"A life full of purpose and joy:" St. Albert's Katie Hopping

by Diocese of Des Moines | July 13, 2026

By Jennifer Willems

COUNCIL BLUFFS – As a little girl attending the Catholic Youth Camp in Panora, Katie Hopping received a word from the Lord: “Go.”

It wasn’t a command, but an invitation, spoken in a “still small voice” as she was praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament after confession.

She heard that “still small voice” again as she was discerning her next step after graduating from the University of Northern Iowa and serving as a missionary with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) for four years. This time the invitation came from Father Max Carson, the chaplain at St. Albert Catholic School in Council Bluffs, who asked her to be the director of campus ministry there.

“It was the same ‘Go’ that I heard when I was young,” she said. “I perceived now that this is what the Lord was saying, this is what he wants, like he is asking me to ‘Go and make disciples.’”

So she came home – to the town where she had grown up and to St. Albert, the “Home on the Hill,” that she had attended. And she marvels at how generous God has been over the last year.

A life full of purpose and joy

The daughter of Mark and Susan Hopping, Katie was raised in Council Bluffs with her brother, Tyler. She has returned to St. Patrick Parish there, even though she lives in Omaha now.

After graduating from St. Albert in 2017, Hopping attended the University of Northern Iowa. She studied Communications and Media, with an emphasis in Public Relations, and had a job lined up in Omaha. The trajectory of her life changed, however, when she met the FOCUS missionaries at UNI.

She said she was struck by their joy, and how relatable they were. Soon she yearned to live their “life full of purpose and the fullness of joy.” When FOCUS invited her to join them in spreading the joy of the Gospel to other college and university students, she accepted.

Hopping spent two years with FOCUS at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and then two years at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She said it was a profound experience to see the students’ openness to what God wanted for them.

All about the “in between”

She has seen the same thing at St. Albert this year, and she said one of the biggest blessings has been the one-on-one conversations she has had with the students.

“It’s all about the ‘in between’ – the conversations between class, at the end of the school day, at retreats, off campus,” Hopping said. “The in between conversations have been my favorite because you can tangibly see that the Lord is working in their lives and to be a mediator for that.”

Her favorite role has been as the school’s Serva Fidem coordinator. The ministry, which invites students to form small groups for faith sharing with a mentor, just finished its first year at St. Albert. Currently there are 12 groups with 72 students involved.

“Right now, we’re looking at our amazing eighth-graders who are so excited to start Serva Fidem in their freshman year,” she said. “That’s what I’ll be doing this summer, is asking the Lord to provide mentors that will be leaders for these students.”

Hopping is particularly grateful for the leadership of Father Carson and the members of the Faith Formation Department at St. Albert, because they want the students “to really know Jesus and make him known.”

“Every time we get together it just feels like we’re one body. That’s what the Catholic Church is always after, to be one body because that’s what we were made for,” she said.

“When I say the Lord has been generous, I really mean it. In every facet of generosity, he has been good to me,” Hopping said.