Under One Roof

If it weren’t for its location on campus, it would be easy to mistake Saint Louis University’s Catholic Studies Center for any family home. The front entrance is a revolving door of activity. The kitchen is warm and busy. The stairs creak from years of use, and the sofas in the living room have seen their fair share of lively discussions and quiet reflection.

While the center is no longer a residence, it is a home base for a growing number of SLU students, as well as a hub of Catholic activity on campus, from weekly Masses and meals to speakers, retreats and alumni events. It’s also the official home of the Catholic Studies Program — a major or minor available through the College of Arts and Sciences that allows SLU students to approach their primary major through the lens of Catholic thought.

This intertwining of Catholic studies, spirituality and community makes the Catholic Studies Center unique in its offerings and a destination for students seeking a new way to connect their faith with their SLU education.

Catholic Studies Gets Its Start 

In the early 1990s, a handful of Catholic universities across the country were considering adding a Catholic Studies Program, with the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, being the first to introduce one in 1993. Inspired by St. Thomas’ success, SLU developed its program in 1997.

Catholic Studies is different from a typical theology program because it complements a student’s primary area of study. It brings together theology, philosophy and nearly every other area of study available at SLU, depending on a student’s academic focus. 

“The idea is to have a place within the University in which you can have engagement with all the different disciplines, together with Catholic thought and culture,” said Matthew Baugh, S.J., academic program director for Catholic Studies at SLU. “Catholic Studies involves deep interdisciplinary engagement.”

The program initially drew a steady stream of students but stayed relatively small. It offered a contract major, allowing students the opportunity to approach program leaders and create a personalized plan. But as Catholic cultural study began to take root on campus, so did the program — gaining momentum and an eventual place of its own in the Catholic Studies Center.

A Home for Catholic Thought and Culture 

The story of SLU’s Catholic Studies Center also begins at the University of St. Thomas, where Christopher Collins, S.J., SLU’s former assistant to the president for mission and identity, attended school in the early 1990s. St. Thomas’ Catholic Studies Program was also housed in a former private residence on campus. 

When Collins came to SLU to direct the Catholic Studies Program in 2012, he brought with him a vision for a building — a literal and metaphorical home for the program.

“In talking with leadership at St. Thomas, they said that the house was very important to their program,” Dr. Greg Beabout said.

Beabout, a SLU philosophy professor, teaches in the Catholic Studies Program and was part of a group of faculty who were instrumental in securing SLU’s Catholic Studies Center.

“To have a place for an academic program that previously didn’t have a home base — that was a big part of the story of moving here,” he said.

“Here” is Cartier Hall, a 19th-century Victorian home located on the western edge of SLU’s campus. In 2016, SLU President Dr. Fred P. Pestello transferred the building to the Catholic Studies Program, resulting in the creation of the Catholic Studies Center.

In addition to housing the Catholic Studies Program, the center also became the long-awaited permanent home for the Edmund Campion Society, a student-led group founded in 1999.

“The first time the Campion Society met in Cartier Hall was the beginning of the fall 2016 semester. There was Mass in this room right here,” Beabout said, gesturing around Cartier Hall’s sunny living room. “The priest set up an altar on the landing of the staircase. There were 11 students here, so still a really small group, but it grew pretty quickly. By September, we couldn’t fit in the living room anymore.”

Seeking more space, the group moved its Monday-night “Campion Night” gatherings to the third floor of the building. At one point, members invited Pestello to join them for Mass as a show of gratitude for the new center. Students were encouraged to bring a friend, putting the total at more than 50 attendees.

“There were candles and incense in a crowded room,” Beabout said. “Dr. Pestello said afterward that all he could envision was a fire. From that point forward, we moved over to Boileau Hall.”

Much to Pestello’s relief and with his blessing, the Catholic Studies Center added the adjacent Boileau Hall to its footprint. Over the next year, a chapel was built to accommodate the large number of Monday-night attendees. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group moved to St. Francis Xavier College Church to spread out, but attendance never dipped.

Over time, Campion Nights grew to include not only Mass but also recitation of the rosary, the opportunity for confessions and a home-cooked meal prepared and served by a group of loyal volunteers. What started as a Thanksgiving meal for students became a Monday night tradition, made by volunteers of all ages.

“We have about 75 volunteers in the St. Louis community who work in teams. I’d say about 80% of them are SLU alums,” Baugh said. “One of the things we talk about in our Jesuit province is trying to find ways to do intergenerational ministry, and this has been an amazing way to do that — to create bonds across the generations.” 

