St. Joseph the Worker College to repurpose Masonic temple into shrine, restaurant, theater

A Catholic trade school set to renovate a Masonic temple, Franciscan University prepares for its Truth of Love conference in Austria, and more in this week’s Catholic education roundup.

St. Joseph the Worker College in Steubenville, Ohio, plans to renovate a former Masonic temple into a public theater, restaurant, and Catholic shrine.

A college representative said the idea took shape after Jacob Imam, president and founder, began praying a novena and walking around the building each workday, often returning on weekends with his family “like the Israelites circling Jericho.” Spokesperson Wes Cimmarrusti said Imam’s daily prayer‑walks preceded an unexpected call from the Freemasons within a month, asking whether he would consider buying the property.

“We totally credit the favor and the opportunity to the intercession of St. Joseph and the power of prayer,” Cimmarrusti said.

The Catholic trade school has raised $1 million and signed a purchase agreement with the Freemasons of Steubenville to buy the property in January 2027. While no date has been set for the project’s completion, the college seeks to raise an additional $3 million to fully renovate the space. The renovated building will include a 500-seat auditorium that will be open to the public for artistic performances, academic lectures, and civic ceremonies. The building will also feature a restaurant, Clement’s Café, named after Pope Clement XII, the first pope to condemn the Freemasons. There will also be a shrine that will display a replica of the Shroud of Turin. The college said it plans to ask a priest to bless the building.

Franciscan University to host conference in Austria on Christian healing

Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, will host its sixth annual Truth of Love Conference in Gaming, Austria.

The Sept. 4–6 conference, “Toward a Theology of Healing,” will center on “wounds that touch the whole human person, including loneliness, mortality, physical suffering, and abuse and other sins.” Speakers will draw from Scripture to “explore how healing is found through encounters with others and ultimately with Jesus Christ,” according to a press release from the university.

“In the Gospel, Our Lord Jesus described himself as a physician and us, whom he saves, as the sick, whom he has come to heal (Matt. 9:12). And St. Ignatius of Antioch presented the Eucharist as the ‘medicine of immortality,’” said Stephen Hildebrand, provost and professor of theology at Franciscan University. “These are more than metaphors, for our ultimate salvation consists in the healing, the making whole, of the human person, body and soul, and the human community.”

“The Truth of Love Conference promises to be a rich exploration of this theme at the heart of the Christian message: Even in the midst of suffering and death, God will restore us and make us whole,” he said.

Catholic campus ministry group names centers for inaugural service and justice grants

The Catholic Campus Ministry Association has awarded three ministries its first‑ever Service and Justice Innovation Grant, created to “transform how Catholic campus ministries approach service and justice as expressions of evangelization, not just programming.”

The inaugural 2026-2027 grants will go to the Catholic Student Center at Washington University in St. Louis; the St. Paul Catholic Center at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana; and to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“Service and justice aren’t add-ons to the Catholic mission, they’re at its heart,” said Rosie Chinea Shawver, executive director of the association. “What they build this year will shape how campus ministers across the country form the next generation of Catholic leaders.”

Each recipient will receive a one-year $5,000 grant “to design, implement, and evaluate a new or revitalized service and justice initiative.” The grant stipulates that each recipient will “function as a national think tank, learning together, pressure-testing ideas, and building a shared body of knowledge that extends far beyond their own programs.”

The program will begin with a conference at the University of San Diego, where each campus will send two student leaders and one campus minister for formation and training.