, CUA has been featuring Walk with Francis stories on its papal website. The University has invited members of the CUA community to share short anecdotes of the service they provide to their Church, neighborhood, or world and what Walk with Francis means to them. Submissions have been featured on the blog and through social media.
The Archdiocese of Washington also has launched a #WalkwithFrancis pledge campaign, which encourages D.C.-area residents to take a pledge to follow the example of Pope Francis by serving in their community however they can. The pledges will be gathered via social media and on WalkWithFrancis.org. Thousands of the pledges will be compiled into a book that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington and chancellor of Catholic University, will present as a gift to the Holy Father during his visit. For more information on the archdiocese’s campaign or to make a pledge, go to WalkwithFrancis.org.
