Patrick Heffernan, Class of 2022
06:51:52 PM
Sara Ferraro, Class of 2022
06:52:31 PM
Fr. Pete McCormick, Director of Campus Ministry
06:57:44 PM
I'm here.
Alright, so it looks like the participants are flowing in here.
Father Peter kick it off.
Hello everyone, my name is Father Pete McCormick and I'd like to welcome you to this Notre Dame live session on faith and spirituality. I've got two amazing students and so the fact is, is I will. I'll give you a basic intro, but the the real content, the other folks who have joined this call I serve as well. Like I said, the director, Campus ministry, my job really is to think about faith on campus. And I I currently live in one of the residence halls. In fact, that's.
Where I am recording this message from. It's kind of fun to be able to talk about life on campus from one of the residence halls themselves, and so without further ado, I'll. I'll let Patrick go and then Sam jump in and we'll take it from there.
Sure thing hi everybody, my name is Patrick Rafanan I'm senior here at Notre Dame, majoring in finance. Originally from Madison, NJ. During my time on campus I lived in Siegfried Hall, currently off campus, where I'm dialing in from today involved with the club water polo team on campus. You know, frequency, creed, mass. So happy to talk.
Can answer questions about that and you know the reason we we asked you to do the polls just to get the blood flowing. Feel free to ask as many questions in the chat function as you want. We're here to answer them all for you. And yeah, looking forward to the session. Thanks for joining.
Awesome yeah, welcome everyone. My name is Sam. I'm also a senior. I'm originally from Rockland County, New York, majoring in the program of Liberal Studies or PLS or please learn something probably law school.
Really, any one of those take your pick. It all means the same thing. So interdisciplinary humanities program. We have a lot of fun reading books that talking about them, and I have a minor in data science to make that a little bit more technical and more modern I guess. And in addition to PLS and data science, I'm on the jump rope team. We are the national collegiate champions from the year 2008 or 19. Yeah, really fun team. We're gonna compete again in April and anyone is welcome to join. We're open and I've also been really involved in the Center for social concern since I've been here and I'm ready.
In your thesis so I can talk about humanities research. I'm running about Nietzsche and Wolf, kind of interesting combination there, but it's been a lot of fun. I've been really grateful for my time here at Harvard, and it's a little weird introducing myself as a senior ever since so August, you know.
It's going by way too quick.
If you really want to stress these two out, just ask in the chat how many days left before graduation. That'll that'll get him going.
OK, so maybe just an opening and then what I I think what y'all find this most beneficial is the questions that get asked and we it really allows us to kind of get rolling here. But maybe what might be helpful is Patrick and Sam. Maybe is kind of a primer as as folks are still logging in. And by the way I'm I'm really impressed that it goes swings. Monkey bars slide. I think that we should have a little bit more love for the seesaw.
It's a really important toy out in the playground, but I digress. Patrick and Sam, you know. Could you guys talk a little bit about your own experience of faith at Notre Dame? What's that been like and try to think about it from the perspective of not only your lofty stature as seniors, but maybe what you were also hoping for when you first arrived as freshmen?
Yeah, totally. I guess I can. I can start that off and so I went to Catholic High School so the transition was somewhat normal for me. I was talking in the pre session with Sam and one of the things I was most nervous about was the theology classes that we were supposed to take here at nerd aim, and particularly because some kids come in with really deep knowledge of the Catholic faith. And you do have to take two theology classes during your time here at Notre Dame.
And you know, I thought I might have been behind the ball in that sense, but really found that that wasn't the case. The first theology class is the foundation class within the the Catholic discipline. But then the second theology class is more elective based and can really be in anything. I actually was in a a nuptial mystery class, and I I tell people had the best assignment I've ever had it. Nerd aim. There's an extra credit assignment where we were invited to go on a date.
You need to go on a date with somebody and then write about it. Apply some concepts from the class and so really great experience and ended up learning a lot from it, but super comfortable in the classes. They make it very welcome for you welcoming for you. And then one thing I'd add is so each dorm on campus has a Chapel in it and that's really how I've interacted with faith here. Most ettner name outside of like private conversations with people.
