DeSales University has announced the creation of a Center for Discernment which will aid students on campus in determining whether a religious vocation is appropriate for them. 

The Center, set to open in August 2008, will be a residential community for interested full-time DeSales students, both men and women.  Among the activities will be daily Masses, morning and evening prayer, conferences, spiritual direction, meetings, sacramental promotion and the presentation of information on discernment.

Reflecting the Salesian tradition of the university, the Center and its programs will reflect the work of St. Francis de Sales.

Father Christopher Hudgin, O.S.F.S., is the Director of the Center.  He said on the university’s website, “The students in the program will pray and reflect on their Catholic faith and how they might best serve God in the Church of the twenty-first century.”

He told the Cardinal Newman Society, “We looked at a pre-theologate program, but we wanted something broader.  This is something for young men and women.”  Father Hudgin will be living in the residential facility next fall. A pre-theologate, or pre-theology, program is typically offered for men discerning the priesthood.

The Center expects to attract students from all four undergraduate classes.  The university has sent out a mailing to more than 250 high schools in the Mid-Atlantic region to alert prospective freshmen to this opportunity.

Joseph Esposito, Editor of The Cardinal Newman Society’s Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College, said, “We heartily commend DeSales University for this valuable initiative.  Encouraging students to discern a vocation is the mark of a faithful Catholic university.”

DeSales University, founded in 1965 by the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales, is one of 21 colleges and universities recommended in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College:  What to Look For and Where to Find It.  The university is located in Center Valley, Pa., a one-hour drive north of Philadelphia.

For more information see http://www.desales.edu/default.aspx?pageid=6006