Rebuild My Church

Franciscan University exists to educate, evangelize, and send forth joyful disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit. Franciscan University carries out that sacred mission admirably. But in these difficult days in our country and our world, we believe God has called us to do more. He has called us to do better.

The Rebuild My Church Strategic Plan is our response to God’s call.

While hearkening back to the vocation Christ entrusted to St. Francis to “Rebuild My Church,” our strategic plan looks with hope to the future and envisions a Church transformed and a world healed and renewed.

By God’s grace, Franciscan University will help bring that vision to reality by:

  • Educating and forming a new generation of builders who, brick by brick, will rebuild our Church and our world.
  • Building up and serving communities of faithful Catholics by proclaiming the Gospel and leading them into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
  • Expanding how the University engages with the culture around us and confronts its problems with truth, charity, and humility.

Join Franciscan University as we seek to accomplish our strategic plan goals and transform the lives of our students, renew our Church, and revitalize our world.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us!

Our Mission
Franciscan University of Steubenville educates, evangelizes, and sends forth joyful disciples.

We form men and women to serve God and one another so they can be a transforming Christian presence in the world.

Franciscan University is foremost an academic community. Our students are trained as professionals through rigorous courses built on the Catholic intellectual tradition. Together with expert faculty as mentors, they explore new ideas and participate in cutting-edge research across more than 80 graduate and undergraduate programs. The intellectual formation and hands-on experiences they receive here prepare them to excel in medical school, graduate school, and meaningful careers in almost any field.

At Franciscan’s core is our commitment to dynamic orthodoxy. We engage our students’ hearts and souls along with their minds to help them discover their God-given dignity and purpose. They grow in their love for Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, encountering both Christ and his Bride in liturgy and sacrament.

Our work of proclaiming the Gospel extends far beyond our hilltop campus in Ohio. Through outreach and evangelization, we empower people across the country and throughout the world to deepen their relationships with Jesus Christ and to live as his disciples.

Our Vision

In the 13th century, St. Francis of Assisi responded to God’s call to “Rebuild my Church.”

Today, Franciscan University of Steubenville continues to answer that call.

Like St. Francis, we know this commission means envisioning a Church and world renewed: Catholics so well formed intellectually and spiritually that they live as powerful witnesses of the Gospel across every career and vocation; parishes with full pews and even fuller hearts; and problems met with civil discussion, scholarship, and research that work toward the common good.

Such renewal seems impossible today as we survey the cultural ruins resulting from decades of building on the sands of relativism instead of on Jesus Christ, our Cornerstone. Every precious truth—from the nature of marriage and family to religious liberty to the very sacredness of human life—has been called into question, with devastating consequences for us all.

But we know these moral defects can be healed and restored by what St. John Paul II called “a new generation of builders.” Young men and young women, moved by genuine love, can “learn to build, brick by brick, the city of God within the city of man.”

At Franciscan University, we have been educating and forming generations of builders for the last 75 years. So many of our alumni are joyfully carrying out the difficult yet uplifting task of working with God in build-ing the “civilization of love.” Yet, God’s call to “rebuild my Church” has taken on a deeper urgency in these days. In faith and humility, we will respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings to do more.

Letter from the President

More than 800 years ago, the Lord called St. Francis of Assisi to “Rebuild my Church.”

St. Francis answered that call by engaging the world around him. He cared for the sick, embraced the leper, ministered to the poor, and proclaimed the Gospel. All of this changed people’s lives. Yet, near the end of his life, he said, “Let us begin again, for up until now, we have done little or nothing.”

Franciscan University of Steubenville has accomplished much throughout our 75 years. But like our humble patron, we know our mission is far from finished. We, too, are beginning again to answer Jesus Christ’s call to rebuild our Church and our world.

Many young people (and older people, too) no longer attend Mass. Countless more don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus or know of his deep love for them. No matter where we turn, we find another part of our society suffering from confusion, hurt, and division.

St. Francis gathered brothers and sisters around him and then sent them out into the world.  He invited people from all walks of life to join him in engaging the world and being a transforming presence in the Church, as well as all parts of civil society.

Through our liberal arts, science, and professional degree programs, Franciscan University teaches and trains our students to be excellent nurses, scientists, teachers, business leaders, and more. We help them grow as sons and daughters of God in a vibrant Catholic community in which the faith is not only preached but lived. In research labs, residence halls, athletic fields, and daily Mass, we form our students as joyful disciples who can go forth to transform the culture for Christ.

But God has called us to do more. He has called us to do what we do even better. The Franciscan University Strategic Plan is our response to what God is asking of us.

The Strategic Plan is the fruit of much study, discussion, and discernment. It is our blueprint for how we will build upon the strong foundations already laid and how we will boldly move forward in the new ways the Holy Spirit is calling us.

I invite you to join Franciscan University in the great academic and spiritual work the Lord is doing in Steubenville—and throughout the world. He is building something beautiful. Let us begin.

 

Peace,

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR
President, Franciscan University of Steubenville

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Our Goals

To continue fulfilling the mission of Christ the Teacher by educating and forming a new generation of builders who, brick by brick, will rebuild our Church and our world.d our Church and our world.

To build up and serve communities of faithful Catholics by proclaiming the Gospel and leading men and women around the world to a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ.

To expand how the University engages the culture and to confront the growing problems in our society with truth, charity, and humility. with truth, charity, and humility.