Mission

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Meet the 2025-2026 FOCUS Missionaries

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2025-2026 FOCUS Missionaries to Hope College: Nicholas Fornarotto (Team Director), Katie Pattee, Katy Genna, and Patrick McCoy. Not pictured: Lily-Kate Prichard.

In the fall of 2023, the Saint Benedict Institute began a partnership with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), bringing FOCUS campus missionaries to Hope College.

The mission of FOCUS is “to know Christ Jesus and fulfill his Great Commission.” FOCUS does this by inviting college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church, inspiring and equipping them for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship, and friendship in which they lead others to do the same.

In the short time FOCUS has been on campus, hundreds of Hope students have attended their Bible studies as well as the annual FOCUS SEEK conference. We are grateful for their ministry!

Our 2025-2026 Focus Missionaries:

Nicholas Fornarotto
FOCUS Team Director

Nicholas Fornarotto grew up in Pocatello, Idaho. He graduated from Hope College in 2022 with a degree in mechanical engineering. During his time at Hope, Nicholas encountered Christ in the Eucharist through a friend. He went on to join the Catholic Church his senior year. After experiencing the love of God in the Church, he had a desire to share this love with others. With some prompting from friends, Nicholas looked into FOCUS and went on to become a missionary. He served his first year at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and is now in his second year at Hope College. He can be reached at nicholas.fornarotto@focus.org.

Patrick McCoy
Focus Missionary

Patrick McCoy grew up in Gonzales, Louisiana. He graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 2025 with a degree in computer science and a minor in secondary education. Patrick grew up in a Catholic household, but did not take the faith seriously until his sophomore year at Louisiana Tech, when his best friend invited him to a Thursday night Bible Study. During his junior year he got involved in a FOCUS Bible Study and discipleship, which taught him the importance of prayer and the sacraments. After really understanding the love of God in the church, he had a desire to share this love with others. After a few mission trips, retreats, and having FOCUS on campus, he looked into FOCUS and became a missionary to share the love that Christ has in him to the students at Hope College. Patrick can be reached at patrick.mccoy@focus.org.

Katie Pattee
Focus Missionary

Katie Pattee is from Lakeville, MN and graduated from South Dakota State University, where she earned a degree in mechanical engineering and competed on the swim team. During her time at SDSU, she came to recognize the love God has for His children and the need to share that with others. After graduating, she made the decision to become a missionary and is in her first year at Hope College. Katie can be reached at kathleen.pattee@focus.org.

Katy Genna
Focus Missionary

Katy Genna grew up in Boise, Idaho. She graduated from Benedictine College in the spring of 2023 with a degree in Theology and Evangelization. While in college, she had a powerful encounter with Jesus on a mission trip her junior year which made her fall in love with Jesus and mission. After that mission trip, she then pursued FOCUS and became a missionary. She served her first two years with FOCUS at Dickinson State University in North Dakota and is now in her third year at Hope College. She can be reached at katelyn.genna@focus.org.

Lily-Kate Pritchard
Focus Missionary

Lily-Kate Pritchard is originally from Orlando, Florida and Madison, Wisconsin. She is a December Grad at Hope College studying History Secondary Education and will complete her student teaching at Grand Rapids Catholic Central high school this fall. Lily-Kate grew up Catholic, but never practiced more than the “bare minimum.” Thanks to two Hope Catholic students–and later, a FOCUS missionary–Lily-Kate came to realize the depth of the Catholic faith and what it means to have a relationship with the Lord in prayer. Now, she hopes to share the life-changing truth of the love of God with other college students as a FOCUS missionary! She can be reached at lily.pritchard@focus.org

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2024-2025 Year in Review

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Campus Ministry

SBI’s campus ministry continued to flourish. More than 170 students attended FOCUS Bible studies, the number of Exodus and Genesis 90 participants rose to record levels, forty-three students attended the SEEK conference, and five students attended our annual retreat at Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Our public witness also continued: Our students once again built an ice altar in the Pine Grove, and we held our second Eucharistic Procession. Best of all, ten students came into the Church this year.

A Civil Dialogue on Sex and Gender

In October, the Saint Benedict Institute hosted lawyer John Bursch and scholar Dr. Megan DeFranza for an evening of civil dialogue on sex and gender. After a discussion moderated by SBI director Jared Ortiz, our guests answered questions from the audience.

Dominican Low Rite Mass

Dominican Low Rite Mass

This past autumn, Fr. Nicholas Monco, O.P. celebrated three low Masses in the Dominican Rite. This rarely celebrated variation on the Traditional Latin Mass is unique to the Order of Preachers. It contains several unusual gestures and rituals, including a moment when the priest holds his arms in a cruciform position.

SEEK Conference

Over Christmas, forty-three students, Fr. Nick, and our FOCUS missionaries traveled to Denver to attend the SEEK conference, hosted by FOCUS. SEEK draws thousands from across the country who come to learn and experience the love of Jesus Christ in and through His Church.

With Bishop Walkowiak at the SEEK Conference.

Third Annual Ice Altar

For the third year, Hope College students constructed an ice altar in Hope’s Pine Grove behind Graves Hall. Sadly, the first Mass celebrated on this year’s ice altar was a Requiem Mass for Jennifer Kasunick, a Hope student and SBI Genesis 90 participant, who died tragically on January 11. Please continue to pray for Jennifer, her family, and the Hope College community.

Third Annual Ice Altar

Exodus and Genesis 90

A record 264 Hope students participated in Exodus and Genesis 90 programs. Our Exodus 90 outreach included an additional 150 parishioners, alumni, and students from Notre Dame, Ferris State, Michigan State, GVSU, University of Michigan, Michigan Tech, Drake University, South Dakota State University, and Aquinas College.

Genesis 90

Keeping Our Personhood in the Age of AI

In March, the Saint Benedict Institute hosted Hillsdale College professor Dr. Jordan Joseph Wales for a lecture on AI and theology, which took up four questions. First, how does an apparently personal AI work? Second, what might this entity be? Third, what might we become, owning the behavior of apparent persons? Lastly, in a society saturated by such AI tools, how might we live in such a way as to enhance rather than to erode our own humanity?

Keeping Our Personhood in the Age of AI

Palestrina 500

In March, SBI co-sponsored the Hope College Chapel Choir’s performance at Palestrina 500, a year-long choral festival of sung High Masses in honor of the great Church composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Palestrina 500 was organized by Hope and SBI alumus Jonathan Bading and hosted by Sacred Heart Parish in Grand Rapids.

Sacred Music in a Secular Time

In April, Dr. Peter Kadeli, Head of Sacred Music and Director of Choral Activities at The Catholic University of America, spoke on the work of composer Paul Paray and his Mass setting in honor of St. Joan of Arc. Dr. Kadeli’s talk discussed the reasons Paray composed a concert Mass in the twentieth century, the relationship between nationalism and Christian faith, and how we might interpret sacred music composed for the stage. Dr. Kadeli’s talk was co-sponsored by Hope’s Music and Religion departments.

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