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When students come to Gannon, they become part of a community that is guided by 2000 years of Christian wisdom and tradition. While students come from diverse religious backgrounds, and explore the world of contemporary ideas, the University is grounded in the Catholic vision of life – its meaning, its purpose, its value.

• Students are surrounded by a strong faith community. Approximately 60% of our undergraduate students identify themselves as Catholic; the remaining students are from other faith and spiritual traditions. The University faculty and staff include ten priests and five religious sisters who model the integration of faith with reason, spiritual vitality, and moral responsibility. Chaplains assist in providing spiritual direction and the formation of a Christian conscience.

 

• The two Theology courses students take help them to appreciate the Judeo-Christian tradition, recognize faith as an essential component of human existence, and invite them to integrate theological values into professional and personal decisions.

 

• Through Gannon’s signature LIFECORE program, students experience and are encouraged to model a healthy spiritual lifestyle. This experience involves a search for the meaning of life through which a system of internalized values, beliefs and attitudes are formed. This includes the ability to discover and articulate one's own basic purpose in life; learning how to experience love, joy, peace, and fulfillment; knowing how to help one’s self and others achieve full potential, personally and professionally.

 

• The University has a vibrant Campus Ministry office which includes staff from Catholic and Protestant churches. Campus ministry provides opportunities for faith development through daily and weekend liturgies, retreats and Bible studies.

 

• The Gannon campus is nestled in a neighborhood of Christian churches. Within several blocks from campus, students can find the Catholic cathedral, the Episcopal cathedral, and Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran churches. Not far from campus are Jewish temples as well as Orthodox, Byzantine, Baptist, Assembly of God and Pentecostal churches, among others.

 

• As a Catholic university, we have a distinctive motive for pursuing the work of higher education, a distinctive way of doing it, and a distinctive goal in mind:
  • Our motive is rooted in the inherent harmony between faith and reason – that as we learn more, we can believe more firmly; and as we believe more deeply, we are ready to learn more courageously.
  • Our way of doing higher education is found in the conviction of the inherent dignity of the human person.
  • Our goal is to extend and deepen the transformation allowed by Christ’s redemptive work, i.e. to become more human and to become more like God.

In the midst of a rapidly changing and complicated world, Gannon prepares students for the challenges that await them – both professional choices and personal decisions. Our Catholic identity provides a firm foundation to evaluate the merits of innovations and the value of tradition.