A Word to
Catholic students
about Religious Life
on Campus

Okay, you’re in college now. You no longer have your parents to pick up after you, make sure there’s food in the refrigerator, check what time you get in at night, coach you on homework, or hound you about going to church. So what happens? Your room takes on the appearance of a landfill whatever is left in the fridge has green stuff growing on it, you oversleep your ‘quarter-to-eight,” discover what an “incomplete” is, and you only get serious about God around exams. Believe us, this will grow old. Gradually you will pick and chose among many options, values, and directions that are open to you. You examine your patterns and assumptions. New Friends challenge your ways of thinking and doing. You make mistakes. You grope along. You learn.

One of the areas you will have to make some choices about is your spiritual life. You will quickly discover that while UW-L is a public university, there is a whole lot of religious talk going on around here. Indeed you are likely to have more conversations about faith in the classroom, the residence hall, and at Whitney in one semester than you ever did in four years of high school. People will knock on your door, invite you to bible studies, hand you questionnaires to complete, and ask you to their church. While you may not welcome all of this attention, ready or not, here it comes. Perhaps, as a Catholic, you could use a little orientation to religious life on campus. Here is one attempt.

What’s the deal about religion here?

When grocery shopping, mother always brought home vanilla ice cream. How amazed (and a little resentful!) we were to discover “Baskin Bobbins’ Thirty-nine Flavors.” There were options no one had told us about! Something akin to that may happen as you discover the world of religious possibilities on campus beyond what you knew at home. It would be understandable that you might use this time to do a little church shopping,” to study how others imagine and relate to God to learn from their experiences, or to confirm that you are comfortable where you are.

 Lots of Catholics we know have had their faith-life enriched by participating in church experiences beyond their home tradition. Perhaps the group you hung with in high school wasn’t much into their life with Gad; well you will find many, many willing seekers an campus, coming from a dizzying variety of viewpoints …Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Diamond Way Buddhism, various flavors of Lutherans, Mormons, practitioners of Wicca, and self­-proclaimed “recovering Christians.” While we’d like to think that we, here at Newman, offer everything you really need to feed your spiritual hunger, the smorgasbord of religious expressions you will encounter in roommates, residence halls, and “non-­denominational” faith groups will tickle your spiritual fancy and ultimately enrich your relationship with God. It could spur you to investigate why you believe what you do (a very good thing). If you are intrigued about another’s religious ways, then, don’t be afraid to sample but don’t be naive either.

 In addition, while we hate to be the ones to break the news to you, not everyone who asks you a question about your faith is really trying to learn about Catholicism. Sometimes they mean to find out about you (which means they are attracted to who you are and how you think) … at other times their questions may be a direct challenge to your background (suggesting that there is some big secret out there that you’re obviously not in on). Happily, most folks you meet in a group like Campus Crusaders or a residence hall bible study will respect your background … but we have met more than a few Catholics on campus who have felt badgered by some Christians who sought to make them feel inferior. If someone persists in attempting to tear apart your religious heritage, politely and firmly tell him or her to STOP  IT!

You may be asked to visit a friend’s church for a Sunday service or a mid-week event. If you wish, feel free to attend (it’s all part of your education, you see), but if the invite is even a wee bit pressuring you may need to say, “No thanks!” If you do go, show respect for their tradition and our own. Partake in prayer and song as you are comfortable, but be sure your participation does not say more than you intend to say.

 Being left with questions about our Catholic tradition after having encountered an attractive presentation of another religion is not surprising. But before you throw your own religious heritage out the window, make sure you know and have experienced it with more than you can recall from fifth-grade catechism. Our tradition has huge regard for God’s gift of the human mind, so if some aspects of “being Catholic” don’t seem to make sense at first, consider yourself being called to dig a little deeper. “Let me get back to you on that!” is always a good answer to another’s question … as long as you ore serious about doing some homework.

A few snappy answers to the kind of questions
Catholic students get asked

Get ready for the possibility that not everyone you will meet thinks much of your being Catholic. Often this is not their fault— we haven’t managed to explain ourselves very well in a language that Protestants can recognize. What follows are a handful of questions you might face from a non-Catholic friend with one attempt at an appropriate response. We don’t expect you to memorize all of this so you can blurt out an answer when you are quizzed. Actually, we offer them to help you get a glimpse that there is much more to the Catholic way of following Christ than some might grant.

 Q:   Are you born again?
A:   Well, it depends what you mean. In the third chapter of John, Jesus tells a member of the Jewish council that “you must be born from above” (the Greek word can also be translated “born again”). Catholics at whatever age receive a share in the divine aliveness (are “born from above”) through water and the spirit at their baptism when they are incorporated into the Body of Christ … its not about what we do, but what God does. Some Christians associate the phrase “born again” in particular with a one-time, dramatic or emotional surrender to God (often paired with the phrase “I’ve accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior”). According to such people, if you haven’t had this experience you aren’t really a Christian. Well! There are Catholics who, after living as though unaware of God for a time, have had such a dramatic “turn around,” but most folks experience growth in their relationship with God as they do with most relationships ... gradually, with plateaus and small breakthroughs and ongoing discoveries. So while all Catholics hold themselves as “born again” at baptism, we expect it will take our whole lives to unpack the gift we received at baptism. Catholics, then, seek not to be converted just once, but over and over and more and more deeply.

