Professor Edward Sri said he still remembers the first time he met Curtis Martin in a hallway at graduate school in Kansas almost 20 years ago. “The passion he had for his Catholic faith came out in the first few seconds of conversation,” said Sri, who teaches theology and Scripture at the Augustine Institute in Denver.
“I’ve learned so much from him about how to teach faith in a way that captivates the minds and hearts of young people,” Sri said.
Martin and Sri, with the help of former Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, created the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, which has grown since 1998 from a staff of two to 300, including 250 serving missions on about 60 campuses across the country.
Martin, now 50 and FOCUS president, also has impressed two popes with his remarkable talent for evangelization.
A couple of weeks ago, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Martin as one of two Americans on a Vatican advisory group on the Catholic Church’s “New Evangelization.”
It’s a worldwide push by a 2,000-year-old institution with more than 1 billion members trying to impart timeless teachings in new times, Martin said. And it’s critical for a church shaken by clergy sex abuse and coverups of the past few decades.
“Out of the ashes of this terrible scandal that rocked the Church, men are entering seminaries who are men of faith and action, who are entering for all the right reasons,” Martin said. “They are part of a tremendous renewal within the Church.”
While baby boomers were disillusioned and leaving the Church for myriad reasons, Martin saw “a hunger and an openness among young people to learn about Catholicism.”
“Their parents are scandalized,” he said. “But young people look at the saints, not the sinners. They know you can find sinners everywhere.”
Martin himself left the Church once. Raised Catholic, he drifted away in adolescence.
“I was morally, spiritually dead. And I knew it,” Martin said. “I spent all my time pursuing fun because I believed the lie that fun leads to happiness. God tells us that goodness leads to happiness.”
By the time Martin went to college, he felt increasing tension and hostility toward religion.
“But by the grace of God, I met students who set me on the path of Scripture,” Martin said.
They were evangelical Protestants, and Martin became one for several years. He was at times vehemently anti-Catholic. Then, he said, his renewed passion for studies led him back to Catholicism in his mid-20s.
“There is one God. He had one son. He founded one Church,” is how Martin summarizes his epiphany.
Yet he wanted to borrow a page out of the evangelical Protestants’ playbook. His idea of Catholic evangelization on campuses became a reality sometime after a fateful meeting with Chaput, then a bishop in Rapid City, S.D.
“He was very much interested,” Martin said. “He prepared the way for us. He knocked down obstacles so a lay group could work effectively with the Church.”
Chaput became a great friend and spiritual father, he said.
Martin himself became, with wife Michaelann, a parent to eight children. The couple co-authored “Faith Matters: A Bible Study on Marriage and Family.” The Martins have separately written several other books, including Curtis Martin’s best seller “Made for More.”
Martin, who studied communications and earned a master’s degree in theology, also co-hosts “Crossing the Goal,” a TV show on the EWTN Global Catholic Network.
FOCUS has new offices in Genesee, high on a ridgeline from where downtown Denver looks like toy blocks and even the faux peaks of Denver International Airport are visible on a clear day.
A chaplet down the hall from the offices enables staff to easily attend daily Mass.
Here a staff of about 50 helps train student evangelists in prayer, apologetics, Bible studies, evangelizing and fundraising.
The young evangelists must raise at least $1,800 a month to cover their living expenses. FOCUS keeps 7 percent of what the youths raise for the organization.
” ‘We’d like you to consider this carefully,’ ” Martin said they tell students. ” ‘You’ll suffer more in this job than in any other job you’ll ever have.’ “
They explain that FOCUS will send them where the group needs them, not where they want to go. They must “fast” from dating in their first year in the field. The students often will experience rejection as they attempt to proselytize. Yet they sign up in increasing numbers.
“They want to serve,” Martin said.
Former FOCUS missionary Brian McAdam said it was a difficult job, but worthwhile.
“The suffering and joy come together,” McAdam said. “Things you love, you pour yourself into.”
FOCUS personnel spend at least an hour a day, “the holy hour,” they call it, in prayer and contemplation.
“They spend seven hours a day talking to young people about God and at least an hour a day talking to God about young people,” Martin said.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