It's just a great way to build community after mass. Every week they have daily weekly announcements that you know just goes on about things happening in the dorm and around campus. And then they also try to incentivize you to come to mass to with different food options afterwards. So we do is get that going for people too, so that's just a high level overview. Happy to dig in further. If anyone has any questions there.
She wasn't very religious herself, so I didn't have too much first-hand access to what it looked like to have like a faith like Notre Dame. But I knew something I was really interested. I like existential philosophy and character guard, and it was like it was kind of interesting to do it to to be thinking about my interest in philosophy and then doing it in a Catholic setting where the questions that are most largely existential are hit on by metaphysical questions of religion as well. In a particularly Catholic framework, and just knowing the opportunities for like Catholic social teaching service work were available through the Center for Social concerns. Really attractive.
Yeah, certainly so yeah, I came in from a public high school in New York and I had no understanding of what it looked like to be in like a Catholic educational setting. Other than that, I was interested in like this. This idea of like Catholic social teaching I had seen like promoted and ordered a marketing. So I kind of had only the the the access to the marketing of Notre Dame spirituality. But also I had my sister who went here and.
But I was super nervous coming from public school 'cause I had never even had a Chapel or like a religious prayer service or and at all in my like my school setting. So he's kind of separate for me because I was raised Catholic. But I came in and my first year I took uh, my my foundational theology class and I was, I felt so at first, but it turned out it was just, you know, it's actually just the way classes are. Sometimes you have to like, no one was coming in with any more or less knowledge, probably than me. It was just the class was I didn't have any right to be like all right like this is a hard.
Flights over my head. 'cause it's theology, it's just another class, and the professor is super accommodating of like the varied levels of of backgrounds coming in into the class cousin. PLS we all take the same 2 theologies and there's people from very diverse backgrounds of of earliest experiences, faith backgrounds and whatnot, and I always felt entirely supported and and I was coming at.
Add it from in, both by the professors and by my peers, which made it really easy to learn and dialogue and kind of taking everyone where they were at. But it didn't stick with me too. Too much of that class. It was actually my second theology class. My like Catholic, the Christian theological traditions. I learned a lot about like liberation theology and the professors readings just really stuck with me. I was like wrestling with them and all the existential ways I've been craving. So I mean, I definitely have a lot more questions than I came in with, which I don't know if that's what I was anticipating as a freshman. I was already so uncertain about.
What faith men are like. What these existential questions could be, I, I think I loved with more existential I'm gonna be leaving with more existential questions, but I have so much new language and so many new readings and people and experiences to draw and like both in and outside the classroom, to approach them. And I'm I'm really just most grateful for that. Whether or not I identify as Catholic or not, I probably wouldn't say do I don't practice the faith or anything, but I I've definitely enjoyed having that be a part of my experience here just by encountering what it looks like to be in an educational setting with a a Catholic identity, but also.
Joyce Lantz
07:08:36 PM
Are you required to take theology courses?
What kind of questions that allows you to ask explicitly in the classroom with a diverse background of people with diverse approaches of just learning so many new ways to ask different questions and sometimes getting overwhelmed by how many questions you can ask and not have answers to?
But yeah, it's been. It's been interesting and I'm really grateful for it. I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it any other way, so even coming from public school.
Then be forewarned, those questions just keep coming. They they never really end. I've found someone in his 40s, they they just keep hitting so you have a lifetime of them. You got a question here. Our theology classes more difficult for public school students. So Sam, I think you've tied that one up. Well, let's just.
07:09:12 PM
Are theology classes more difficult for public school students?
Oh yeah, oh certainly I would say maybe I had to put some more work in to understand. Like just, you know, the basic structure of like what how? The Bible is set up honestly. Like those are things I didn't really come in with much access to and I was like hearing my classmates like referencing other parts of Bible that was a little bit intimidating at first, but I think that it's not any. I think what you like.
