Students find faith, search for answers

This is the last article of a four-part series on diversity at Providence College.

As a child, Greg Kerr '07 never attended Mass and knew little about his faith. Having been raised by a mother who is a non-practicing Catholic and a father who is an atheist, Kerr rarely talked to anyone about his faith.

"I never had anything against the Church-if anything I had a respect for it-but it just wasn't part of my life," Kerr said.

Since coming to Providence College, however, Kerr's religious life-like that of many other PC students-has dramatically changed.

During his freshman year, Kerr participated in the year-long Rights of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program and was confirmed in April of 2004. Since then, he has led five retreats, been an RCIA leader, and served as president of Campus Ministry.

The events that led to his spiritual transformation began in high school when he vacationed with his friend's family. Spending time with them made Kerr realize that something had been missing from his life.

"Seeing their faith . . . and seeing that they had lost a son but still had faith enough to go to Mass and make Church a part of their life inspired me," Kerr said. Though he used to attend festivals at the parish where his cousin is a priest merely for the free food, he eventually gained an appreciation for the parishioners and the respect they had for his cousin.

This appreciation carried over into his college life, a time of reflection and prayer in St. Dominic Chapel.

"During my free time I found myself drawn to the chapel for comfort, which in a way was surprising," said Kerr. "I was never taught in my family to go to God for comfort, but that is what I did."

He continued to find comfort in his faith when attending the Encounter retreat freshman year. Upon returning, he remembers experiencing a "post-retreat high."

"I was expecting the same thing from being confirmed, but it didn't happen. While it sounds disappointing, it actually worked out," Kerr said. "It taught me that just because I couldn't feel God's grace at a certain instant, it was still there."

A desire to better understand God's grace and the Catholic teachings led Haylee Jones '09 to join the RCIA program last semester. Making the decision to get confirmed at a later age, Jones said, made the experience more meaningful.

"A lot of my friends said, 'I wish I waited too,'" noted Jones. "They said it was just something they had to do-something that wasn't really their choice."

Having moved several times growing up, Jones never stayed long enough at a Church to get confirmed. It was the Dominican Order, however, that led her to want to attend Providence College and ultimately receive the sacrament.

"I thought it was so awesome that there were Dominicans living on campus," Jones said. "I feel like I could go to any of them and ask for advice or help with anything."

Though she attended Catholic high school, Jones said she has found PC students to be much more devout than her friends from home who attend non-Catholic colleges and universities.

"It's weird to think my friends don't go to church at home. Almost all of my friends here go to Mass," she said.

While Jones and Kerr have found their niche in the Catholic community at PC, others look for spiritual satisfaction elsewhere. Allie Spivack'07, who practices Judaism, regularly attends the Temple Emanu El on the east side of Providence.

"I find that most people are surprised at the fact that I attended a Catholic school and are curious as to why I would," Spivack said. "I try to explain that in making my decision, I felt most comfortable at PC . . . and I felt confident that the religious affiliation of the College would not interfere with the experience I hoped to have at college."

Spivack said her four years at PC would have been further enriched if she had been given the opportunity to learn more about her own faith.

"I had a very difficult time finding theology courses that would not only teach me about Catholicism but also about other religions, including my own," Spivack said. ". . . It is important for all of us as PC students to have the opportunity to learn about beliefs different from our own in order to be part of a more accepting society," she said.

Rev. John Paul Walker, O.P., assistant chaplain and overseer of the RCIA program, said that while learning about other religious traditions can be important, there is also much diversity to be found within Catholicism itself.

". . . What we often fail to appreciate is that even among our own Catholic students, the varied ways in which students express that Catholic faith is really pretty amazing," said Father Walker.  "The fact that within a two-hour span on Tuesday nights in St. Dominic chapel you go from having a group of students praying the rosary-one of the most "traditional" prayers in Catholicism-to students doing praise and worship with guitars playing, hands in the air or clapping, etc.-a very contemporary form of prayer-is just one example of such diversity." 

Caitlin Ferrarini '07 said she prays every night for forgiveness, guidance, and for loved ones and friends, but she does not attend Mass.

"I understand the meaning of the Church rituals, as we had a lesson about it in our religion text every year. Yet in college, rituals of the Mass-like standing, kneeling, sitting, singing, and reciting-started to become meaningless and a little bizarre," said Ferrarini, who has attended Catholic school for 17 years.

While she agrees with many of the moral and Catholic social justice teachings of the Church, Ferrarini disagrees with the Church's stance on abortion, birth control, gay marriage, and women as priests.

"I started to disagree with some of the Church's teachings around junior year of high school and have become more distanced in college as I've become more conscious of political issues and my own morals and views," she said.

Rev. Joseph J. Guido, O.P., vice president of Mission and Ministry, assistant professor of psychology, and a counseling psychologist in the Personal Counseling Center, said religious disengagement among young people is often a matter of indifference.

In a paper entitled "Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Journey of College Students Today," Father Guido writes: "In the marketplace of demands and diversions, religion has occupied a relatively minor niche and has not served to define [young people] as it may have defined their parents. It is no wonder, then, that their children should imbibe a religion that . . . makes few demands beyond being nice and tolerant, offers a measure of comfort in times of trouble, and rarely interferes with life's other pursuits."

Recent studies conducted by Providence College show that while students may describe themselves as religious, they spend very little time actually praying, talking about their faith, or integrating religion into their daily lives. Thus, Father Guido suggests, many young people are somewhere between Heaven and Earth and are in need of a bridge to help lessen the gap.

"Providence College should be willing to . . . welcome the seekers, the disengaged, and the devout alike. We should be willing to meet them in a middle place and to provide the bridge that their faith and lives require, even if unbeknownst to them," he writes. "The bridge must extend between faith and reason, the personal and communal, objective truth and subjective experience, and across the common divides of gender, race, and class."