Best and brightest caught between two worlds - fostering participation among catholic youth - Column

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 7, 1997 by Rosemary Radford Ruether

Some time ago I met with a new advisee in the master's of theological studies program at Garrett-Evangelical Seminary, the Methodist school where I teach. A Filipina-American, she unexpectedly said, "I'm a Catholic. I hadn't thought much about that until I came here, but since I have been here, it has become very apparent to me. Is there a Catholic club at the school?"

"No," I said, "but there is no reason why we couldn't have a party."

Taking up my own suggestion, I looked up in our directory the names of students who identified themselves as Roman Catholic. I found about 15. I invited most of them to the party, excluding the doctor of ministry students who are not residents on campus. I also included some who have become Protestants, but who still wanted to claim their Catholic background in some way.

As word of the party got around, others said they, too, were of Catholic background and wanted to come. I also invited Dr. Toinette Eugene, an African-American woman who is an ethicist and my fellow Catholic on faculty (who has since left to take a job in pastoral formation with the Catholic diocese of Oakland, Calif.).

Our party consisted of stuffing ourselves with pasta and then telling our "Catholic stories." The stories were as diverse as each individual. Most reflected histories of being raised Catholic as children, then becoming disaffected as teenagers as they discovered various things about Catholicism they could not accept. Some then found a way to reclaim it; some made their way into a Protestant church; and others stand in an alienated place, still claiming to be Catholic, but seldom attending Mass.

Contrary to the assumptions of many Catholics that Once a Catholic, always a Catholic," scores of Catholics in America move to Protestantism, especially between teenage years and the end of college. A not insignificant number become Protestant ministers, in every denomination from Episcopal and Methodist, Lutheran, United Church of Christ to Unitarian. As a Catholic operating in ecumenical circles, I meet them all the time, as students, laity and ministers.

Although some of those at our party had become Protestants and were preparing for ministry, there was not complete satisfaction with the Methodist setting. Many reported that they became acutely aware of being "aliens" as Catholics in a Methodist school, as fellow students or even professors expressed anti-Catholic stereotypes. But their alienation from Catholicism was even more acute. Mandatory celibacy for priests, refusal of women's ordination, teachings on birth control and abortion and general authoritarianism were the usual reasons for this alienation. Thus they found themselves between two worlds, not fully satisfied with either, negotiating various compromises in-between.

Among those who more actively identify themselves as Catholic, there is Heidi who is employed by a Catholic diocese but finds her spiritual home in an ecumenical feminist group. Jocelyn sees her Catholicism as integral to her Filipina religious-ethnic identity, but is primarily concerned with social justice in American society.

Meg, a graduate of Garrett, has been led by her theological studies to reclaim her Catholic identity and was confirmed in this year's Easter eve liturgy at the Shell Center, the Northwestern University parish. She is going on to doctoral study at a Methodist graduate school in California. Robert, a former Christian Scientist, was converted to Catholicism while studying at Garrett and was baptized at the Shell Center in the Easter eve service last year. He will be doing doctoral work in American Studies and environmentalism in New York.

Jackie, a lawyer completing doctoral work in ethics, said she was driven into theological education by the impossibility of discussing moral values in a legal setting. She still calls herself Catholic and sees her Catholic background as the basis of her concern with justice that she takes into a career where she hopes to teach law from a social justice perspective.

Dave, a Filipino-American doctoral student who received his master's of divinity from the Maryknoll School of Theology, is perhaps our most radical student, calling himself an "anarcho-nihilist." Although still listing himself as a Catholic, his ethical passion is expressed in a profound critique of every kind of colonizing imperialism: religious, racial, sexual, economic and ideological.

There were those who became Protestants. Elisabeth, who called herself an Irish Catholic Methodist, has long wanted to be ordained and early on began questioning priests about why this was not allowed in the Catholic church Preparing to be ordained a Methodist, she wondered if the church would be able to accept her as a "strong woman." She was also put off by anti-Catholic stereotypes among students and professors and finds that Methodists are uncomprehending when she continues to include the word "Catholic" in her identity. Since our gathering, she left the ordination process to return to Catholicism and is now preparing for doctoral studies in American Irish Catholic history.