The Fratican: Where Faith, Friendship and Formation Shaped Four Vocations at the University of Denver
- Guest Contributor
- 1d
- 8 min read
Four college roommates at the University of Denver made the unusual choice to live a rule of life rooted in prayer, virtue and radical Catholic fraternity. What began as a surprising experiment in shared faith became a lasting source of vocation, healing and grace — changing the course of their lives.
By Kristine Newkirk
It was Alex Aleman’s turn to make dinner at the Fratican, an off-campus rectory apartment he shared with three other Catholic men — Carl Berner, James Joseph and Jack Collins (now Br. Philip). But Alex had forgotten.
As James tells it, Alex was attending a Chipotle-catered leadership event at the University of Denver (DU) when the evening’s dinner guest arrived at the Fratican. A reminder buzzed on Alex’s phone: it was his night to cook.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said.
As the event wrapped up, organizers offered leftover food to attendees. Alex didn’t miss a beat: “I’ll take it all!” He returned home with arms full of Chipotle.
“We had a feast — it couldn’t have turned out any better. The Lord always provides,” James recalled.
And indeed, the Lord provided in the lives of the Fratican Four — from guacamole to grace, from salsa to sacraments, from burritos to brotherhood. That generous provision reflects a deeper truth of Christian life: we are not meant to walk alone. Whether discerning a vocation or living out our faith, grace flourishes in community, in formation.
In this spirit, the Fratican Four chose to walk their individual paths to religious vocation together in a house of discernment.
“I can’t quite describe how it all came together,” Carl said. “The Holy Spirit was present in the creation of the Fratican house.”
A Brotherhood Begins
The Fratican Four met through the University of Denver’s Catholic Campus Ministries, where they were active participants in a close-knit faith community. While the Catholic student population at DU is relatively small, Br. Philip described it as a surprisingly rich spiritual environment, one that is well-supported by dedicated spiritual leaders and mentors.
“It’s small but strong,” he said.
Their friendship quickly became an intentional brotherhood. The four men committed to living out peer ministry and fellowship under the same roof, all the while working their way through the demands of college life. Under the guidance of the Servants of Christ Jesus — a Denver-based religious community — they developed a written rule of life for house living shaped by three questions: What are our responsibilities to God, each other and the community?
The rule called for shared prayer, meals, hospitality, formation and accountability in their spiritual lives, and was anchored by a commitment to hold each other to a high standard of holiness and integrity.
“It wasn’t your typical college guy house,” Br. Philip laughed. “We kept it clean. We had rules. There was a certain order to our lives.”
Carl, whom his former housemates credit as the instigator of the arrangement, remembered how effortlessly it all came together.
“It speaks volumes of how natural it is for men to desire common life. By God’s grace, we were all on the same page about living this way,” he said.
The Fratican became a house of discernment, fraternity and spiritual growth. Each man had a spiritual director, and the Servants offered weekly formation.
“We were being poured into and informed by the brothers and fathers in the Servants of Christ Jesus,” Br. Philip recalled.
The Servants expected the men, in turn, to make disciples in the community around them.
“The house was anointed with a spirit of hospitality and chastity,” Carl said.
It became a space where guests felt safe and welcomed, and where young men found lasting inspiration to serve.
Despite their youth, the men were united in purpose.
“It’s rare to find that kind of harmony of minds in the world,” James reflected. “It was a grace that we said yes, we’re going to live in community, we’re going to live 100% for God, and we’re going to support each other in that, in a mature and virtuous way.”
As for the name “Fratican,” its origin depends on whom you ask. Carl recalled the name being coined by a friend who left a note thanking them for hosting him in the “Fratican” — a home where people can be “radically Catholic” and experience “authentic fraternity and friendship.” James attributed the name to a former resident of the Fratican. Either way, the mash-up of “fraternity” and “Vatican” stuck, and so did the mission.
And yet, as James noted, “The Lord really had his own plan for each one of us.”
Conversion in Encounter
Jack’s journey to becoming Br. Philip was far from linear. Raised outside the Church, he began exploring non-denominational Christianity during his sophomore year at the University of Denver. One missed service, though, led him to spontaneously visit the campus Catholic Mass, where he found “Ted-talk-style” preaching to be conspicuously absent.
“There was a depth in the worship — and then someone actually talked to me,” he recalled.
As he tried to slip out unnoticed, a brother from the Servants of Christ Jesus stopped him. That brief encounter sparked a new journey. Soon, Jack was meeting weekly with Father Paul Kostka, a Navy chaplain and priest with the Servants, who answered his questions with clarity and masculine conviction.
“He was just normal and real,” Br. Philip said.
After a lightning round RCIA experience, Jack was baptized into the Catholic Church by Easter of his sophomore year. His mother, a fallen-away Catholic, attended the baptism and later returned to the faith herself, moved by the witness of her son’s conversion.
