Recently I was asked by an online Catholic friend if I received a package yet. I hadn’t, so when I checked the mail after a long mail hold while we were visiting family in Virginia, I was excited to open the package and see what it was.
Yes! Christmas in August!
I opened it, saw the familiar Longhorn colors – colors that make my heart skip a beat – and unfolded the windbreaker to reveal a note Anna had included. It read:
“Martina,
A friend of mine gave me a giant bag of children’s clothing and this jacket was among them. After the obligatory consideration of burning it, I thought Josie would fit into this in a few months during those rare Texas “winter” days.
Gig’em.
Love, Anna”
HOOK 'EM!
I cracked up laughing as I read the part about wanting to burn it. Yes, this is how we are wired to respond to our rival school and those unfortunate enough to make the decision to attend said rival school. Ribbing is always in good fun!
As a proud Longhorn grad, I sometimes find it difficult to attend a church that has a thriving Catholic Aggie population. It grieves my heart to concede that good things are coming out of A&M, like an increase in vocations, the origination of 40 Days For Life, former Planned Parenthood’s executive director Abby Johnson’s conversion from pro-choice to pro-life took place there, or FlockNote which originated there as well. Some of the most popular Catholic bloggers have roots that go back to A&M, like Marcel LeJeune who writes The Catholic Evangelist or Flocknote founder Matthew Warner who is a regular blogger for NCR – National Catholic Register. Even my friend, Jennifer Fulwiler, blogger of Conversion Diary and blogger for NCR has A&M ties. Good gracious, I couldn’t get away from it if I tried! Le sigh. The Aggie well runs deep. So much so, that our two priests are from the rival schools – Father Dean Wilhelm, former pastor of both the infamous St. Mary’s from A&M and St. Thomas Aquinas in College Station and Father Jonathan Raia from UT. We are a house divided when it comes to schools. Through our Faith we bridge that gap and it heals all those rivalry wounds. Almost all of them, anyway.
I am saddened at the liberalism found on the UT campus. I am equally saddened that I didn’t know my faith better when I was a college student. As someone who now has a passion for evangelizing and witnessing for the Faith, I could have found some fiercely passionate Catholics once we peeled back those layers of liberalism and hypocrisy at UT. See, for me, liberalism from a Catholic point of view, is akin to agreement to being lied to, if even on a subconscious level. The thought process leads to moral relativism and shortchanges us spiritually. It comes in a falsely packaged pill that touts “compassion” and “tolerance,” “live and let live” and “don’t judge me.” What a bunch of garbage, I say. Give me the Truth and let me work out the struggle on my own. I’d rather know the Truth and disagree than be spoon-fed lies and then feel total abandonment or disillusionment when I realize I’ve been fed a crock. This isn’t necessarily an absolute for religion, either. This can apply to most things in life. Just don’t lie to me. The truth may hurt, but I can do more with the truth than I can with lies.
The days of Catholic liberalism may be challenged – the UT horizon is filled with Catholic hope. A new program called FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students is a national outreach that meets college students where they are and invites them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and the Catholic Faith, is coming to campus this fall at the UCC. St. William had the privilege of having Lauren Garcia, team leader of FOCUS at UT come speak about the program. Its mission is centered on answering the Church’s call for a new evangelization.
As a Longhorn, it thrills me to have a program that is designed to work upstream in a ferociously liberal environment and take students and grads and form them into strong and faithful Catholics. I am rooting for the success of this program and I hope you will join me by supporting Lauren and her mission in any way possible. You can reach her by e-mail lgarcia@focusonline.org OR by phone, 512-514-3026.
I am also looking forward to the fruit of this program to be a stronger UT showing at St. William.
HOOK ‘EM!!
The tide had changed (and continually improving) at the UCC for some time now. In 2003, Bishop Aymond assigned a third priest to the UCC that assisted with the transition when a year later, there was a complete clergy swapout. This began the change, including a priest who (is now pastor at another parish in the diocese) who regularly speaks across the country on liturgy principles and instituted, not using his words, “say the black, do the red” approach to liturgy.
Schoenstatt has been an active organization since about that some time at the UCC, which is seen as more conservative/orthodox/traditional/whathaveyou. In the meantime, student involvement across the board surged forward at a time where the average participating student was increasing more and more traditional and asking for that. Numbers of student organizations, numbers of students involved outside of Mass and Mass attendance numbers all increased.
While A&M and UT are not that far from each other, the approaches to campus ministry can’t be the same. There are elements that are true across the board with all campus ministries, there are things that A&M do extremely well that UT can apply as they are or with some modification, and there are things that UT does better than A&M that could be applied with little modification. Likewise, there are plenty of things at A&M that simply would (and in some cases, has) fallen flat at UT and vice versa. The demographics of students are vastly different (% of Catholics entering the schools, their political background, urban/rural, etc) that have to be handled differently when they arrive on campus in order to grab them and keep them. That isn’t to say the goals and objections are different or that the message is changed, but the approach to spreading and communicating that method has to be different to be effective (just as the ministry portfolio of an urban parish is different than a suburban one that is different than a rural one).