I know more difficult. I don't know if it's necessarily more or less difficult, just a different experience. I would probably say 'cause you're not coming in with the same knowledge base, perhaps, but you're not expected to have that knowledge base either, so it doesn't necessarily make the class more difficult, just it just makes it a different experience, because I think all the professors understand that there's a diverse background on students coming in, and they're willing to get everyone, at least to the same level of expectations for the sake of that class. So if you treat you as a person, not as like a blanket standard for what the expectation is, so I just say it's a matter of difference.
I can also build on that actually because I went to a public university for my undergrad and then entered the seminary.
That was was here and so I had the benefit of certainly being Catholic my whole life, but coming here I had never really formally taken a theology class beyond my high school theology and dumb, and so certainly that's where all of you are coming from. And So what I can say is, is that when I got here was all types of nervous. I was a biology major in undergrad and I was like really good in the lab, but not necessarily so confident when talking about whatever theological topic we were being presented with, and I found the professors to be really good.
At being able to articulate the insights and and also to Sam's point, allowing for those big questions, that kind of bubble up. And so I think what the take away you need to remember here is is bring your curious, creative self to the classroom and and you'll be able to navigate these things in a in a real, meaningful way.
We've got a comment here on the pole and I, as the moderator of this whole thing, I do want to honor it onto that. It says we need a northwest option on the poll. Island Empire is not West Coast listen, I didn't put the poll together. I'm going to bring that to our our set of advisors on poll creation and and we'll be sure to be better in the future.
So to that end, maybe I've got another question here and guys and I'm speaking to our audience here. Don't be afraid. Love to get your questions. I think that there's a lot of creative, thoughtful people on this call here, and so be sure to kind of throw those our way. Maybe a question Patrick and Sam for you both talk to me about one thing during your time here at Notre Dame. That's either faith related or perhaps service related to Sam's point. Her work with work with the CSC.
Around kind of like signing up for something, getting involved. What was that like go?
07:12:34 PM
We need a Northwest option on the polll... Inland Empire is not West Coast!
OK, I I think for me it was my CSE trip down to West Virginia. I took a class during over my spring break freshman year. So one credit seminar focus really on on poverty in the Appalachian region. And then we went down and stayed in a church down there. It was actually really interesting because I identify myself as Catholic. But we stayed in.
Uh, I don't even know the denomination. Some sort of Christian Church and the guy told us, like you know, we really don't interact with Catholics down here, you know, have these predisposed stereotypes so you guys, and you know we talked about like none of those were necessarily true and and and so it's really interesting interacting with that different faith in a different way, and just being able to do the service to we build wheelchair ramps for handicapped people down there and spent the whole week eating and.
Been spending time with the people of the region so really loved the experience. Recommended to anyone that ends up coming here. Couldn't say enough good things. Still very close friends with the people. I was on my trip with so it's a really awesome experience.
Yeah, I would say to my experience, definitely generated from a service experience as as one of my favorite ones that stands out to me on with the Center for social concern. So I did a summer service learning program after my freshman year for eight weeks I was placed with a site. There's lots of different sites for all different types of interest that students might have, ranging from social work to scribing and I would happen to be interested in kind of this social work opportunities. So I was placed at a Catholic worker house in Rochester, NY.
And so I got introduced the Dorothy Day movement. Kind of this idea of precarity and what it looks like to live in community on the margins and then through the Catholic social teaching principles like things considering the common good kinship on the margins and solidarity, and what that looks like in practice was really interesting. And so I really appreciated that it wasn't just a summer like a summer imersion where you were kind of there and detached from the questions you're asking in the classroom about what it means to be in solidarity or to talk about the common good.
But that those things were happening coterminous Lee, so we had a journal every single day. We had lots of questions given to us by amazing faculty from the Center for Social concerns. Then we had connections with the Notre Dame like clubs within our sites, so I had noted in Club of Rochester. Just lots of alumni, always like, willing to Take Me Out. When I was had brakes for my job, but then really actually being in community with the Catholic worker was really interesting because we were. I was at a woman transitional home, whereas working with women coming out of recent incarceration or recent addiction treatment centers.
