(Catholic News Agency) An all-boys Catholic high school in Tampa, Florida is attracting attention for fostering a faith-filled environment that helped lead nearly two dozen of its students into the Church last month.
“Coming off of COVID, there was really a hunger and an openness and a desire for God that, at least on our campus, we had never seen before,” Jimmy Mitchell, director of campus ministry at Jesuit High School in Tampa, told CNA.
Jesuit High School saw 22 students convert this past year through its RCIA program – making 2020 “one of the most beautiful and fruitful years that our campus has ever seen,” Mitchell said.
The large number of converts has “everything to do with a culture of conversion, brotherhood, and discipleship” at the school, Mitchell said.
He said that as a campus minister he seeks to “infiltrate” every aspect of the students’ lives at school, including their classroom learning and their participation in music and sports. He also seeks to get to know the students and take a deep and personal interest in their lives.
Mitchell said the school seeks to make Catholicism “appealing, attractive, and accessible” for the young men, with a special emphasis on seeking out underclassmen.
“In a world that has normalized sin like never before, there’s a growing community, a growing brotherhood of young men in Tampa who are normalizing holiness,” he said, reiterating that the increase in conversions at the school is “unprecedented.”
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