Throughout Lent, Meredith Kononchek and Isabel O’ Brien, sophomore roommates in Howard Hall, organized a chapel crawl to visit every residence hall chapel on campus between Ash Wednesday and the Paschal Triduum. While chapel crawl is a Howard Hall tradition.
As of Tuesday at 11 a.m., 209 students had attended at least one Mass as part of the chapel crawl, and 62 students had attended the five or more. This data precedes a visit to Duncan Hall that happened Tuesday and a visit to McGlinn Hall that will happen today.
Sorin College saw the highest attendance to date with 69 people in attendance as part of the chapel crawl. Kononchek noted that Liturgical Choir’s chapel crawl attended the same Sorin Mass, further driving up attendance.
Former University President Fr. Edward Malloy and priest-in-residence of Sorin College for the last 46 years, explained that the hall usually has about 40 people for a Thursday night, but Feb. 19 saw around 150 people.
O’Brien described the attendance at Sorin as “shocking,” and said that she had no idea what to expect going into it given it was the first stop of the crawl.
Students ventured to Masses all across campus.
O’Brien said she enjoyed seeing the variety of unique offerings each dorm had to offer.
Students who visited at least five of the official Masses were eligible to pick up a Howard Chapel Crawl T-shirt designed by sophomore Ambrose Weidmann.
O’Brien said they originally only ordered 50 shirts but will need to place another order as both demand and attendance exceeded expectations.
The group advertised the chapel crawl through Hall Presidents Council.
While this is not the first time Howard Hall has organized a chapel crawl, O’Brien said the fact that this is Howard Hall’s last year as a residence hall was a motivating factor for her to organize the crawl this year.
“Meredith and I will have a touch base after this Lent, but I think it has been such a cool experience, and I think it could be a really awesome thing to bring forward to Grojean,” she said. Howard residents will move into Grojean Hall this fall.