And so the questions that we were asking in the classroom on just couldn't have possibly been contextualized in the same ways with given the experiences that the woman that were staying there had, and it just gave me a new way to encounter on what's often referred to as, like otherness, or what's often like talked about in a certain abstract way in the classroom. But also it just reshaped the way I thought about the way that Catholicism has social impact, especially within a community setting. Knowing, like that, the space I was sharing was.
I'm really integral through community. I was an outsider at so I was really the other in a in a situation that I had been always thought that the language of the people I would be referring to as an identity were other than me and so it just definitely reshaped my own consciousness, but gave me a really interesting lens to think about theological questions and spiritual questions in a setting that was we had. We had services on Wednesdays, we were Catholic worker, but there were so many different things that happened on through the lens of social teaching and in a Catholic way both.
Connected to Notre Dame and to to Rochester with all these people and it was a really amazing experience and I keep in touch with a lot of the women I met there and lived with their UM and the Center for social concerns. Totally made that work and they continue to do so, so it's a really sustainable.
Program to be apart of as well. That was really stood out to me as my favorite experience, I would say.
So maybe as a as a overarching perspective, you know we've talked a little bit about the Center for social concerns, and maybe as you begin to think about the the landscape that is Notre Dame, there's a variety of different ways that you could encounter and practice your own faith. And I'll talk for just a moment about what it might look like as a Catholic student. But I also want to make a point of.
Emphasizing what it might look like as someone who is not from the Catholic tradition, so there's a few a few kind of key areas that you might encounter. This practice of faith, and certainly this list is not exclusive. All right, so if if the thing you were hoping for doesn't make the list, it's important to remember that Notre Dame is a Catholic institution, and maybe that's the place to start that by its very definition to be Catholic is to seek to honor and reverence the dignity of each person, right? And so that means to encounter you exactly where you find yourself if.
Ultimately, you've been accepted and are admitted to the university and ultimately choose to come. That means that we've made our relationship with one another, and there's a commitment here that you to Notre Dame and Notre Dame to you. And it's it's not about forming or forcing you to be a particular mold. It's actually seeking to allow your most authentic self to grow. And why do we believe that as an institution? The reason we believe it is because we recognize that each person is made in the dignity.
In the image and likeness of God, right? And so it's really important for us to be able to have meaningful conversations and perhaps point out insights or thoughts that maybe had not crossed your mind. Or maybe you might point out a few that might not have crossed ours. That's the nature of that relationship. And so the the primary way that you might encounter this. And and I'd love for Patrick and Sam to talk a little bit about this is is in your residence halls that each residence hall has.
A rector and each residence hall really desires to have a sense of community, but then there's also a variety of other places, and then I'll come back to Patrick and Sam to talk about the dorms is you, might. You might encounter your experience of faith with the Center for social concerns and an opportunity to go and to serve those who are underprivileged, and to realize that not only do you have something to offer them, but they have something to offer you.
But then it might be campus ministry. It might be an opportunity to go on a retreat or a pilgrimage, or have a spiritual director.
Or whatever the case might be. You might also find just stopping by the Notre Dame Grotto a grotto that's dedicated to really spending a moment and reflecting on the life of Mary Mary, the mother of Jesus who serves as an example of faith in so many different ways. The beauty of the grotto is is that it's open all the time and and I bet Patrick and Sam can attest to this, that they are like the most random hours of the day when you think like certainly no one will be at the grotto and you round the corner. And they're like three people just sitting there like.
Do you all have nothing to do but it turns out the grotto just has that kind of gravitational force that people are drawn to it and want to pray there and reflect there. It might be at the basilica. It might be going for a walk around the lakes. There are so many ways in which our faith and and faith more broadly is expressed, and so I'm going to stop here because you all have probably fallen asleep and I'm going to have Sam and Pat talk a little bit about their dorm experience. And then I'm going to pivot.