By his senior year, Jack had discerned a call to religious life with what he knew — the Servants of Christ Jesus. The Servants are a growing order whose members take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. What drew him in, he said, was “the radicality of how they were living out their religious life — the vows, the missionary aspect, the fact that these were men who wanted to do anything on the ground to expand the Kingdom of God.”
His conversion was swift, fueled by the steady discernment he lived out during his years at the Fratican. He is now in his second year of theological studies at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver.
“Once he baptized me, God ran with me,” he said.
James’ path towards the priesthood unfolded more slowly. He first sensed a calling at age 15 while attending Bishop Machebeuf High School in Denver, where he was inspired by a theology teacher who was himself a seminarian in his pastoral year. But when James felt ready to act during his senior year at DU, he sensed the Lord telling him to wait.
“Two weeks later, COVID hit, shutting us all down. A month later, Carl told us he was going to the seminary. It was a confusing time,” he recalled.
After graduation, James landed a remote software job and lived as typical a young adult life as one could during a global pandemic. Still, he prayed daily for guidance.
“Then, on Sunday, March 20, 2022, in the Adoration chapel at St. Vincent de Paul in Denver, I asked God for the billionth time: What mission do you have for me? And this time, God was very clear: Go to the priesthood,” James said.
Now in his first year of theological studies at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, with four years of seminary formation still ahead, James remains focused on what God is asking of him today, trusting that the Lord holds the future.
“I don’t know how this journey is going to go,” he said. “The Lord is asking me for one day at a time — to do the small things and let the big picture be his priority.”
Right Living
The Fratican’s rule of life addressed accountability and corrective behaviors head-on. In their shared pursuit of holiness, the roommates made promises to each other to be honest, direct and upfront.
“We had each other’s trust to call one another back toward God,” Carl said.
That trust created space for hard conversations. With the freedom to ask difficult questions and receive honest answers, the men became a sounding board for one another, especially when moral clarity was needed.
Br. Philip recalled a moment when he was tempted to join classmates in bending the rules on an online exam.
“I was in the kitchen, processing it with Carl. And Carl just said, ‘Yeah, that’s cheating.’ It was what I needed to hear,” Br. Philip said.
Fraternal correction like that became a hallmark of their household.
“It helped me live with integrity, and it helped me discern,” Br. Philip continued.
The impact of the Fratican friendships has reached far beyond chore charts and household routines to bring healing. Before entering seminary, men must undergo a comprehensive psychological evaluation to assess emotional, psychological and spiritual fitness for the rigorous demands of priestly ministry. James remembered his own evaluation vividly.
“The psychiatrist was very interested in hearing about the Fratican because I seemed to be undoing some of the wounds that I had sustained earlier in my life,” he recalled. “That’s testament, I think, to the power of authentic brotherhood for Christ. I believe that the friendships made in Christ are the primary means that he has been using for healing in my life.”
“Fratican” Graces
We are shaped by those we walk with, and for the men of the Fratican, that walk left a lasting imprint.
Now in his third year of theological studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Carl describes their decision to live a shared faith as fertile ground for discovering their vocations. Living in Christ, he said, gave rise to three enduring graces that continue to shape their understanding of fraternity and calling:
First, the sincere pursuit of something set apart and holy.
“I don’t think it ever occurred to us how anomalous it was to do what we were doing. We simply wanted the gift of Christ-centered friendship,” Carl said.
Second, vulnerability and accountability in brotherhood.
“We were free to share our spiritual lives, our joys and our sufferings with each other. We knew each other’s stories,” he continued.
Third, a spirit of prayer and fraternity that made the house a refuge.
“This is what made the Fratican stand out. Men and women who came over felt safe to be themselves,” Carl explained.
Br. Philip recalled the peace that came from living a Christian life in community with others.
“It wasn’t about trying to figure everything out. It was about being faithful in the small things — and letting God do the rest,” he said.
From his time in the Fratican, Carl carries with him an insight for how he wants to live in the world: “I need brothers in my life of faith.”
James echoed that sentiment.
“The Fratican was a place where I learned to trust God more deeply — and to trust the men he placed in my life. There was a grace in that house, a freedom to live with reckless abandonment to the Lord,” he said.
The friendships, the fellowship, the freedom to live radically Catholic lives in the Fratican — Br. Philip looked back on it all with humility and joy. He likens his conversion to a scene from The Chosen, where Mary Magdalene tells Nicodemus, “I was one way, and now I am completely different. The thing in the middle … was him.”
For Br. Philip, the Fratican experience was that middle — where Christ met him in community and changed the course of his life.
Editor’s Note: Alex Aleman, the fourth member of the Fratican, is in his spirituality year at St. John Vianney Seminary for the Archdiocese of Denver and was unavailable for interview for this article. Please join us in praying for all of our archdiocesan seminarians and for an increase in holy vocations throughout Northern Colorado, the country and the world.