The institutions themselves see campus ministry different too. UT is markedly improved since President Powers took the realm (an elder at his church himself, he understands the importance of the spiritual). While A&M has an All-Faiths chapel on campus, that’s simply something that would never be at UT, but due to the close proximity of two Catholic churches, as well as virtually every other faith tradition, is not needed.
The UCC has not done well with on-campus evangelization. Our student programming is good at getting students involved within the building, within Catholic circles and developing them as leaders within those realms, but never crossed the street to campus. Some of this was institutional rules imposed by UT, some of this was student culture. This is where, I think, FOCUS is great. The idea of bringing them to UT has been in play for five years, but with many things, trying to secure the initial cost and have some assurance of being able to continue to pay for it kept us from pulling the trigger.
FOCUS, as I understood it when I was there, would not be at the UCC nearly as much as they would be out on campus, in dorms, etc. Not to mention, having recent college graduates full-time dedicated to outreach on campus should work much better than student volunteers (or employed part-time) or than a 30+, 40+ or 50+ year old campus minister doing it.
FOCUS is an absolute great addition to the ministry portfolio and I’m excited to see what they’re able to accomplish at UT; however, this is not the beginning of the process for campus ministry at UT, only a continuation.
Peace,
Brandon Kraft
Program Coordinator, UCC 2005-2009.
Great post, Martina! As a fellow Longhorn, I totally agree with everything you wrote. Heck, my freshman year I lived in Dobie, wedged between two Catholic churches and still didn’t grow spiritually! FOCUS could have been good for me, glad to see it around now! And Anna, look at you and your grace! An example for us all, LOL =D.
I don’t meant to be a jerk about this, but do want to put out there that we have been working a long time to improve the situation. Many alumni have declined an invitation for a financial gift citing the actions of the UCC in the 1960s or 1990s, etc even though things are better now. Like I mentioned with bringing FOCUS on board, it takes real money that’s hard to get if the realities of the past are not put into current context.
Thanks for the post.
I can’t speak for more recent efforts, but my time at UT was quite a while before 2005. ::showing age:: Even still, I wouldn’t be a good measure for what was done from ’94-’99 since I wasn’t really “into” the Faith at the time, anyway.
I’m just glad for an opportunity to evangelize outside of the walls of the current churches there because that’s where it’s needed most. FOCUS came highly recommended by Father Joel McNeil, former pastor of St. William, so if it can do some good at Drake, it will definitely do well at UT. I can’t wait to see what happens!
Well written Martina! A sad but true comparison with the great Catholic Spirt found in Aggie land that has been lacking in Austin for a very long time….I follow your UT/Aggie rivalry with Anna who happens to be my niece by marriage on facebook…..I also “bleed orange” and am living in “a house divided” with Anna’s Aggie Uncle Patrick….I suppose we all have crosses to bear (just kidding)….again, a great article!
Putting my Aggie-ness aside 🙂 I really hope that Austin Catholic New Media can be a force to help the Catholic students at UT. Also, Father Wade our new Associate Pastor at St. Thomas More has a plan for a production ministry that specifically targets young adults (21+) to engage them in the faith. More on that to come…
I was just talking about this with Father Jonathan last night and we were both in agreement as our time at UT coincided. The foundation of UT vs. A&M are simply different and the outreach programs should match that diversity. Someone had asked why not do what A&M is doing and the response was that the difference is primarily that A&M has conservative roots and UT doesn’t. That alone begs a different approach. And the work is harder at UT, but the fruits will be rich, I have no doubt. 🙂
Brandon, I don’t think anyone comes away from this down on the current UT situation; the author even says that while secularism was the norm in the past, things are improving. Nonetheless, even if things have improved in the Catholic community there, it takes a lot longer for that fidelity to bleed out into the student population and impact thinking and habits. I’d say very few college campuses–even ones touting themselves as “Catholic”–have created an authentically Catholic learning environment outside of the Catholic student union.
I also want to point out that the PAST problems at UT seem to just have been used here as a springboard for addressing moral relativism in general and the Church’s duty to give us the Truth regardless of how uncomfortable we may be upon receiving it. I headed up the marriage ministry for one of the most dissenting dioceses in the nation a few years ago and it was appalling how many now-faithful Catholics were angry at their priests and bishops for withholding the truth about God’s plan for sex and marriage. They had gone down the path of contraception, sterilization, divorce, etc. and had suffered much spiritual damage because of it. I think this article is mainly about our right to the Truth, not necessarily a significant criticism of UT…
Thanks Dawn for the comment. I didn’t take it as negative toward UT as much as missing something (“Catholic liberalism may be challenged”, so not now? and there’s Catholic hope on the horizon (none before?) One student did contact me asking me about why the UCC wasn’t mentioned as well.
You’re absolutely right though, that is isn’t a critique about UT’s ministry. However, the lack of mention of it was noticeable to me and the UCC has been accused of Catholic liberalism in the past, making the omission noticeable in my opinion.
I simply wanted to point out to anyone, who may not be aware, that this is an ongoing issue that has had many faithful, tireless workers striving to always improve.