And talk a little bit about perhaps what an experience might look like if you are not from the Catholic tradition as well, so take it away guys.
I could start this time I yeah I lived in Lyons Hall on campus and I I just remember like the first welcome weekend that everyone comes out. It's super fun and a lot of the things that we did were centered like in our Chapel and the log Chapel in Hinesville was absolutely stunning. Or the Chapel. I don't. It's also Chapel is beautiful. I just completed it with another beautiful Chapel. I can't because there are so many and like every building or like every corner of campus. But it was like one of the most. I guess one of the earliest places to that. I found community just by like visually seeing all the people that I was not like.
Entering into this class with within my living space, just having like director talk to us and introduce us to the culture of our dorm in this shared space of reflection was really beautiful. And then my second favorite part of welcome weekend that I guess centered around the dorm as well as we're all given these candles to bring back to the grotto. As Father Pete was just talking about during the final service of our welcome week. When your whole class comes together so you're with your door and all the people you've just met. You're given a candle you know to light, and we do the alma mater we say back and forth and we're all like at this service at the grotto and it's just it's incredible there's.
Many more than three people, 'cause we're all like told to be there at once, like what is going on, and you're like, oh, bring this back any point during your four years. And honestly, I still have that candle and I'm I'm just waiting to bring it back at the end of this semester, like knowing I'll probably put it out, put the flame out with my tears 'cause I'm leaving, but a lot of like earliest memories I have of. Just like visually seeing all the people that I share this space with in a way that was reflected have been in the setting of the dorm and also in the setting like the broader side. So reflective spaces on campus. So I'm really grateful for that.
Lions gave me a good foundation point for that as well, and it continuous one with our masses. We had big cookie mass all the time. It was really fun. We had cookies after mass so.
Do you want to masturbate? You could have a cookie too, so that was cool.
Already and yeah, that opening prayer service. The grotto is awesome.
Get the chills every time you sing the alma mater, and it was just incredible. You actually have it at the last day of classes, your senior year too, so it's a nice way to bookend your name career.
And one thing I'd add about the grotto to always happens to be more packed during finals week, with everybody praying for the the extra edge on their exams. UM, so certainly during that time it gets pretty packed too, but in regards to Siegfried Mass, my interaction was really.
I mean, I, I went regularly to Siegfried Mass. Everyone would be kind of, you know, watching a football game on a Sunday evening and head down in our pajamas and all share masks together. Like I said before, the Community meetings afterwards people would go to the grotto. Afterwards. People would always share in intention. So you, you know always had that connection to other people knew what was going on in their lives and what they wanted to pray for.
So you know it, it goes beyond just the mass too, because you're able to follow up with the same guys you're sitting next to, you know, just in talking to him at the door. Maybe you're going through some stuff having that relationship with other people that live with you. I think it is really valuable.
That's great, and So what you can see here is, and this is. This is two people, right? And it's important to remember that Notre Dame is 8000 undergrads. And so if if what you were hoping to hear wasn't necessarily represented, remember you've got three people trying to represent a really, really big and dynamic and diverse community, and so we're gonna do the best that we can. But I don't want you getting nervous.
I'm thinking like Oh my goodness, they didn't talk about this or that and I'll just I'll just put a plug in there and Patrick and Sam. If if you guys are seeing questions and I'm not seeing them, I'll just I'll just pretend to be the old guy, which in fact I am the old guy in the room here who just doesn't know how to use the technology. But if if folks would like to submit a question, please be sure, but maybe while you're thinking about those questions a little bit about what it might feel like to be a non Catholic student here and or frankly a person.
With no particular belief at all, and again, what I said earlier still stands we have a responsibility as Notre Dame to make sure that each person is loved and cared for. And so the way that we try to go about that is is varied one we provide in campus ministry where I work resources for students who come from a variety of faith backgrounds. In fact, on our website we have kind of a. It's it's something it's a website.
A portion of our site that I really love to go to 'cause it's got all of these different parishes geocast and so you can actually look up in the South Bend area.
