Your Diocese

JOLIET—Participating in various competitions, the energized seventh graders ran back and forth across the gym floor inside Joliet Catholic Academy. Later, the lively students clapped and shouted as they belted out Christian songs from the bleachers within the sports complex.

Sponsored by the Joliet diocesan Religious Education Office, the faith-enriching evening’s theme was “Survivor: It’s a Jungle Out There.”

Loosely modeled after the heart-pounding television program, the aim of the March 2 event was to prove to the young people that the “tools” for “surviving” the trials and temptations of the upcoming teen years are: regular prayer, reception of the sacraments and Scripture studies, along with acts of community service and fellowship with others, said Mark Merwaldt, a consultant for the diocesan agency and youth minister at Corpus Christi Parish in Carol Stream.

Even after the keynote speaker had arrived on the stage for his presentation, the over 250 seventh graders were still excited from the earlier events of the evening.

After asking the kids what they knew about the television competition, recognized by countless viewers as “Survivor,” Ben Schumann finally announced, “I’m going to tell you guys a story.” Utilizing the popular jargon from the show, the speaker continued, “This is a story of a specific time in my life when I was almost permanently ‘kicked off.’ ”

Clarifying his statements, the 23-year-old survivor of the 1999 Columbine massacre told the young people that he was a sophomore at the high school near Littleton, Colo., when the shootings occurred. Two students claimed the lives of 12 classmates and one teacher and wounded 24 others.

In an instant, the gym was silent as the seventh graders from the Diocese of Joliet listened while the member of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Littleton began relaying his personal account of the infamous incident. Moments before the shooting began, Schumann said he and his friends were eating lunch in the cafeteria. Still spiritually pumped from a Catholic retreat he had attended earlier that week, he prepared to pray before eating his meal. “I didn’t care who was watching me. I’m Catholic and I’m proud of it,” he said. Before he could begin the words, he recalled having a “kick-you-in-the-stomach feeling” that something was wrong in the school. He said he immediately told his buddies, “We need to start praying right now.”

Ten seconds later, teachers and janitors came running into the cafeteria. “They told everybody to get under the tables,” Schumann recalled. When the bullets began spattering across the room, the students started running. The assailants “were already in the cafeteria and they were shooting at us.”

Moving faster than many of the others, Schumann said he somehow made his way outside of the school. “I should be dead. I should not be standing here before you,” he told the seventh graders. “I should be dead,” he repeated.

After the shooting the police discovered that two propane bombs had been planted by the shooters in the cafeteria. “The bombs didn’t explode,” said Schumann. Officers of the bomb squad couldn’t explain why the devices hadn’t detonated. Following an examination of the explosives, they did reveal that if the planned bombing had actually occurred, the blast would have destroyed the cafeteria as well as the library and a portion of the science hall. School officials estimated that more than 700 kids would have lost their lives if the bombs had exploded, he added.

“There were angels in that school that day. There were angels that kept those bombs from going off. There were angels that protected all the kids,” said Schumann.

Following the school shooting, Schumann turned to his Catholic faith for strength, guidance and healing. “My faith is the only thing that got me through it,” he stressed. “My faith is the only thing that kept me from losing who I am, from going off the deep end, from taking my own life.”

While he coped with what had happened, Schumann said he discovered that faith in Christ isn’t an abstract idea or concept. “Jesus Christ is real,” he told the young people. The Lord “wants to have the greatest friendship with you that you could ever imagine.”

Since the tragic incident, Schumann told the kids in attendance he has learned that people have choices when it comes to dealing with difficulties in life. He encouraged the seventh graders to “move on” through problems. “Moving on means to take those memories and use them to help you and encourage you in your walk with God,” he told them. The opposite is to rely on drugs, alcohol, premarital sex and other behaviors to cope with loss and other tragedies. “These are not the things that are going to bring you guys life. And, God wants life for you.”

“That was an amazing talk,” said Tony Bandos. The 16-year-old member of the youth group at St. Jude Parish in New Lenox and junior at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox was among the 30 high school students who had volunteered to help run the event. Schumann’s emotional presentation was “something that I’ll never experience again,” he added.

The shooting experience “is still clear as day” in Schumann’s mind, he told the Catholic Explorer in an interview. He said that tragedy and the way he personally coped inspired him to reach out to others. Following graduation from Columbine High School in 2000, he began priestly formation. Two years later, he decided that pursuing the priesthood wasn’t his calling. Christian service and evangelization were still his focus, however, after leaving the seminary, he said.

With members of Family Mission, a lay Catholic mission group, he participated in door-to-door evangelization efforts on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean and later on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. In some places, Catholics hadn’t practiced their faith in years. “There was no catechesis. The people were starving to hear the word,” he said.

Six months ago, Schumann returned stateside. He and his friend, Derek Lucero, recently joined forces to create Across the Divide Ministries, a traveling retreat program. The event in Joliet was his first presentation as a speaker for the ministry. “I’m a little nervous,” he admitted before his talk.

Planning to continue his education in youth ministry studies to enhance the infant retreat program, Schumann vowed, “I’m going to keep doing this until I die.”