Benedictine's new ministry director reaches out to students

Several staffers with The Candor, Benedictine University's student newspaper, recently dropped in to say hello to Mark Kurowski, the new director of university ministry.

Kurowski writes a column for the weekly student publication in Lisle and wants to know if it can be videotaped and put on the newspaper's website.

Reaching the university's online community — as well as students, faculty and staff members on campus, commuters and even alumni — is part of his mission. That makes Kurowski responsible for the spiritual care of 34,000 at a Catholic university with a diverse student body of many faiths.

That doesn't daunt Kurowski, author, Methodist preacher-turned-Catholic and founder of MySpiritualAdvisor.com.

“This position is really an answer to prayer,” he says of the post he started in February. “It allows me to use all the skills I would normally use in an extremely large church.”

There was a time when Kurowski wondered if he would ever be in ministry again. Friendly, outgoing and passionate about what he does, he left the Methodist church after 12 years because he felt drawn to Catholicism. With a wife and five children, priesthood wasn't an option. But he could not leave ministry behind.

“It is so much a part of me. I live and I'm born to love people in the name of Jesus,” he says.

So Kurowski taught himself web design skills and electronic marketing, started making contacts on social media and founded MySpiritualAdvisor.com. When he began the website in 2002, it was hard to find genuine spiritual advisers on the Internet.

“A bunch of scantily clad women named Amber came up and I thought this is just not right,” Kurowski says.

His website includes his reflections on the Scriptures that will be read in Mass the coming Sunday. He's provided counseling by Skype and e-mail to people around the country and around the world — some of them confiding secrets they wouldn't tell their local priest. He writes a blog and records a podcast.

“Just doing all that stuff to keep myself in ministry prepared me for what Benedictine is looking for,” he says.

God encounter

As a child in South Bend, Ind., ministry wasn't a profession Kurowski would have envisioned. He was raised by a single mother with nine children who had divorced her abusive husband. Back in the 1960s, the divorce and the family's status as welfare recipients caused them to be shunned by some churches.

Then Kurowski's high school choir director invited him to sing at a Methodist church.

“I had an encounter with the Almighty God and it was awesome,” he says. “For the first time, I really felt in my life unconditional love from someone other than my mother.”

When Kurowski was backsliding in the faith, watching the movie “Amadeus” brought him back. In the movie, the composer Selieri is so jealous of Mozart's talent that he curses God and throws a crucifix in the fire.

“At that moment, I realized how much I loved God,” Kurowski recalls.

He attended seminary and pastored several churches in Indiana and North Carolina. The last church he served as a Methodist minister in Gary, Ind., had a congregation that was 50 percent African-American.

“That was a wonderful experience,” Kurowski says. “It absolutely countered everything you have been taught about Gary, Ind.”

Steve Patterson, spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, was a reporter in Gary when he met Kurowski. Patterson remembered he was skeptical when he heard that a Methodist minister in town was crusading against the strip clubs setting up shop in empty storefronts.

“As a reporter, you're always looking with a cynical eye for the real reason something is being done,” he said.

Patterson met Kurowski and attended one of his pickets. He couldn't find any ulterior motives.

“I genuinely felt there was a real desire to make the community a better place,” he said.

Kurowski's crusade against the strip clubs was only partially successful, Patterson said. Kurowski influenced the city council to pass an ordinance to keep out the clubs, but it was challenged in court. The court upheld the clubs' right to do business, but by then some had closed their doors.

The minister's effort to revive Little League in Gary was more successful, Patterson said. A self-professed sports junkie, Kurowski held cleanup days on the ball fields and gradually more kids came out.

“He got uniforms for the kids. You saw a snowball effect,” Patterson said. “He won the people over.”

But even then, Kurowski seemed to sense a ministry beyond the Methodist church, Patterson said.

“He always felt a greater calling and he wasn't ashamed to say he didn't know what it was,” Patterson said.

Becoming Catholic

Kurowski says his transition to Catholicism was gradual as his spiritual practices became more and more Catholic. He came to believe that the Eucharist was more than a symbol as some Protestants believe, but truly the body and blood of Christ.

“I needed to go somewhere where I could receive Christ in all his fullness,” he says.

Since joining Catholicism, Kurowski has been a regular contributor to Catholic radio and served as a pastoral associate in two Catholic parishes. He and his family continue to live in northwest Indiana and attend Saint Victor Church in Calumet City.

Ignacio Carrillo, a lay leader at Saint Victor and a community organizer, said Kurowski's contributions to the parish staff included getting to know the community and its needs, helping with the youth ministry, and organizing the data system.

“He's also pretty good about developing other people to take a role in ministry,” Carrillo said. “His vision for the church is not just internal. He's very clear about what the role of the church is in the community.”

Kurowski carries his expansive view of the church to Benedictine, a student community that is 15 percent Muslim and 3 percent to 4 percent Hindu. He received a respectful reception when he met with the student associations for both groups, he says.

“We have really a golden opportunity to be a model for the world around us,” he says. “As a Catholic, what I'm committed to do is to love. Love is more than tolerance.”

Kurowski says students' concerns are the concerns of everyday life — family problems, hopes, dreams, disappointments and successes.

“It's just like a regular church,” he says.

Kurowski believes many people have a thirst for the spiritual even if they eschew ties with organized religion.

“They have a concept of the divine. We as Catholics celebrate that,” he says. “It's part of the development.”

To encourage people in the growth of faith, Kurowski recently published “A Simple Guide to the Spiritual Life,” a beginner's guide to spirituality. The guide covers such basics as how to read the Bible, prayer and meditation, and seeks to show how those practices may be incorporated into everyday life.

“My kids call me Captain Obvious,” he quips.

Kurowski believes a too limited view of reality and a misunderstanding of God's nature holds many back from developing their spiritual lives.

“We think we have to be perfect for God to love us,” he says. “If that's true, then the whole coming of Jesus makes no sense at all.”

In the Christian gospel, Jesus' coming was God's love in action. Kurowski tries to convey a message of faith lived out in love whether ministering in person or on the Internet.

“What we are doing is engaging people in the virtual world so they will make changes in the physical world,” he says. “What you believe ought to influence what you do.”