“To form men and women of faith, service, and leadership in church and community.”

This is the Cardinal Gibbons mission statement and what students are supposed to take guidance in. But what does it really mean to be a Crusader?

Being a Crusader means more than wearing the uniform or attending class. It means living a life grounded in our mission. 

Our mission challenges each student to grow as a person of faith, to serve others with compassion, and to lead with integrity in both the church and the wider community. This mission is not just a set of words, but a daily call to action.

To break down the statement, there are three parts: faith, service, and leadership.

FAITH

“Faith is the theological virtue that we believe, even in what we don’t see.” says Fr. Luke. 

This theological virtue is the top priority students, educators, and humans should live by. It is the first adjective that represents the foundation of everything we do at Cardinal Gibbons.

We are called to live by faith in and out of the classroom.

To live by faith is to build a relationship with God.

“A person that doesn’t have a relationship with God is not just missing one thing or something, they are missing everything,” says Fr. Luke.

This relationship with God isn’t confined to chapel or religion class. It is present in the way we study, how we treat one another, and how we carry ourselves in the world. To form men and women of faith means to foster a deep, personal, and living connection with God.

Putting faith first in our mission statement means putting God first. 

“Someone who is missing that relationship with God,” Fr. Luke continues, “is missing out on what it means to just exist and to be human and to be living.”

Fr. Luke believes our mission is not only about preparing students academically or socially, but about forming individuals who can truly know, love, and follow God in all things. 

“Our mission is for people to be introduced or to encounter God, to get to know Him better, to fall in love with Him, and then to devote their whole lives to discovering what it is that He’s calling them to—and then to live that out,” he said.

This is what it means to form men and women of faith in church and community.

SERVICE

Service is caring for others around you. 

Acts of service further help not only the Gibbons community, but the outside world that needs it most. 

Service is a part of our mission statement because it is another base layer of the model we as students and as people should live out. 

Service leader Mrs. McElroy best describes it as, “I think that service is an important part of our mission statement because it’s a way that we’re active in our faith and in our leadership. We want to have this servant leadership mindset and our service comes through our faith. That’s why we serve.”

Serving others is the basis of our mission statement and our relationship with God. 

To be involved in service can happen inside or outside school. Joining clubs, participating in walks, and going to a site where individuals need help. 

Even more, service is where faith comes to life. It is the outward sign of an inward commitment to God. It forms the bridge between belief and action, showing the world what we stand for through how we treat others.

LEADERSHIP 

According to the leaders of Admissions Ambassadors, Ms. Gentile and Ms. Monroe see leadership as “someone who is supportive, innovative, and guides people.” 

They believe that there are different types of leaders like the typical “loud,” or the “silent” who can turn out to be the most impactful.

In our school mission statement, leadership is a key quality but is also prioritized behind faith and service. To be a leader is to put others first. Faith and service both provide a platform to become a leader and serve out God’s mission everyday.

“I think it’s developing your skill sets to highlight where you shine,” Gentile said. “When I think of our mission statement, it gives (students) in their four years to all have different experiences to grow and transform into who they are, but also what type of leader they’re going to be when moving into college and then their job and how they’re gonna interact with people. It’s almost like growing and transforming students for the real world.”

To be a Crusader means putting God at the center of your life and letting your faith guide your decisions, relationships, and goals. It means stepping outside yourself to care for others, recognizing that real strength comes from compassion and humility. And it means being a leader; not for the sake of recognition, but to build up the people and world around you.

It means asking: How can I live not just for myself, but for a greater purpose?

That is the true definition of being a Cardinal Gibbons Crusader.