A temple or you can look up a non denominational Christian Church and you can see all the different options that you can plug into. And So what we really try to encourage is to for our students who are.
07:25:32 PM
You may get into this later, but what options are there for church choir (especially traditional music)?
Practicing these particular faith backgrounds to make sure that they're plugging into local parishes and local communities, and so we'll work with individual students should you need it. But you'll also begin to quickly find that there's kind of an informal ride sharing that begins to occur pretty quickly, but over the course of the first couple weeks, we'll make sure that people are getting connected and just remember, you know, reach out to me, Father Pete McCormick at Ryder Campus Ministry and I can get you plugged in and tie it up into a good.
Driving situation over to a particular location, so that's one, but also two. It's important to know that there's a variety of clubs on our campus and these clubs have ways of bringing in particular speakers and and faith leaders and thinkers that are able to allow for us as a broader community to think about how we consider the life of faith more broadly. And frankly, it's really important as a Catholic priest.
07:26:28 PM
How discussion-based are Theology classes at Notre Dame?
For me to be in conversation with a variety of people from all different types of walks of life and faith traditions and so. Frankly, it's so very important for us as a Notre Dame community to make sure that while yes we are Catholic, we should not see that as sorry, not Catholic. We don't have time for that thought or that approach. It needs to be a conversation in a dialogue. And so Sam, if I could put you on the spot you mentioned, the fact that faith is not necessarily something that you're so focused on at this present moment. Could you talk a little bit about what your experience has been like?
Being at Notre Dame and and also kind of.
How you've come to appreciate perhaps the tradition that Notre Dame offers.
Oh yeah, definitely thank you for the question brother Pete. Yeah I would say for me like I've definitely had an interesting relationship to faith. I'm not straight, I'm not sis. I definitely have represent the things that people sometimes would say, our antagonistic to what it means to have a Catholic identity. But I've never wanted that to preclude me from being in these conversations. It's like you said to Father P like it's a dialogue.
It's a two way St so I didn't see that as necessarily something that should just just. I don't know, just include me from those conversations so I never shy away from joining them despite the kind of fears that maybe I had going into them. But really, what my questions are always focused on. Like what does it mean to be human and a lot of the classes I took in the professors I talked to with different like theological research interests and my rector and things like that. Like really, what we ended up just talking about was like what does it mean to be like a constantly questioning person? What does it mean to be a subject whose?
In a in a Free State, but also who has these questions in the like knowledge of something that like nothing greater than could be thought of. And so I realize like a lot of the questions that I was asking myself, and like existential philosophical nature, were largely the same as the ones that the Catholic faith seeks to. I don't know address or approach, and so I would say like MPLS, MPLS, all our classes or discussion based. So coming into like each reading, kind of with the questions that I had or like the doubts that I had.
From my experiences, like external to any of like actual like all the all the background noise I had of what it meant to be my identity as such in this setting. But then we're talking about what it means to be a human person in an abstract sense. So kind of like navigating that negotiation was really tough for me at first. I didn't really know what kind of voice I should have in it or what kind of openness of mind I should have. What what that meant. I still don't entirely know what it means. I don't think I have a conclusive answer anything, but I would say it's kind of just been listening to the people around me and being as willing to engage in that dialogue as you kind of say you are too proud of, Pete.
But I think that the question of like what does it mean to be human or something? You can't really escape like I mean that you could say you're human being in a body. Or you could say you're human being in the abstract, you can say you're human being in a space and time you can say you're human. Being in a dorm. And like those questions are things you can't escape as a human being, and so kind of realizing that for me is like there's this idea of like religiosity that I had maybe coming in my head that I was like somehow alienated from, but I'm I think I what I thought I was alienated from is not what I what. I ended up thinking I'm alienated from now so.
Make that more clear, like at the time I thought that I could escape this idea of religiosity, but I think I had escaped like a toxic mindset of religiosity, and so the classes and experiences I've had at Notre Dame that helped me to see that there's really no way to alienate yourself from the questions of like what does it mean to be human? How do we share a community together? What does it mean to practice a spiritual way of being in community with other people who are also spiritual or not? And so the things that I thought I escaped or didn't belong to or not actually the things that were the religious, Catholic science that.
