Led by Christ’s love

In the middle of the 13-person huddle, I pressed a pen to a fresh page in my journal. They talked so fast I could barely jot everything down. 

“How about ‘hold tension,’” sophomore Zack O’Conner suggested. “Ooh, that’s good,” responded pretty much everybody. 

Each of the UD students, faculty and staff who I had traveled with to Italy threw out suggestions for a question one of us might have the chance to ask the leaders of the Catholic Church, who were in Rome — as we were — for the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October. 

“OK, do we have it?” sophomore Emma Vargas asked. “I think so,” I said as we all gazed down at my horrible handwriting: “How do we hold tension between the sense of the faithful and the authority and teaching of the Church?” 

Our pilgrimage was a part of a larger coalition of 14 U.S. universities. Our mission: to learn about the Synod on Synodality and its importance in the Church, as well as share the gifts of the Marianists in listening and discerning. Our delegation included undergraduate students from Campus Ministry and our campus ministers, plus students in a graduate-level theology course and professor Jana Bennet. 

I applied to join UD’s group because I believe in the Church’s mission to love the entirety of the body of the Church in the ways we need to be loved. 

A synod is a convention of members of the Church who call upon the Holy Spirit to be with them in dialogue. In its history, synods hosted only bishops, but for the first time Pope Francis invited in 2021 people of many ethnicities, races, vocations and ages to more fully represent the people of God. Of the 368 delegates, two were college students.

I applied to join UD’s group because I believe in the Church’s mission to love the entirety of the body of the Church in the ways we need to be loved. 

We experienced Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, participated in synodal teach-ins and attended a general audience with Pope Francis after standing in line with students from other Catholic universities and sharing with them stories of the Marianists. We also carried around Rome as conversation starters crocheted dolls of the priest, nun and layperson who founded the Marianist family — Father William Joseph Chaminade, Mother Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon and Marie Thérèse de Lamourous.

“The Marianist charism has gifts that it can lend to the greater Church — it listens deeply to all protagonists and establishes a sense of equality, a discipleship of equals as demonstrated to us by the three Marianist founders,” said campus minister Kelly Adamson, who joined us on the pilgrimage. 

We visited the Marianist Curia in Rome and enjoyed their hospitality and commitment to deep listening even when language should have proved a barrier. As we left a building we had first entered only a few hours previous, junior Lili Canales mentioned, “It weirdly feels like home here.”

Adamson reinforced that young adults like us are not the future of the Church — we are the now. She told us, “You are truly soaring by incarnating the living experience of the Church.” 

My path as a protagonist in the Church is evangelization, which I am blessed to be able to express through media. University of Dayton Magazine submitted my application to join the Vatican press corps. I attended daily press conferences and a special Mass with more than 30 cardinals and 100 bishops from around the world. I sent my parents a video, in which I was obviously overwhelmed and feeling out of place. My Dad had just the right response: You are equal to them and have your right to your voice. That is what the Synod is all about. 

Adamson reinforced that young adults like us are not the future of the Church — we are the now. She told us, “You are truly soaring by incarnating the living experience of the Church.” 

While we didn’t get to ask our question, the process of forming it helped us stretch the tent of the Church while remaining grounded in God’s revelation to the Church. This pilgrimage transformed my outlook, providing me with a better understanding of the Church as a medium for Christ’s love.—Mason Hennessy ’27

Mason Hennessy is a sophomore majoring in communication and religious studies. Michelle Tedford contributed additional reporting. The pilgrimage was made possible through endowed funds to the Department of Religious Studies and One Day, One Dayton gifts.

Photos by Liliana Canales, Duncan Fischley

A version of this article appears in print in the Spring 2025 University of Dayton Magazine, Pages 14-15. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE