In September 2017, Fr. Martin Martiny, O.P, became the first Dominican chaplain of the University of Louisville, which has an estimated 7,000 Catholics in a student body of 22,500.
In the past year, the chaplaincy has organized volunteer excursions with Catholic Charities and Habitat for Humanity, a weekly theology course, lectures by a Vatican astronomer and other speakers, and a freshman retreat. Fr. Martiny offers daily Mass, adoration, and confessions on weekdays. The chaplaincy has been accepted by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), who will send missionaries to the campus this summer. “These elements promise to strengthen the Dominican approach embodied in ‘Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny,’” says Fr. Martiny.
According to Fr. Martiny, the students have “a real need for truth, and the stability that comes from knowing the truth about God and about themselves as human beings made in His image and likeness.” To that end he asks that supporters of the Dominicans pray that they would “assist each member of the university to reap a destiny in Jesus Christ.”
