CONWAY — With a broad smile, firm handshake and an unwavering zeal for the faith, Deacon Richard Papini has welcomed college students to Catholic Campus Ministry in Conway for 25 years.
It was something he couldn’t imagine back in 1999 when then-diocesan campus ministry director Phyllis Enderlin suggested he take the helm of the new ministry.
“I said, ‘Well, Phyllis, I appreciate you thinking about me, but I don’t know anything about campus ministry.’ And then she said, ‘Deacon Richard, that’s OK. You’re a deacon, and we need somebody in that position who can speak for the Catholic Church.’ Well, I tell everybody this story, I said I almost fell out of my chair — me a deacon, spokesperson for the Catholic Church,” he said with a laugh.
After saying yes, the first student he met told him she’d been praying for God to send someone to the ministry.
“It confirmed, you know, that God is who put me there, even if it was the answer to one prayer, one person’s prayer,” he said.
On July 7, Papini, 80, was again open to the movement of the Holy Spirit toward a new season of life, retiring as director of CCM. Tachia Awbrey, campus minister since last year, was named the new director.
“Mixed feelings,” Papini told Arkansas Catholic July 5 about his retirement. “This has been very much a major part of my life. Andrea, my wife, played a significant role in this thing from the very beginning.”
Papini’s cheerful nature, coupled with his passion for the faith, has been the stability CCM needed to minister throughout the Conway colleges — University of Central Arkansas, Hendrix College and Central Baptist College, and regionally.
With the help of campus ministers, he spearheaded weekly Masses, small Bible study groups, retreats and weekly meals for students, along with his wife. He was a driving force for a $3.9 million facility and chapel across from UCA at 1919 South Blvd., replacing the small white house where students met for years. Bishop Anthony B. Taylor celebrated the first Mass in the new CCM facility Sept. 6.
But none of this would have been possible if God had not allowed certain pieces to fall into place. Papini, ordained a deacon May 31, 1998, said Andrea was “very much against” him taking the CCM job a little over a year after his ordination. Andrea said the couple had lived in Russellville for about 18 years, and uprooting their lives seemed impossible.
However, the more he learned about the job, the more he felt called, and Andrea said she felt God was telling her to “let go of it.” She agreed he could take on this ministry if the diocese offered him the job before the deadline to accept a voluntary severance package from his then-employer, Entergy. The call came the day before Papini had to take the severance. He commuted for two years from Russellville before moving to Conway.
“It’s meant everything to his life; I mean everything. It has just been life-changing,” Andrea said. “The students had so many problems and issues going on in their lives; they just need someone they can talk to.”
Throughout his ministry, Papini said he’s learned that one of the simplest ways to keep Catholic students grounded is for CCM to be a welcoming place.
“One of the things is welcoming them if they walk through that door. And initially, we weren’t very good at welcoming,” he said, adding they had to combat cliques within the ministry. “… It was a slow process of winning them over. Now that we have this beautiful facility, I think that it will help to attract them in here, especially a Sunday Mass and feeding them after that Mass.”
That welcoming environment allowed students to carve out their life paths with faith, with some leading to the priesthood. Fathers Taryn Whittington, William Burmester and Omar Galván all attended CCM, along with seminarians Deacon Joel Brackett and Duwan Booker.
Father Galván, administrator of St. Andrew Church in Danville and St. Augustine Church in Dardanelle, was drawn to the ministry by pancakes — a CCM meal offered during the stress of finals for the 2010 fall semester.
“He gave me a big smile and a really firm handshake and said, ‘What is your name? I haven’t seen you around,’” Father Galván said of Papini. “We talked, and he kind of invited me to come back next semester.”
He was active in CCM that spring and left for college in Fort Smith the next year. Then he entered the seminary.
“It was the invitation from Deacon Papini that gave me a place to really keep growing my faith and discern properly my vocation to the priesthood,” Father Galván said. “… That small act of going out and simply inviting the college students to be a part of CCM, to be a part of the space to get to know the Lord, that’s what I really admired about him.”
Papini, who will continue with his diaconate ministry at St. Joseph Church in Conway, said his message for college students is the same as it’s always been — grow in the Catholic faith.
“Being a Catholic is a lifetime of learning. That’s one of the things I share with a lot of Catholics. When I’m expressing my feelings about my Catholic faith, it’s a lifetime. You’re constantly learning and growing. But you’ve got to make that choice that you want to grow,” he said. “… The other thing I say … a lot about is how the Eucharist has impacted my life and it truly is life-giving. And when Jesus says, ‘Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you,’ well, I’ve experienced that life.”