 Q:   Why do so many Catholic beliefs and practices have little basis in the Bible?
A:   Catholics use a seventy-three-book canon that we inherited From our first Christian ancestors, not the shorter Reformation list with links to the Jewish canon. So some elements of Catholic belief and practice that are absent from the shorter Protestant Bible will in fact be discovered in the longer Catholic one. But beyond that, your question seems to assume that “the Bible alone” is enough. That way of viewing faith puzzles Catholics because we can’t find that principle anywhere in the Bible. The Bible does not proclaim itself to be an ultimate authority. Catholics hold that Scripture, the written word of God, is the first Christians’ graced reflection on their Lord’s saving work and teaching. While the Bible is the written revelation of God, Jesus promised to send the Spirit (something more than a book) to lead the Church to all truth (John 16:12). That process of remembering, viewing, and interpreting the Word of God, Catholics call Sacred Tradition (see how Paul speaks of it at 1 Cor 11:2; 2 Thes 2:15; and 2 Tm 2:2). It’s not “the Bible alone” then, but the Bible and Sacred Tradition.

 Q:   Why aren’t Catholics sure they are going to heaven?
A:   Catholics are a little taken aback by the confidence with which some Christians talk of having a reservation in heaven. As we read it, the Bible speaks about “being saved” in three tenses— as something past (2 Tim 1:9), as something happening now (1 Cor. l :18), and as something yet to happen (Rom 5:10). Those folks who are so sure of their spot seem to put a lot of weight on the past tense references, but give less emphasis (or seem to miss altogether) the present and future dimensions. Catholics try to be true to all three. For the past sense of the word, our access to God’s life already won by Christ’s saving death and resurrection, we reserve the term redemption. Christ has redeemed us and the power of God has been made available; now it is for us to cooperate with that grace. Only then do Catholics feel one avoids presumption in saying we are “saved.” Catholics have a healthy regard for the grip that the effects of sin still have on us after baptism, The Catholic response, then, to “Have you been saved?’ is “No, but I have been redeemed, and like St. Paul (in Philippians 2:12)I am still working out my salvation.”

 Q:   Why do Catholics believe they need to “earn” heaven through their prayer, religious works, and good deeds?
A:   Reacting to real abuses in practice and piety in their day, many of the sixteenth century reformers emphasized that salvation is not attained by personal performance but by “faith alone.” That slogan was opposed to “the other side,” which presumably promoted that God’s approval could be earned through good works (which they termed “works righteousness”). With all other Christians, Catholics put their ultimate trust in God’s promise and the saving work of Jesus. We cannot buy our way into God’s affections, prove our worth, or save ourselves. But if all is by God’s favor, Jesus still reminds us that assertions of faith aren’t enough (“Not everyone who cries, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom … but only the one who does the will of my Father”—Mt 7:21). We need to cooperate with God’s grace in us. The Christian’s share in the work of charity and justice confirms God’s life in him or her. As James 2:18 puts it, “…I, by my works, will show you my faith.” For Catholicism, true to the Scriptures, it’s not “faith alone” or “works righteousness” that wins the day, but as St. Paul put it “faith working though love” (Gal 5:6).

 Q:   How come Catholics never talk about having a relationship with Christ?
A:   Oh, but we do. Before we could win a race, earn a dollar, or get an “A,” God chose us as a daughter or son in baptism. That begins the relationship that prayer, study, and right living strengthens, and which the sacraments enrich and celebrate. At every Eucharist we receive our Savior into our very selves under the appearances of bread and wine—Christ becomes part of us. Now that’s a personal relationship!

 Q:   Why do Catholics worship Mary? Where do they get off adding extra books to the Bible? Why do they pray to saints? Why, according to Catholicism, can’t I pray to God to forgive my sins in the secret of my room? And on … and on …  and on.
A: Well, in short, the answers are: we don’t “worship” Mary; though, with the angel Gabriel and holy Elizabeth in Luke’s gospel we do honor her… we didn’t “add” these books, someone else removed them … we don’t pray “to” these Christian heroes, but through them ... and while you can and should pray in private for forgiveness, sacramental reconciliation is fuller, richer and, at times, essential because sin, by its very nature is not private (nor is God’s grace). There is much to say about all of these. Perhaps what you need is not more snappy answers, but an opportunity to understand your Catholic faith better There are a couple of books we might recommend to you, but maybe you would profit more from a hard look at your faith through adult eyes. Every fall we offer just that in a major study we call “Catholicism 101: God For Grown-ups.” Or you might give your faith a tune-up by dropping in on one of our “Q & A” sessions. Come and ask; there’s more to our faith than a warm feeling.

 Cartoon © 1987, Universal Press Syndicate
Text © 2000, by Mark Pierce and Roncalli Newman Parish