FEATURED
Key Takeaways
- A Catholic nonprofit, Word on Fire, has donated over 31,000 Bibles to campus ministry centers at secular colleges in the past two years, aiming to counteract young adults leaving Catholicism during college.
- This year, Word on Fire has already donated over 5,000 Bibles and plans to donate a total of 10,000
- The specially-designed Bibles contain features to engage college students, with insightful commentary and original artwork to deepen their understanding of scripture.
The Catholic nonprofit Word on Fire has donated more than 31,000 Bibles to campus ministry centers at secular college campuses since August 2023, a spokesperson told The College Fix.
Spokesperson Michael Hensley said the campaign is directed toward college students in response to the high numbers of young adults leaving Catholicism during their college years.
Nearly 80 percent of former Catholics abandon the faith before they are 23 years old, according to Word on Fire’s website.
The nonprofit is seeking to resolve this faith crisis by donating Bibles to campus ministries and missionaries to share with students, Hensley said.
“The Word on Fire Bible is ideal for college students because of its many features that immerse the reader more fully in the Word of God,” he said.
It “includes insightful commentary from scholars, saints, Bishop Robert Barron, and others right alongside the Biblical text,” he said.
He also told The Fix that the Bible “includes full color reproductions of religious art with explanatory essays to give context as well as word studies to provide the original meaning of common words in well-known Bible passages.”
“We have heard from countless students, missionaries, and campus ministers about how this project has positively impacted their communities and individual faith lives,” he said.
This year, Word on Fire is on its way to reaching a goal of donating 10,000 Bibles to campus ministry centers, with over 5,000 copies already donated.
In 2025, the nonprofit is “partnering with more than 100 Catholic campus ministry centers at colleges and universities across the country (and one in Canada!) to provide copies of The Gospels to college students,” its website states.
Another Catholic organization, the Cardinal Newman Society, has expressed strong support for Word on Fire’s efforts. The society focuses on promoting “faithful Catholic education,” including by publishing a list of recommended Catholic colleges, according to its website.
“It is a great work Word on Fire is doing by getting Bibles into the hands of college students at non-Newman Guide Recommended colleges,” spokesperson Kelly Salomon told The Fix via email.
Salomon believes that the accessibility of The Word on Fire Bibles and similar programs enables them to meet the growing challenge of reaching students at secular universities.
The growth of other projects “like the Bible Timeline and The Bible in a Year Podcast have helped make the Bible more approachable, perhaps than ever,” she said.
“And the response shows that men and women are hungry for this knowledge, especially given the hostility for Christianity on today’s secular campuses,” Salomon said.
This Bible distribution initiative is a further continuation of Word on Fire’s special mission to reach young adults and to support and educate them in their faith.
Founded by Bishop Robert Barron, Word on Fire is a global evangelical ministry that uses modern media and “innovative communication technologies,” while drawing on “the tremendous resources of the Roman Catholic tradition–art, architecture, poetry, philosophy, and theology, and the lives of the saints”—to inspire and deepen faith in Catholicism, according to its website.
