The University's Call to Love

Two and a half years ago I was confronted with a difficult decision, whether to remain at Providence College where I spent my freshman year or to transfer to Notre Dame, which had always been my dream school. After my first semester at Providence, I really did not even want to apply to transfer to Notre Dame. I loved it. I had great friends, professors who pushed me and a supportive atmosphere. After some encouragement from my parents, however, I decided to apply and was thrilled to be accepted. Even after I received the acceptance I was unsure of my decision. On the final day to send in my letter of acceptance, I was in the car driving through the Blue Mountain Ridge on my way to a family vacation and made my decision to dive in, challenging myself to leave my comfort zone and transfer to Notre Dame.

It wasn’t until I became involved in various activities on campus that I realized that what made Notre Dame so special was its true Catholic identity. Not to say that Providence wasn’t Catholic but that Notre Dame has really been challenged as an institution, constantly criticized and forced to stand strong to protect its Catholic mission.

Last week, the University of Notre Dame received a special blessing from Pope Francis I. Pope Francis’ remarks were one of accolade and a reminder to stay true to the true mission of Notre Dame – to the “missionary spirit” which inspired Fr. Sorin to found Notre Dame in 1842. As we celebrate the 200th birthday of Fr. Sorin, Pope Francis’ words are a reminder to stay true to our beliefs, “It is my hope that the University of Notre Dame will continue to offer unambiguous testimony to this aspect of its foundational Catholic identity, especially in the face of efforts, from whatever quarter, to dilute that indispensable witness. And this is important: its identity, as it was intended from the beginning. To defend it, to preserve it and to advance it!”.

The Catholic mission of Notre Dame is what makes me so proud when I tell people that I go to Notre Dame. This mission is constantly shown in various events and activities on campus from Appalachia trips sponsored by the Center for Social Concerns to various worship and leadership opportunities supported by Campus Ministry. This weekend, Notre Dame will host the Edith Stein conference on campus, showing once again that Notre Dame is not only dedicated to educating the mind but to feeding the spirit.

The Edith Stein conference is a yearly tradition centered on the life and teaching of St. Edith Stein who dedicated her life as a Carmelite sister and died in Auschwitz, unwilling to deny her faith. This year’s theme is “Relationships and the Call to Love”, based off of Blessed Pope John Paul II’s call to love as “the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being”. The conference, though open to all, is specifically geared toward Catholic women, highlighting Notre Dame’s dedication to advancing the understanding of the role of women in the Catholic Church. The various conference speakers will address the question of exploring how “the differences between men and women [can] beseen as gifts, and not limitations”.

Notre Dame is a special university not because it is Catholic but because it is committed to educating the mind and the heart, just as Congregation of Holy Cross founder, Basil Moreau intended. The Edith Stein conference is yet another example of Notre Dame’s dedication to its student body and a reminder of why I’m proud to say that I am now a member of the Irish community.

Registration for the conference is free to all ND/SMC/HCC participants, registration and an entire conference schedule can be found here.

Catholic Social Teaching

Entering into my senior year this past August, I decided that I should seize the opportunity to learn more about the Catholic Church while I had access to some of the best theologians in the world. Almost by chance I stumbled upon and ended up adding the Catholic Social Tradition minor. I was looking for a class that offered the opportunity to study some of the papal encyclicals, writings that I did not even know existed until I came to Notre Dame. The class that offered this opportunity was the Catholic Social Tradition minor introductory class and while I was at first hesitant about the class, it ended up opening my eyes to a new perspective on the Church’s teaching.

Catholic Social Teaching is an aspect of our faith that is often forgotten about, regularly referred to as the Church’s Best Kept Secret. The Gospels and the life of Jesus Christ lay the foundation for Catholic Social Teaching. Although this foundation was laid over 2,000 years ago, the philosophy and term “Catholic Social Teaching” did not come about until a series of encyclicals were written on the idea of social teaching. Beginning with Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 and continuing today with Lumen Fidei by Pope Francis, the past 100+ years have featured prolific writing on thephilosophy of Catholic Social Teaching. So what is Catholic Social Teaching and why is it that we don’t hear more about it?

