Their Church Flooded — So They're Taking the Faith to Campus – Fr. PJ McManus, Megan Schultz & Tyler Dillon – 08/06/2026

What happened On July 17, a sprinkler system at St. Catherine of Siena was erroneously activated and deluged the inside of the church, causing extensive damage. The parish — the personal parish assigned to university students and attached to Drake, with a vital presence one block south of campus for many decades — is closed for cleanup and repair. Fr. PJ McManus says the team is using the disruption to look hard at the space and reconfigure it to better serve students, while pushing evangelization efforts out onto campus and into the city. Where Mass is happening right now Sunday Mass: 10 a.m. in the Sussman Theater, lower level of Olmsted Center, on Drake's campus. No Saturday or weekday Masses at the church until further notice. Questions: call the parish office at 515-650-8646. Start of the year: parking lot party and outdoor Mass Sunday, August 23 — the annual parking lot party returns with a grill-out alongside the Knights of Columbus and a lot full of yard games. This year students are invited to bring a blanket for Mass outdoors. "Who's not here, and how do we get them?" Fr. McManus explains that his appointment to St. Catherine of Siena came paired with a new diocesan role — Vicar of Evangelization and Mission — and that the question driving his work is whether the Church's activities are simply serving the people already in the pews. He cites Paul VI's line that the Church is the only institution that exists for the people who haven't joined it yet, and notes he never would have planned a flood, despite jokes from the insurance people. His closing thought: God saved us through a flood once, so there's no reason this can't be an opportunity for rebirth at Drake and beyond. The third place, and the loneliness underneath Megan Schultz describes summer plans going into the dumpster along with the supplies — and then the joy of celebrating daily Mass in a Drake academic building while football players walked by and students waved. She connects the moment to a broader trend: for a long stretch young people lost the "third place" beyond home and school that Christian community used to provide, and now they're naming that absence and coming back. She points to significant growth across the parish's young adult and student ministries over the last four years. FOCUS on campus Tyler Dillon, a FOCUS missionary for five years and entering his second year as team director at Drake, says the work doesn't stop — it relocates. Expect Bible studies meeting on campus and in missionary homes, pop-up coffee shops, study centers and more game nights. His read on college friendship: students assume they're known because they're constantly surrounded by people, but those relationships often stay so surface-level that many don't experience what real friendship is until someone loves them well for the first time. Find them Parish: stcatherinedrake.org | 1150 28th St., Des Moines, IA 50311 | 515-650-8646 Instagram: @dubulldogcatholic All DU Bulldog Catholic links: linktr.ee/DuBulldogCatholic FOCUS at Drake: focus.org/campus/drake-university Megan's advice for any incoming student anywhere: look up the Catholic community online before you get to campus, and don't be afraid to ask — there are plenty of people happy to sit next to you at Mass and show you where to go. Hear more segments and full episodes of The Catholic Morning Show at IowaCatholicRadio.com. #CampusMinistry #DrakeUniversity #FOCUS #CatholicCollege #NewmanCenter #CatholicMorningShow #IowaCatholicRadio #DioceseOfDesMoines #Evangelization #CatholicPodcast #YoungAdultCatholic #DesMoines #Catholic Credits: Produced, Edited, and Mixed by Ayden Pugh, Alexia Baker, and Brady Grimm. ENJOYING THE SHOW? 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