A year ago, to this day, if you opened the front page of the Fairfield University website you would be met with the five-word phrase: The Modern Jesuit Catholic University. The first thing the university wished to convey to website visitors was its Jesuit and Catholic identity. On the second of December, the day I write this article, the university website’s front page is devoid of the Catholic and makes a far more passive mention of the Jesuit identity halfway down the page.
While the website is just one means by which the university conveys who they are, I believe its single-year shift away from the Catholic label is indicative of the general culture surrounding, and created by, the university in regard to the very faith it claims governs its operations.
Despite being a Jesuit university, it feels as though the university balks on embracing the faith. Outside of a visit to the Egan Chapel or remembering that the Magis Core is meant to advance Jesuit values, you could go through four years at Fairfield without thinking twice about the Catholic faith. Perhaps this is due to the university’s growing reputation nationwide which could be attracting students interested in the school’s academics and not their founding principles. I do not believe this to be the case, however. If they wished, the school could advance the Catholic cause in very deliberate ways. Simple actions such as putting crucifixes in classrooms would go a long way toward presenting the university as one that takes its faith identity seriously. As far as most students are concerned, Fairfield is Catholic in name only.
There are two areas where the university could make swift and concrete changes. These two areas are reverence in the faith and the promotion of Catholic beliefs.
During my semester in London, the majority of the masses I attended were at Newman House which is London’s central university student chaplaincy. Mass was celebrated in a very ordinary room with a simple altar and old brick walls. Despite the modest setting, these masses were always very reverent. The use of incense was a regular occurrence, Latin was utilized throughout the liturgy and communion on the tongue was the norm. Mass was elevated to a level far beyond what the physical space seemed to demand.
Contrast this to the modern, very casual nature of the average weekend mass on campus. Latin is replaced with contemporary, protestant sounding hymns and incense is nowhere to be found. While mass at the Egan Chapel is just as valid and infinitely important as mass at Newham House, the former presents itself in a less serious manner. Mass should feel important, and when it does, it can shift one’s entire relationship with the faith. To improve its relationship with the faith, Fairfield should strive to display and foster reverence wherever it can, especially in the mass.
Second, the university should work to promote the teachings of the Church and Catholic morality whenever possible. Affecting change in this area is a bit trickier but there are still great opportunities through avenues such as clubs and student organizations. At the conclusion of last school year, the Students for Life club, a pro-life student organization, was forced to shut down due to a lack of students. Given the Catechism’s teaching that “the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion” (2271) it would have made a ton of sense for the university, working with the necessary club advisors and leaders, to offer tremendous support for such a club or offer to absorb it into some other facet of the campus community. After all, the club was unapologetically advancing Catholic moral teaching.
Ultimately, any increase in the promotion of Catholic beliefs will flow down to the campus community from the Bishop and Jesuit superiors. Pope St John Paul II’s apostolic constitution, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, makes it very clear that the “Bishops have a particular responsibility to promote Catholic Universities, and especially promote and assist in the preservation and strengthening of their Catholic identity” (28). Given this teaching, I implore the local Bishop, along with Fairfield’s Jesuit leaders, to always uphold the Church’s teachings and promote its various causes on campus.
To meet the country’s growing secularization and many Catholics’ liberal approach to the Church, Fairfield University must fully embrace its Catholic identity in a very public manner and commit to the Church’s teachings.
As Gravissimum Educationis states, “the destiny of society and of the Church itself is intimately linked with the progress of young people pursuing higher studies.”
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