Benedictine College welcomes record 30 students into Catholic Church

Thirty Benedictine College students entered full communion with the Catholic Church on Divine Mercy Sunday, the largest group the Atchison college has ever received in a single liturgy. The celebration marked more than a spring sacrament, it showed how faith has become a visible part of student life at a campus where religious formation now reaches far beyond a chapel service.

Eight of the students received all of the sacraments of initiation, while 22 were confirmed. Their preparation stretched over eight months of weekly OCIA meetings led by assistant chaplain Father Christian Schwenka and a dedicated group of students. Among the students was Rance Ridley, and the class reflected a range of backgrounds, including some who had grown up with only occasional Protestant church attendance.

The size of the class stands out even at a college where more than 80% of students are already Catholic. Benedictine said the 30 students represented roughly 10% of its non-Catholic students, an unusually large share for a residential school in Atchison that says it has its highest enrollment ever and that 80% of students live on campus. The numbers suggest a campus ministry that is not only maintaining Catholic identity, but drawing students into it during their college years.

The pattern has been building for several years. Benedictine welcomed 10 students into the Church on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2023, 19 in 2024 and 26 in 2025. Last year’s group was the largest before this one, and 20 of those 26 new Catholics were athletes, a sign that the college’s athletic culture has often intersected with campus ministry in powerful ways.

This year’s liturgy also carried added meaning because it took place on Divine Mercy Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter, a feast instituted in 2000 by St. John Paul II. Archbishop Shawn McKnight, installed as the fifth Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas on May 27, 2025, celebrated the Mass, underscoring the event’s importance for Benedictine College and for the wider Catholic community in Atchison. At a Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts, residential college built around faith and scholarship, the record reception into the Church now stands as a clear sign of how deeply that mission is taking root.