Joseph Geelen

Fr. Joseph Geelen

When I think of a university chaplaincy, the first image that comes to mind is that of an INN, in other words, a place where travelers stop on their journey to restore themselves and regain the necessary strength to continue his or her journey in better conditions.

After all, our 'backpack' fills up quickly: with good experiences, with joyful experiences, but sometimes also with less joyful experiences, with problems large and small, with questions about the how and the why, with disappointments, with sorrow etc. My image of a university chaplaincy as an inn makes me the one who would like to offer you a platform where you can put your backpack down, where you can tell your story, where you can entrust your questions in all discretions and in all confidence.

But my role as university chaplain is hopefully more than just being an Inn-keeper by offering you a chair to sit on and more than only offering you something to drink and a listening ear! If you are open to it, there is the possibility to walk a bit together, so we can search together for points of light and understanding of what is going on in your spiritual life. We call this SPIRITUAL COUNSELING: by making regular appointments we can search together for answers, meaning and sense to your most essential questions by drawing from the font of Christian spirituality.

Our chaplaincy is broadly based… just like our university. This means that we do not distinguish between who would be welcome or not. Nevertheless we are challenged to learn from each other. Just like an inn, a university chaplaincy is also a meeting place, a Church in the broad sense of the word: you are taken care of individually, but also as a community person. It doesn't get any better!

For individual counseling and/or for more specific Catholic-related questions, I can be reached at the address below; You can write to me in Dutch, English, French, German or Italian.
I am absent on Fridays and Saturdays; Sunday Mass is always at 5 p.m.

Fr. Joseph Geelen c.r.l.,
Priest and RC University Chaplain
T: 024-3619188
E:  joseph.geelen@ru.nl

Fr. Joseph was interviewed by the student project Nieuwsfront about the consequences of the corona virus for the University Chaplaincy: online services, digital activities and counseling from a distance. You can watch the interview (in Dutch) here.