By ANDREW HANSEN 
Editor 

When Father Rob Johnson, chaplain of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) Newman Community and pastor of Mother of Perpetual Help in Maryville, arrived at the Vatican on Oct. 21, he didn’t know if he would meet Pope Leo XIV as Father Johnson was there for the public papal audience on Oct. 22. He had put in a request to meet Pope Leo through private channels but never heard back officially from the Vatican. That changed when he picked up his envelope with audience tickets and found something else inside that he didn’t expect.

 “I opened it, and this is not a joke, there was a golden ticket in it,” Father Johnson said.

That golden ticket led him to an unforgettable meeting with the Holy Father and a special blessing on what could become the cornerstone of a future Newman Center at SIUE. Father Johnson, trusting the Holy Spirit, paid for a plaque with an engraving that said, “Do not be afraid! Catholic Student Center at SIUE. Blessed by His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV. October 22, 2025. St. Peter’s Square, Rome. Feast of St. John Paul II.” 

“Maybe the funniest part of the encounter was after I shook his hand and told him, ‘Thank you,’ I went to walk off the stage without him blessing the plaque, and Pope Leo stopped me, actually. He said, ‘Hey. Let’s bless your cornerstone here.’ Then he blessed the cornerstone and touched it, and then I went off.”

The meeting was the culmination of a dream that began months earlier. “The idea came early in summer,” Father Johnson said. “I planned a pilgrimage for the Jubilee year with just a couple friends that had invited me to go with them. So, as we started to plan out the trip, we realized we were going to be there on the feast day of St. John Paul II.”

With growing momentum and student involvement at the SIUE Newman Community, Father Johnson dreamed of something bold. 

“We’ve had all this growth happening with the Newman Community at SIUE and have a dream to have a building — a student center — in some capacity,” he said. (Right now, students attend Mass at Mother of Perpetual Help.) “We have a lot of conversations going right now about exactly where the building can be located, but it was like, well, why don’t we just start with the end in mind and start by going all the way to the top? What if Pope Leo would bless what could be a future cornerstone for a student center there?”

When the meeting finally came, Father Johnson approached the Holy Father with deep peace. “I walked up and got to kiss the fisherman’s ring on the pope, which was very cool. I said, ‘Good morning, Holy Father.’ And he said, ‘Good morning.’ I told him that I was from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois and my name. He visibly perked up at ‘Illinois.’ He said, ‘Oh, Illinois,’ and he smiled.”’

Father Johnson shared briefly about the thriving Catholic community at SIUE for about one minute. “I told him that I am the chaplain for the Newman Community at SIUE, and at this point, we have hundreds of students in Bible studies and all these good things happening, and we really want to get a student center built and was just asking for his prayers and his blessing today.”

The moment was calm, reverent, and deeply human. 

“It’s been very cool to reflect on, just the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders and the fact that for one minute, he was engaged and sincerely praying for this very part of the kingdom that I get to be a part of. 

“It felt very much like meeting a spiritual father,” he added. “He seemed quiet, very kind. I did not feel nervous in the encounter, and it was really fun.”

This moment and the blessed plaque hopefully will mark the beginning of something much bigger for Catholic students at SIUE.

“It’s just it’s an awesome mission to be part of,” Father Johnson said. “We’ve just seen, especially in the last year and a half, a lot of growth with small group Bible studies. We started the fall of 2024 with a little under 100 students in Bible study. We ended last year (spring 2025) with just over 200. Right now, at least how the fall is going, we’re on pace to double again. It’s a fun thing to be a part of because we’re outgrowing spaces.”

Through it all, Father Johnson says he continues to see God’s providence at work. 

“God gives us the resources we need to be saints. And so, we live in that,” Father Johnson said. “To someday have an actual student center in some capacity would just be to make visible this reality of what’s going on in the hearts of students.”

Learn more/donate at siuecatholic.org.