I had the opportunity to learn and get more language about since being here, so I'm not sure entirely what that means, which is why I'm like still so confused, but I still wouldn't consider myself Catholic and necessarily the strict sense. But I I have a Catholic understanding and I'm interested in learning more, and I'm constantly questioning so.
I would say I've new ways to think about the things I thought I could escape or wanted to escape of religion and thought I was alienated from by my like the things I do or the things I have in my life or whatnot so I don't know. I think that helps.
That's that's awesome and thanks. Thanks Sam so much for sharing that. That's a really beautifully well well said insight into, you know the complexities of coming to a place like Notre Dame and authentically bringing yourself into that. And that's really what we strive for here. So Pat, I'm going to switch gears and hand it over to you here for a minute. With this question you ready drum roll please? If you were to offer any advice to your first yourself about life at Notre Dame specifically in the faith lens.
What would that be? What would that advice be?
OK, sounds good and then we do have a number of questions so maybe we can do a little lightning round afterwards.
I don't see any, so you're gonna have to guide us through on these questions.
No problem, but yeah so for me I just say lean into it. You know for someone coming from a Catholic background, it can be a little bit overwhelming. You see people in the dining hall, you know, blushing themselves before they eat. That's not something I I would typically do, but you know, getting involved in the extent that you want to is really what Notre Dame offers here. For me, that was really through volunteering.
07:31:45 PM
What retreats are available for students?
07:31:49 PM
How do students get involved in any of the musical groups on campus - like the Folk Choir or Liturgical Choir etc?
07:31:54 PM
What is the best place for Adoration and Confession?
Every Sunday, Siegfried would send a big contingent to the South Bend Center from the homeless. The upperclassman would would pick up all the underclassmen and drive them over. There is really a great way both to connect with others in my community, but also give back and interact with faith and spirituality. You know, in kind of a different setting, so that's what I would recommend. There's so many different options for you to get involved in, like Father Pete said.
07:32:00 PM
If you could express it in a word or two….why do alumni and students love Notre Dame so much?
No, refer back to those resources on the campus ministry website. There's so much information there for you guys to get involved.
Yeah, do you want me to fire these off already?
Just go man I I'm flying blind over here so it's probably good they didn't give the questions to the priest so alright.
So yeah, we we got a question here about the theology requirement. There's two specific courses that you have to take, but there are options to select the two that you're interested in. If you choose which ones do you recommend so you start off with that foundations class? The curriculum is the same for all of them. You typically take that as a freshman, but then the second one is an elective. I would recommend my nuptial mystery class. I've also taken a church real estate class that has been awesome, Sarah, you got any?
Rory D.
07:32:41 PM
For the theology requirement, are there 2 specific courses you must take or are there options and you select 2 you’re interested in? If you get to choose, which ones do you recommend?
I took a business in the neighborhood somewhere. I don't know that was good Catholic. The Christian CTT, Christian theological conditions through the PLS department is hands down the best courses I've taken here, so I'd recommend that as a second theology for sure, yeah answers.
Did we? Did we lose Father Pete here? Oh he's back alright.
I'm back and you know what I can now see the questions. This is amazing. It's a miracle.
Oh beautiful, alright that's all it took.
Y'all you go man, you're the host run.
OK, if you insist, have you volunteered on campuses either going through the church or through the dorm. I'd say what's the stat 80% of students volunteer here at Notre Dame at some point during the time so CSC, which is Center for social concerns. Great resource. I kind of punt it to their website that dorms do volunteer work. The church does volunteer work, so really whatever capacity you want.
Anything else to add to that?
07:33:39 PM
How have you volunteered on campus? Is it easier to go through the church or dorm?
Is study abroad and nerdy? I'm still Catholic.
I had never studied abroad. Well, we had the COVID year Sam and I so unfortunately that was messed up. But it I believe it's not like you can go to any university that's approved within the study abroad program, right?