A New Era of Growth

As interest in programming put on by the Catholic Studies Center grew, so did SLU’s Catholic Studies Program, most recently under the leadership of Baugh.

Baugh was ordained in 2019, and his first pastoral placement was at the College Church. Soon after, he started teaching at SLU in the Catholic Studies Program. By the end of 2020, Baugh was offered permanent appointments in political science and Catholic studies, and in the summer of 2021, he took over as director of the Catholic Studies Center. 

Baugh sees his dual role as a political scientist and Catholic studies leader as an example of what makes the program unique. 

“It helps people understand our mission because the fact that a political scientist can run a center like this tells you that we’re not a theology department,” Baugh said.

During the 2020-21 academic year, Baugh was part of a subcommittee that designed an updated version of the Catholic Studies Program. Working together with Dr. Eleonore Stump, SLU’s Robert J. Henle, S.J., Professor of Philosophy, Baugh looked at program models at other universities.

“We worked all that year, and in the fall of 2021, we became the first — and still only —Jesuit university with a full-fledged major in Catholic studies,” Baugh said.

The program includes students from the School of Education, the School of Nursing and STEM fields, as well as Jesuits and members of local religious communities. Many pursue a Catholic studies major, while others choose a minor or simply take a few classes, depending on what their schedule allows.

Classes are taught by Baugh, Dr. Jennifer Sanders — the program’s other full-time faculty member — and faculty from other departments. After taking core courses and electives, seniors complete a culminating project that takes a question or a problem in their main field and brings Catholic thought and culture into dialog with that topic. 

For one final project, a political science major with an interest in Catholic teaching on the death penalty drafted a pastoral letter that the archbishop could send to his diocese explaining Catholic teaching on capital punishment. Another student examined Catholic social teaching as it pertains to economic policy, specifically looking at socioeconomic problems in St. Louis. 

Recent Catholic studies graduates are now in graduate programs for philosophy and economics. Others teach in low-income communities, work in health care and hold leadership roles in a wide range of fields.

Kelley Cochran (VSN ’24) recalls moving into her freshman residence hall in the middle of the pandemic, when life felt uncertain, and community was scarce. A friend saw that she was struggling and invited her to join her in prayer at the Catholic Studies Center. The community Cochran experienced was enough for her to know she wanted to keep coming back.

“Despite all that was happening in the world, I found meaning and had such a good time,” she said. “Ever since then, I’ve continued to hang out here with my best friends. They hold me accountable in my faith.” 

Cochran came to SLU as a nursing major, and after her introduction to the Catholic Studies Center, she decided to add a minor in Catholic studies. By taking classes like “Ignatian Spirituality in Health Care,” it was easy for her to see the ways in which Catholicism complements and influences the work she does as a nurse.

“Catholic studies has helped me remember why I do what I do: taking care of patients in light of the Jesuit mission, body and soul,” she said.

An Innovation Lab for the University 

Together, SLU’s Catholic Studies Center and Catholic Studies Program offer a place for prayer, fellowship, conversation and reflection on the ways Catholicism shows up in the world — and how the tenets and values of the faith integrate with the work of SLU alumni, inspiring their future contributions. 

“One way I’ve learned to explain what we do here to alumni and friends is that we’re kind of an innovation lab for the University. We’re trying things that can be of use to the broader University,” Baugh said. “The core of that can be seen here in one facility where students can go to class, they can use the chapel, and there are communal spaces where they can gather.”

As students invite friends to experience the Catholic Studies Center and awareness grows, the space is evolving to meet the need. In 2022, the center was renovated to include a seminar room, library, podcast studio and two faculty offices. The next renovation will expand the chapel to accommodate an even larger group. 

From Baugh’s perspective, the Catholic Studies Program itself is also evolving.

“We’ve got to figure out how to be able to scale up to grow our program and respond to the hunger that we’re finding among students for a program like this,” he said.

As he works to accommodate this demand, Baugh is proud of the Catholic home SLU has created on campus and the way it seamlessly integrates a SLU education with Catholic thought and culture.

“The burning question in Catholic education right now is, ‘How do you do integration?’” he said. “This is a place where we’re testing out things, and we’ve got everything under one roof. There’s no separation between classroom and chapel. That’s what the whole University is, but here, in a very tangible way, you can sense that.”