Holy Toledo! Those Ohio Kids Are Catholic

Judy Roberts writes at National Catholic Register that "Creed on Campus thrives at Bowling Green State University" (subscription required):

College student Monica Martinez is a cradle Catholic, but until a few years ago, she never understood the Mass or the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Because of Creed on Campus, a Catholic ministry at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, Martinez no longer finds Mass “boring” and she regularly participates in Eucharistic adoration. After graduating in December, she plans to earn a master’s degree from the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Martinez’s life is just one of many that have been transformed by Creed, which meets in the student union every Thursday night. While their fellow students are streaming into local bars to get an early start on the weekend, Creed members are listening to speakers talk about Church teachings and learning about John Paul II’s theology of the body.

On Friday nights, members of the group gather at nearby St. Aloysius Church for adoration. And, one Sunday a month, they visit the Little Sisters of the Poor Sacred Heart Home for the Aged in Oregon, Ohio, for Mass, lunch and activities with the residents, for whom they put on a “senior prom” in the spring.

Creed also has made pilgrimages to the March for Life in Washington and brought speakers like Mary Beth Bonacci and Christopher West to campus.

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Today Creed attracts an average of 50 people to its weekly meetings. As the numbers grew, the group began inviting priests, religious and laypeople to speak at their meetings. Among these were Toledo Diocese Bishop Leonard Blair, who has since returned two more times, and Father David Nuss, the Toledo Diocese vocation director.

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