Successful faith program expands

April 19, 2025

by Jennifer Willems

An academic understanding of theology is important, but living a life of faith is dependent on having a relationship with Jesus.

This becomes vital as young people travel though high school and make the transition to college  and beyond.

For eight years, Dowling Catholic High School has been helping students deepen that relationship through a program formally called Ut Fidem, now called Serva Fidem. Taken from 2 Timothy 4:7, it means “keep the faith”

Over the years, the program has grown to become a separate foundation based in West Des Moines and has expanded to include eight other Catholic high schools. If all goes according to plan, it will be piloted in three parishes in the greater Des Moines area this fall.

“We are so grateful to Dowling for its role in creating this community, and for the gift that Dowling has given to the American Church,” said Nathan Beacom, executive director. “While the Serva Fidem foundation undergoes this development with our name, Dowling continues to operate under the name Ut Fidem, but within full harmony with our network of schools.”

Following the example of Jesus

Addie Croegaert now serves as Serva Fidem Director of Schools, but in 2017 she was the original coordinator for Ut Fidem at Dowling Catholic.

She said it is based on the model of discipleship seen in Scripture, where Jesus called his apostles, who then shared the faith with their followers, and so on. “This model multiplies out – it doesn’t stay within a few,” Croegaert explained.

At Dowling Catholic, this happens with small groups of five or six students, same gender and grade, meeting with a mentor for an hour each week. A handful of the mentors are on the faculty or staff, but the majority are adults who come from various walks of life within the Catholic community.

There were many good things already happening at Dowling Catholic in terms of religion, theology classes, and retreats, Croegaert said, but Ut Fidem took it to the next level.

“We needed something to help them engage in their faith daily. We needed something that would help teach them how to pray, give them a place where they could ask questions about the beliefs and decide for themselves whether or not they were worth accepting fully,” she said. “And if they did accept them, what would that mean on a very practical level?”

For example, if communion is truly Jesus’ body and blood, then we’re not going to miss Mass on Sunday and will probably desire to go throughout the week, Croegaert said, adding, “There are ramifications for accepting these beliefs.”

Saw “undeniable joy” others had

While Ut Fidem started with four small groups at the end of 2017 and had 17 the following May, today there are 63 small groups at the school – 40 with female students and 23 with male students, according to Kirby Gepson, a former Ut Fidem Coordinator. She added that there are 23 groups of seniors, 20 groups of juniors, 18 groups of sophomores, and two groups of freshmen, who are still finding their way at Dowling.

In all, 350 students are involved, which is about one-quarter of the student body. It is the largest student activity at Dowling, she said.

A Dowling grad herself, Gepson said she was part of an Ut Fidem group from April 2018 until she left to study strategic communications at the University of Missouri that August. Even that short time made a difference, she said.

“I could see these people in my life who had this undeniable joy in their faith lives,” she recalled. “I had always heard about having a relationship with God, but I didn’t know how to get what they had.”

“I knew I wanted to be Catholic, but I didn’t know where to begin. I think that’s the case for a lot of high schoolers I see,” Gepson said. “They want to have a life committed to God, but they don’t know how to get there or how to begin.”

Ut Fidem – and now Serva Fidem – works so well because it leads to an authentic relationship with someone who is a little older and living their own discipleship with Jesus. “That overflows,” she said.

Even if the students don’t have it all figured out by the time they leave high school, they know where they can go to continue to foster that relationship with God, she explained.

And it’s working, Beacom said.

Working with a research firm to study the ministry’s impact, Serva Fidem leaders found that students who participate in a group are more than twice as likely to remain engaged in their faith and attend Mass, as opposed to students who haven’t been part of a Serva Fidem group.

The seeds planted at Dowling Catholic continue to grow.

Serva Fidem has been picked up by Holy Family High School in Bloomfield, Colorado; Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Father Gabriel Richard High School in Ann Arbor, and Lansing Catholic High School in Lansing, both in Michigan; Regis Catholic High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Wahlert Catholic High School in Dubuque, Newman Catholic School in Mason City, and Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids, all in Iowa.