If someone had told me five years ago that I would end up attending college 771 miles from home in Clemson, South Carolina, that I would be a faithful Catholic Christian and that Clemson would have a thriving Catholic culture, I would have chuckled and told them they were sorely mistaken. But then again, it’s a really good thing that God’s writing the story and not me.

I grew up as an only child to two Catholic parents in northern New Jersey, but we only went to church on Christmas and Easter. When my parents got divorced, I fell away from the faith entirely, and from the ages of 8-18, I was a staunch atheist. 

I wish I had a singular, radical conversion moment to share. But I don’t. Instead, the Lord encountered me in a couple of different moments, both large and small. At one of the lowest points in my life, my senior year of high school, I cried out to God for help in pure desperation. And suddenly, I felt His peace. His presence. I felt seen in a way that I never had before, with confidence that everything was going to be okay.

I decided that in college, I would grow in my faith. As a freshman, I considered myself a non-denominational Christian and tried many different churches in the Clemson area. I wanted to learn what it actually meant to be a Christian, and that led me to do a ton of research. In that research, I came upon the writings of early church fathers, explanations of why Catholics believed what they believed and beautiful examples of living the Christian life.

In the spring of my freshman year, a senior in my fraternity learned that I was raised Catholic and was interested in returning to the Church. He brought me to confession for the first time in over a decade and invited me to join his Bible study. Fast forward two years, and I’m leading that very Bible study and going to be a Catholic missionary for an organization called the Fellowship of Catholic University Students after I graduate from Clemson next May.

And what’s even crazier is that I’m not the only Clemson student who has a similar story. Despite being in Bible Belt South Carolina, with only 4% of the state being Catholic, Clemson has a vibrant Catholic culture. Catholic Tigers, Clemson’s Catholic campus ministry, has 650 registered students and is one of the largest on campus. FOCUS, a Catholic apostolate that works alongside Catholic Tigers, has had over 570 students attend Bible studies this year. 45 students lead their own Bible studies through FOCUS, and nine students have already accepted offers to serve as FOCUS missionaries upon graduation.

Catholicism has been present at Clemson for a very long time. St. Andrew, Clemson’s beautiful Catholic church located behind downtown, was first built in 1935 as a chapel for Catholic cadets to pray. The chapel seats 84 and was considered too large at the time. That chapel still exists today and is an incredibly popular place of prayer, but it is not even remotely big enough to accommodate Clemson’s current Catholic population. In 1979, a new church was built next to the chapel, and in 2022, it was renovated to match the growing size of the parish.

However, the new church is already too small once again. Coinciding with the “religious revival” of Generation Z, St. Andrew is consistently packed, and parishioners routinely stand along the walls for weekend services. An estimated 600 to 1,000 Clemson students attend Mass every weekend, and the University also boasts the largest Catholic campus ministry in the state.

52 people — over half of whom were students — were received into the Catholic Church at Clemson on April 4 during the Easter Vigil Mass. 

Father Matthew Gray, the priest at St. Andrew, told The Tiger that the parish has “developed a culture of men and women who are sincerely seeking their faith. Students are an integral part of our parish and involved in all of our programs. It is a joy seeing them grow.”

Father Gray hears confession five times a week — a total of 92 people waited in line to receive the sacrament last Wednesday, April 1. And no, that isn’t a late April Fools joke. Catholic students at Clemson care about their faith. Students are involved in Bible studies, small groups, mission trips, service projects, catechesis, social events, parish ministries and even more. On Ash Wednesday, thousands of students got ashes, and an Ash Wednesday Mass was even held at the Samuel J. Cadden Chapel on campus.

It is clear that faith is present on Clemson’s campus, with many campus ministries offering incredible faith-based fellowship. Catholic Tigers and FOCUS specifically serve Catholic students, while St. Andrew continues to invite students into life at the parish. Parishioners cook for students every Tuesday at 6 p.m., an event aptly called “Tuesday Night Dinner.” Adult and student parishioners alike continue to bridge the age gap and unite with one another based on their shared love of Christ and the Catholic faith.

Clemson isn’t just a one-trick pony. It isn’t an all-Protestant school, contrary to popular belief. With over 60 million Catholics in the country and Clemson continuing to accept more students from out of state, Catholics are not a small minority of the Clemson population. There are many Catholics here who not only care about their faith but also desire to share it.

It’s thanks to the people, experiences, and conversations that I’ve had at Clemson, with Catholics, Protestants, and students of other faith traditions, that have allowed me to dive deeper into my relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The healthy student culture of Catholicism at Clemson shows that God is waiting for all of us, wherever we look, no matter where we are or what we have done. 

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” Jesus Himself says in Matthew 7:7-8. The Church is very much alive, thanks be to God.

David Polli is a junior sports communication major from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. David can be reached at [email protected].