College student inspires ‘friendship evangelization’

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

A university student who ministered to peers during the school year spent part of her summer reaching out to children, high school girls and college-bound young people.  
Kendall Mullen, 21, calls her outreach “friendship evangelization.” She said she thinks the Worcester Diocese needs more of that – and not just done by her.
She used this approach as a resident minister in her dorm at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., during the 2022-2023 academic year, and plans to do the same this year, her senior year. She said resident ministers aim to bring students closer to Jesus by being vessels of his love.
“It’s all friendship evangelization,” Ms. Mullen said. “Our faith is intimate and personal in our relationship with God. We take it out to the world. Evangelization is … bringing people closer to Christ. But, as human beings, we want to be loved.”
That’s why friendship evangelization is good, she said; it involves building relationships with people.
“Knowing people’s names and knowing people’s stories – that is at the core of these events,” she said, speaking of activities she organized this summer, such as a vacation Bible school for children in pre-kindergarten through grade 6 at St. Joseph Parish in Charlton, where she is a parishioner, and evenings for high school girls and young men and women going off to college, both held at North American Martyrs Parish in Auburn.
Two other college students also spoke for the college session, which five people attended. The speakers shared their own experiences of getting closer to God and trying to live their Catholic faith at college and urged attendees to do so.
Interested in organizing this event, and one for high school girls, Ms. Mullen worked with Father Donato Infante III, once her associate pastor and now director of the diocesan Office for Vocations, and Timothy Messenger, director of the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry.
“We had brainstormed with her a few times,” Mr. Messenger said.
Ms. Mullen said Father Infante is a mentor for her, and his office paid her a stipend and reimbursed her for expenses for the high school and college nights.
She said she planned the evenings with speakers, socializing and supper.
Her pastor, Father Robert A. Grattaroti, said she contacted him about running the Bible school, for which she used already existing programs. He said about 70 children, most from the parish’s religious education program, attended this summer, and St. Joseph’s gave her a stipend and reimbursed her for expenses.
Ms. Mullen said she also ran Bible schools at St. Joseph’s last summer and winter and is planning to do so again this winter.
One of the activities was having the teenagers share their “God sightings” (times they experienced God) with the children, she said.
She said she was “fed” spiritually by working with the children and teenagers, and the teenagers were fed spiritually by her time with them. During a preparatory week before the Bible school, she built relationships with them and they spent time in prayer together, in addition to learning their tasks and painting decorations, she said.
“It’s contagious” – when Ms. Mullen is excited she brings a positive energy that makes everyone else excited – said Abby Hill, a St. Joseph’s parishioner who helped with the Bible school. Ms. Hill said she attended the evening for the college-bound because she figured it would help her as she heads to a non-Catholic university. She said the session gave her pointers for how to find other Catholics at school.
“Everything that Kendall does is amazing,” said Julia Canty, another St. Joseph’s parishioner going to college. “I got closer to her doing vacation Bible school.” She said that helping with Bible school, where “I saw Christ in all the kids,” brought back “the fire” in her heart.
“I think she’s changing people left and right, just through everything she’s doing,” she said of Ms. Mullen. “She’s bringing ... a more youthful approach, bringing in younger women. She’s reaching those who are going to be making the next big difference in the faith.”
Ms. Mullen said she saw young women hungering for more feminine Catholic fellowship. She had not originally planned a women’s ministry event for this summer, but felt, when praying, that God was drawing her to organize such a night, she said.
For that event for high school girls, she had four young women give talks about aspects of their own spiritual life. To close the evening, Ms. Mullen gathered the speakers and attendees – more than 25 people in all – in a large circle. With their arms around each other, they prayed aloud for numerous requests.
“This was a gift to be able to do something like this,” Ms. Mullen told The Catholic Free Press. “It fed me.”
She said she knew some of the attendees and knew some were struggling in areas the speakers talked about from their own lives. The teenagers could relate to the speakers, and afterwards one teenager asked to do it again, she said.
“I’d love to make this a bigger thing next summer,” Ms. Mullen said. “I am praying about it. If God wills it, he will provide everything we need,” she added.
“Ministry is the career I want to pursue after college,” she said. “I’m interested in working with youth and doing women’s ministry. I love that type of work.”