CNA Newsroom, Mar 1, 2025 /
09:20 am
The Ward and Kathy Fitzgerald Franciscan University Homeland Mission (FUHM) officially opened Feb. 28 in Washington, D.C., to be “the spiritual home away from home for Franciscan students,” according to Stephen Catanzarite, executive director of Franciscan University Encounter. The initiative of Franciscan University of Steubenville (FUS) seeks to “leverage the university’s academic, administrative, and evangelizing resources to extend its mission and impact far beyond its Steubenville, Ohio, campus.”
The event at the FUHM facility was held for students, alumni, and guests to hear from speakers about the program’s mission and receive a tour of the center.
Opening remarks were presented by Catanzarite, who said: “The programs and the events that we will offer here are really meant to challenge and prepare our students, alumni, and others to work for and to help promote systematic change in our federal government.”
FUHM will house groups of students in D.C. who travel from the university in Steubenville. The facility has bedrooms for students, a faculty wing, multiple kitchens, a common area to gather, and an on-site chapel.
Ambassador Andrew Bremberg, a graduate of FUS who worked for the first Trump administration, said the “initiative is not just an expansion of Franciscan University. It is a bold step forward, informing faithful Catholic leaders who will serve our country and the Church in a time of great need.”
“Now, so many more students will have an opportunity to take the Franciscan formation that we cherish and bring it into the heart of our nation’s capital. Because we are not meant to keep the light of Christ hidden under a basket. We are called, as St. John Paul II often reminded us, to bring the Gospel into every aspect of public life.”
“We are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. It is not just a program. It is a launch for faithful Catholics to serve in government, law, media, public policy, every sphere where our presence is needed,” Bremberg said.
Presenters clarified that FUHM is not just an initiative for those studying political science but an opportunity for all Franciscan students.
Student speaker Amelia Abdalla said the Homeland Mission is for “students of any major, of any aspiration, nation, to have a home in this historic city, hopefully inspiring them to bring their gifts here to serve the common good in a very real and tangible way. And Washington needs what we have to offer.”
“Please know that not only is the gift of this beautiful property, valued with appreciation, but we understand it also to be a call to action, an invitation to leave one hill empowered to serve another.”
Catanzarite said the program will begin to bring students to D.C. “the week after next.”
He explained: “We’re going to have a group of engineering students that are going to come … to learn about how to go up to Capitol Hill to advocate for funding for science, and then they will get meetings on Capitol Hill as part of that stay.”
“It’s very important to know, again, that this is an interdisciplinary endeavor,” Catanzarite said.
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Ward Fitzgerald, CEO of ExCorde Capital, and his wife, Kathy, are the main benefactors of the mission and gave $10 million to build FUHM.
“It’s really a gift for us to be able to give to a place like Franciscan,” Fitzgerald said. He explained that he wanted to create FUHM for young students to “seek the truth” because “we are innately built to seek the truth by our nature and to seek, ultimately, God.”
Fitzgerald highlighted the amount of “charitable works” students will be able to do now that FUHM is offering them a place in D.C.
“If you build a house in El Salvador and you’re a young person, they have one house,” he said. “If you come to Washington, you can create a policy to help the poor to build 10,000 houses.”
The presentation concluded with remarks from FUS president Father Dave Pivonka, TOR.
“Obviously, one particular hill has not been hidden, but it’s time for the rest of the world to hear a little bit more about the city of the hill that we live in Steubenville,” he said. “There are other larger Catholic universities. There are other larger universities much more well known than us. And yet, for one reason or another, Franciscan University is the one who’s being called at this time, at this place, for this purpose.”
“We’re probably not the most powerful, but we are the ones who are willing and brave enough to step up,” he concluded.
Tessa Gervasini is an intern for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She recently graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor’s degree in strategic communication.
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