ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Thirty-three-year-old Niclas Eichmuller has always felt called to mission work, but he also wanted to have a family. "European Mission Campus has shown me how to do it," he told EWTN News.
The European Mission Campus (EMC), based in Vienna, Austria, draws inspiration from St. John Paul II's "vision of lay vocation, mission, and holiness," said Father Mark Thelen, a Michigan native who leads the effort in Europe.
In an interview, Thelen said he brought Eichmuller, 33, and two other EMC students to the United States in December 2025 to expose them to American models of evangelization and lay ministry. They visited Renewal Ministries, Legatus, Encounter Ministries, and Christ the King Parish in Michigan as well as Damascus Summer Camp in Ohio.
"They were inspired to see so much involvement and leadership by lay missionaries. In Europe, there are a lot more clergy involved, which isn't bad, but they are not accustomed to lay leadership," Thelen said.
EMC, which is managed by Abby Randolph, also based in Michigan, is part of Regnum Christi, a clerical religious institute dedicated to emulating the early Church and forming mission-driven individuals and being a "living fraternity" to renew the Church through spiritual and human support to missionaries.
"Europe needs missionaries," Thelen told a 2025 retreat. "We will not change Europe without community, and we will not experience relationships that are worthwhile without true community," he said.
EMC was founded in 2024 but saw its first class of students in September 2025. Five students are expected to join later this year. Instruction is given online and in person by Legion of Christ clergy and consecrated laity, shared with the Legion's Johannes Paul II Center in Vienna.
EMC students receive three years of formation for missionary service, which Thelen described as a "pastoral MBA" to equip them for full-time lay ministry. EMC students are university graduates, mostly under the age of 30.
Anna Romero, 24, from Spain, told EWTN News that at the age of 8, she joined her family on a Neocatechumenal Way mission to Papua New Guinea. At 18, she experienced a "personal call from Christ to conversion."
"I realized that I wanted to do more with my life," she recalled. "Life is more than about studying and working."
After graduating from university, Romero discerned a call. "I decided to give my life to sharing the Gospel and what God has done for me," she said.
Last year, she entered EMC's first class, which has a curriculum ranging from Scripture to faith-based time management. One key component is "Renewal of the Mind," which draws on the teachings of St. John Paul II.
Romero said EMC formation emphasizes "hearing God's voice," discerning his plan, and living out the Christian vocation as "king, priest, and prophet," even outside ordained or religious life.
EMC participants seek support through "mission partnership development," which builds teams of cooperators committed to prayer and financial backing. Fundraising and group dynamics are part of EMC formation. In European countries, the Church often receives government funding. Therefore, lay missionaries must generally raise their own support.
Romero and the others were impressed by how much American Catholics give to their parishes and missionaries. She said of the trip: "I learned so many useful things. There is a sense of confidence and clarity about evangelization in the U.S.," she said. She saw "a more lively faith" there than in Spain, where "if there aren't professed religious, Opus Dei, or Neocatechumenal Way, there isn't much parish life."
"I would love to start a program in Spain to train young people for missions ... I want to awaken a mission spirit among young people and all the baptized," she said.
EMC student Nina Sole-Martino, 23, first received missionary formation as a camper and staffer at Damascus Summer Camp in Centerburg, Ohio.
"I am open to the Lord's plans for me, and EMC will help to discern my path," she said. She said she wants to "reconfigure my thinking and others' to the mind of God. This means, for example, "changing how we speak to others and even how we speak to ourselves."
Quoting Proverbs 18:21, she said: "Life and death are in the power of the tongue."
Romero said religious vocation is a gift to the Church, but the Church also needs the laity.
"Laypeople in the world are called to collaborate with the Church," she said. "Laypeople are also a light to the world, as families and single people. Some laypeople, but not all laity, are called to be full-time missionaries. We also need saints who are doctors, teachers, and workers. Priests and the religious want and need their support."
