Inside the Core: Core and Campus Ministry Host Talk on Pilgrimage

Inside the Core we look forward to a special presentation on Monday, December 1, 2025. Professor Josephine DeVito, Ph.D., R.N., associate professor of nursing and Core faculty member on the pilgrimage she took this October to the Marian shrines at Lourdes and Fatima. The presentation will be held at 1 p.m. in the Campus Ministry Lounge in Boland Hall.  The event is co-sponsored by the University Core and Campus Ministry. The event will also be available on Teams.

Josephine DeVito has been a nursing professor for decades and a faculty member in the Core for many years. She is passionate about linking her work as a nurse and healer with teaching students about the values and meaning underlying Core classes, rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition in conversation with other perspectives. Faith is, in fact, a central focus in all Core classes, as the study of the texts continually leads back to questions like what is good, what is evil?  Who is God and what is my relationship with God?  What is community?  These kinds of questions are deeply linked to faith, ultimately inspired by faith, and it is faith that was the motivation for Professor. DeVito’s pilgrimage.  

She says: 

I welcome you to join in my pilgrimage to Lourdes and Fatima which was a journey visiting two major Marian shrines, including daily Mass, rosary, prayer, candlelight processions and tours of the Grotto at Lourdes and the Sanctuary of Fatima. Our Blessed Mother welcomes all of us to come to her.  She is with us always and her message to the children at these holy shrines continues for all of us today.  Join us in the reflection of what we need in our lives as we ponder the messages of Fatima and Lourdes.

This pilgrimage would seem to be linked to Josephine DeVito’s important commitment to serving as a Eucharistic Minister in her parish, as both this pilgrimage and that ministry are expressions of deep faith that also have links to healing. She published an article, in fact, about this ministry in Today’s American Catholic; here is the link to that article. As you can see, faith motivates Professor DeVito’s ministry to the people she helps and that was also the motivation of her pilgrimage.

Please join us for this very special presentation by our valued Core faculty member as she shares her profound spiritual experience with us. 

Categories: Faith and Service