Jesuit Education

[sophieann]

I attend a Jesuit University and am a conservative Catholic. While I decided to attend this univeristy due to my faith and understanding of the jesuit tradition, I have found that many students are not Catholic here. Few students follow the faith and MANY students are pro-choice, pro-death penalty, pro-gay marriage, and pro-contraception. I find it very hard to fit in here and wish I could find students that relate to me. I attend mass daily and have a strong spiritual life… I am just looking for advice on how to find genuine Catholics I can relate to at a Jesuit university.

Thanks!

 

[Pablopedro]

I go to a public university and as you can guess it is probably much worse. We have a Church on campus though and I attend daily mass too, and that’s where I found other Catholics. It is also easier my campus probably because there is a “Catholic Club” that only 10 of the 10,000 students belong to. They are all serious about their faith.

Maybe you could start a club at your school…Daily Mass club? Daily Rosary club? It’d help find the others who are more serious about their faith.

 

[George_Stegmeir]

If there is a Newman House on your campus, I strongly suggest you go to it and have a talk with its Chaplain. I would be indeed surprised if a Jesuit University did not have one.
I also think you should have a talk with your Faculty Advisor. If he/she is not a Catholic, you should consider changing for a Catholic Advisor, especially a priest.
In all probability, you are undergoing a cultural as well as a religious shock. I’d be willing to bet you were raised and educated in a Catholic environment and this is your first experience at living and being amongst non-Catholics and non-practicing Catholics and being exposed to secularist ideas. It is what you can expect after College, so, I strongly urge you to get counseling so as to enable you to adapt to your situation.

 

[ClearWater]

I once went to a Newmen Center, long time ago, and that particular one was the most liberal of all. We voted to get rid of the creed during mass, had liturgical dance, and the priest changed the readings to be gender neutral…mother and father God, and he said he thought priests should be able to marry and that we should intercommunion with other faiths.

We had a Sunday reading on the prodigal daughter.

We had a guy in our folk group, openly out who had a pink triangle on his guitar strap for mass who was later elected as an officer!

We were very informal, all came in shorts and such, even in the folk group, no kneelers, holy water. I can’t remember anyone ever praying the rosary. We didn’t have the Stations of the Cross or any of that. No incense. It had been very secularized.

The priest didn’t want us to call him “Father”, preferring his first name.

I was young and at the time, viewed all this as okay!

So yes, I think I understand your point. There is a lot going on even within Catholic churches, and Catholic universities, that would have previously been inconceivable.

I went to another Newman Center, more recently, within the last few years. Someone helping out at the altar was dressed in short shorts.

There seems to be an across-the-board problem, including Catholic churches and universities, so it would seem.