At its core, Catholic Social Teaching is a call to love and protect human dignity, most especially the dignity of the poor. Through the recognition of the dignity of the poor blossoms a commitment to improve the circumstances of the poor. We come to recognize this inherent dignity and this commitment through our experiences of Christ in the Eucharist, God humbling himself out of love for us. In seeking to understand Christ, we are often called to study his life. The life of Christ portrays a complete commitment to the poor. Consider that Jesus was born in a manger, the Holy Family fleeing from persecution and that he made a living as a carpenter. Jesus could have been born into any circumstances he chose. He could have been born an earthly king as well as a heavenly one and yet he chose to be among the poorest of the poor. This decision to live among the poor provides a lesson that no other king has been able to provide because Jesus truly lived out his teaching.

In the story of the Rich Young Man seeking to follow Jesus, Jesus told the young man “if you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). Jesus’s life and teaching revolve around a commitment to the poor, to loving those whom he considers his equals. This tenement is at the core of Catholic Social Teaching, this is how Jesus calls us to live our lives.

While the call to love and the model of Jesus’s life are a powerful foundation, in my Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching class, I found that the prolific writing on Catholic Social Teaching challenged many beliefs I had always believed to be endorsed by the Catholic Church. This class challenged be to come to a deeper understanding of my faith by way of reason, forcing me to examine and grapple with my beliefs rather than assume them to be true. In my next blog post I will expand upon the aspects of Catholic Social Teaching that I most struggled with and my perspective on them. 

New Evangelization

November 24^th, 2013 marks the end of the Year of Faith as declared by Pope Benedict XVI. This Year of Faith was themed, “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”, a year to “usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith.” The process of reflection and rediscovery is not a process that ought to come to a dead halt on November 24^th. The movement of the “New Evangelization” that was started by the hierarchy of the Church around the time of the Second Vatican Council is one that is vital for all of the lay people to consider in their faith lives.

                Many Catholics are hesitant about the idea of Evangelization. The idea of going out and preaching the Good News and attempting to persuade others of your faith which you know to be Truth is difficult. In some ways, evangelization seems to be a part of the history of the Church. We are familiar with the stories of the apostles and their journeys to various parts of the world to spread the good news like St. Paul and his many letters, Luke the evangelist who traveled with St. Paul, and John who traveled all around Asia Minor.   There is a distinct association of evangelization with the persecution of the early church up through the Middle Ages, which is perhaps why in this modern age we are reluctant to heed the Pope's call.

                Evangelization in modern America, however, very rarely results in death. Today, living out your faith results in a new kind of persecution. Catholic culture is by no means mainstream. In fact, living a Catholic life is very counter-cultural. In a recent homily on the beatitudes, a Holy Cross Father remarked on how living life according to Catholic teaching should not be easy. We live in a culture where we are pulled in an opposite direction. Hollywood teaches us that casual sex is the norm, that modesty is irrelevant and that we should be allowed to express ourselves in whatever means necessary. It is extremely difficult to live a life fully steeped in our Catholic faith where we evangelize through our actions rather than words.

In a recent study performed by the Pew Research Center, only 41% of Catholics report attending worship serves on a weekly basis, 41% report attending monthly or a few times a year and 17% never or seldom attend. We’ve all been in mass on Christmas or Easter in extremely over packed church’s wondering why it is we never see some parishioners at regular Sunday masses. The New Evangelization encourages us to seek out these Catholics. Catholics who have been swayed by the mass media, Catholics who need a helping hand in returning to the faith. This New Evangelization calls us to always be witnesses to our faith and to be vocal about it, to explain why we are Catholic and what that means to us and engage in dialogue with those around us.

       
          Living out our Catholic faith in light of the New Evangelization we are called to means much more than daily prayer or weekly mass. It means first being a witness in the fights we are waging – it means being willing and open to adoption as pro-lifers, it means defending the stance of traditional marriage through both word and action, it means serving and befriending the poor. Being an evangelizing Catholic means encouraging our family and friends to do the same. It means preaching the Good News everywhere we go and not being afraid to talk to others we know to be of different faiths about our own beliefs.