“Everybody knows that a cup of coffee is a ticket to sit in a chair at a table for as long as you possibly want,” he said. “If I can make that ticket cheaper than any other ticket in town, now all of a sudden I have somebody who’s sitting there, who wouldn’t have sat there for the next six hours, observing what the culture of Catholic Church is.”
“[It’s] a place for us to engage the community,” Mussett said. “We all know that it’s so easy to get trapped in the Catholic bubble. The world’s a little scary.”
Drogo’s gives students a chance to live out their faith and extend an invitation to someone new while still being in a familiar environment.
“Invitation is the most powerful gift that we have been given by God, and teaching other people to invite into the light is the great joy of our work here,” Mussett said.
Amid the temptation to be insular in the harsh environment of Boulder, St. Tom’s stays outwardly focused, said Hilary Draftz, former student and FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionary at CU. Draftz is now the west area director for FOCUS, meaning she oversees 46 teams of missionaries, including the team at CU.
“It is a light in the darkness,” Draftz said. “The cultural opposition makes faith shine all the brighter.”
FOCUS has had a presence on campus for the last 24 years, Draftz said. The vibrancy of the center complements the work of the FOCUS missionaries.
“It frees up the missionaries to be the hands and feet on campus,” she said. Instead of spending time planning the events, the missionaries can concentrate on outreach while always having something to invite students to.
The parish has six students who are in the process of becoming Catholic this year.
Mussett is also a key part of the center’s success, Draftz said.
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“He’s a very human priest,” she said. “He’s so confident being himself.”
She described some of his quirky hobbies: jeeping, art, and jiu jitsu — where he even brought his sensei through RCIA.
“God wants to do amazing things through us,” Mussett said. “He’s not limited to us, but he loves working with us and doing great things. We are here to both foster and to catch those who experience grace.”
Mussett and St. Tom’s make an impact on young men opening their lives to vocation, but it’s more than that.
“There are on-fire disciples coming out of St. Tom’s,” Draftz said. Dynamic families and laypeople having an impact on the archdiocese are among the fruits from Boulder — not just priestly vocations.