Below, Katie Bahr (bottom, right)— a writer in the University Office of Public Affairs — reflects on the recent short-term mission trip she took to the Dominican Republic. Over the course of one week, her team of volunteers helped lay cement floors in seven homes, repainted a rural chapel, and painted religious murals on several local homes. The trip was led by the local non-profit Commissioned by Christ, which organizes mission trips for working adults and families.

Want to share how you #WalkwithFrancis? Send us a photo via email hidden; JavaScript is requiredor tag your submissions #WalkwithFrancis on Twitter or Instagram. If you are a member of the CUA community, please also send a few short sentences describing the type of service you do (for the Church, in the neighborhood, anywhere) and what #WalkwithFrancis means to you. We will feature some submissions on CUA’s website and 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.

In the introduction to the show, host Cheridan Sanders questions why many students lose their faith during their college years while others deepen their faith. “What makes the difference?” she asks.

Her answer to that question unfolds in an in-depth exploration of student life at Catholic University and its unique Campus Ministry that helps students encounter Christ through prayer, community, and service. In interviews with students, faculty, and staff, the documentary highlights the University’s emphasis on both the intellectual and social aspects of the Catholic faith. It also brings to light the Franciscan character of CUA’s Campus Ministry, which is led by Father Jude DeAngelo, O.F.M. Conv. and his staff that includes several other Conventual Franciscan friars.

The show also explores the strong connection Catholic University has with the Pope and the other leaders of the Catholic Church.

“Right across the street from us is the headquarters of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,” explains Victor Nakas, associate vice president for public affairs. “That’s significant because it fosters the ties that we have with the bishops conference and ultimately with the Vatican.”

Nakas points out that Catholic University is the only university in the United States that has been visited by two popes and soon will host a third when Pope Francis comes to the campus in September. He says that these visits and others by international Church leaders provide “unique opportunities to our students … to see the leaders of the Church, to interact with them.” He also notes that CUA faculty members serve as consultants to the bishops conference and to the Vatican. “They bring a perspective back to the students that I think richly informs the education that they’re receiving.”

Salt + Light host Sanders wraps up the show by answering the question she posed at the beginning.

“That’s the crucial difference,” she says. “CUA is all about creating opportunities for students to encounter Christ in every aspect of the university experience, be it in community, their studies, with their peers, or simply in quiet contemplation of the Eucharist. And it seems it’s a very big difference, indeed.”

Chad Pecknold

By now everyone should have read, or at least read about, Laudato Si’, the Pope’s latest encyclical on “Our Common Home.” I think we see here some important themes that have already come up on the Holy Father’s Latin American mission, and are likely to resurface when he visits us this September. Five stand out:

1. Pope Francis likes to invoke personal images. The encyclical wasn’t officially on the environment or climate change, but on “our common home.” This powerfully evocative image of the home recalls Pope Benedict’s frequent proclamation that nature is something prior to us, a gift which has been given by God, and which we can’t simply manipulate or abuse. The image of the home makes this theme more personal, but it achieves the same end. Whenever you hear Francis talk about “our common home” you should be hearing a challenge to relativism. Francis speaks less to climate change skepticism than to common-good skepticism. I expect we’ll hear this theme again in September, especially when he addresses a politically divided Congress.

2. The theme of conversion is also prominent in Laudato Si’. Fundamentally, Pope Francis believes that it is the turn away from God that causes all our self-destructive habits, and what we most need is to return to God. He first calls us to an existential/metaphysical conversion to recognize our common home as a gift of the Creator, then he calls for conversion to God as Father, conversion to Christ and his saints who show us how to participate in the harmony between God and creation, and conversion in and through the Most Holy Eucharist, which unites the created world to the heavenly home, and forms us to think about the universal destination of goods. Listen for these calls for conversion this fall.

3. In Evangelii Gaudium, the Holy Father stressed (perhaps subtweeting American Conservative senior editor Rod Dreher!) the need for Catholics to follow “the missionary option.” This is the message which is also being enacted by Pope Francis’s mission to the Americas: Every Catholic is sent into the world to preach good news to the poor, not only the materially poor, but also the spiritually destitute, those who are lost without God.

4. A “culture of encounter” is often how Francis translates mission. For the Holy Father, “dialogue” is tied to mission. We can see this in the way he always has an eye on God as Father, and Mary as our Mother — for he consistently proclaims that all people have God as their Father, and then invokes Mary as the Mother we all need. This is the spiritual context for encounter, a word which should always be heard as an invitation to participate in Mary’s Yes to God, and as a call to be enfolded into the saving arms of Holy Mother Church.

5. This Holy Father is a master of gestures. Everyone saw, and immediately understood, his look of disapproval when Bolivian President Evo Morales gave him a hammer and sickle crucifix. These are the small, powerful, even prophetic gestures the Pope is now known for, but we should be careful to interpret them well.

Together, Laudato Si’ and the Latin American mission give us some clues for what to expect from the Holy Father’s mission to the people of the United States of America…

– Chad Pecknold is an associate professor of systematic theology at The Catholic University of America School of Theology and Religious Studies.