Necessarily Catholic school.
But I think they offer them.
Now, in in some instances.
I think they still offer the ability to go to some Catholic schools abroad if that's of interest.
So what ends up happening? Depending on the local?
07:34:21 PM
Is study abroad still Notre Dame Catholic?
07:34:31 PM
On average, how often do students go to a mass during the week and do they mostly go in their own halls chapel or to other residence halls chapels?
Daniel P.
07:34:35 PM
In what languages are Masses celebrated?
Saif E.
07:34:40 PM
What would faith and spiritual life look like for a Muslim student at Notre Dame?
07:34:44 PM
Does the Notre Dame Encounter program still exist?
Yeah, depending on depending on the location, what happens with study abroad is is that you have. In some instances, Notre Dame has what we call global gateways, which means that we have locations throughout the globe, namely London, Rome and others that students would plug into one of those global gateways and they would. It would be. I'm a Notre Dame student in London, whereas there are other locations which I cannot name off the top of my head that are.
A bit more niche. So for instance something like jeanfrancois France, that is, that is, you're still engaged in the Notre Dame study abroad, but you're not at a particular global gateway. It's a little bit more kind of intimate, and so what's really cool is that Notre Dame students are afforded usually in their junior year the chance to study abroad, either their first semester or their spring semester, and it just depends if they want. If they get accepted into, and I'll say it so that these guys don't have to. Depends on how much they want to miss football.
Come and so, but like this is really a cool opportunity for students to partake in, and the neat part about it is from an expression of faith in the experience of faith. It allows you to have a different experience outside of what you would otherwise normally see either here at Notre Dame or maybe where you grew up.
They must have their own whole Chapel or to other residence halls, chapels, Father Pete, I probably know the those stats better than I do.
Yeah, and I think during normal time 75% of students would study abroad, so it's very popular. We've places on six out of seven continents, so a lot of opportunity. So on average, how often do students go to mass during the weekend?
You know what? I don't go to mass. You might have others for whom their daily communicants, and you've got a healthy chunk right in the middle. So, interestingly enough, I have dorm mass right through that door. On the other side, I'm conveniently located in the dorm that I'm in that the Chapel is right across the hall. That's what I call a short commute to work. Try to get it if you can, guys, but the but I would say that berries, but there's never kind of a lack of opportunity, that's for sure.
And then, in what languages are masses celebrated?
You know what one of the the things that they really try to emphasize is Notre Dame is a is a university that, despite being located in South Bend IN which by the way, you will find amazingly charming in its own way. And I think both Patrick and Sam can attest to this like it's certainly not going to show up on perhaps the top 25 greatest destinations of all time, but it's got its own charm and it's someone who did not grow up here, grew up in Grand Rapids, MI and then.
I settled down in South Bend like I'm very proud of South Bend IN but what we try to do though, Notre Dame seeks to be a global university where we bring in professors and students from all around the globe and in what we hope to do then is to be able to, perhaps not always, but offer masses that are in a variety of languages, perhaps as kind of unique opportunities for a student to go to mass in Portuguese or Mandarin.
Or Hebrew, or you pick the language. But one thing we have a commitment to is in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which is kind of the Central University Church. We have a dedicated Spanish mass at 3:00 PM in the afternoons every single Sunday, so that's something that is also offered and it's so important given the high percent of our students that are either Spanish speaking or prefer to pray in Spanish. Given their kind of family of origin.
Totally and I think to your point of how our name tries to have that global pole, exactly the pole that we had at the beginning. The great diversity that you can see all throughout the US and internationally as well. Next question comes in what would faith and spiritual life look like for a Muslim student here at Notre Dame? I mean, I, I can't really speak to this personally. Do you have any insight Sam or Pete?
Same if you have any. I'm glad to play second fiddle here.
On there are a couple actually Muslim friends of mine and in my dorm and we had like a a couple events that they lead on like what that experience was for them and I think at first I think it's a matter of like finding people who are interested and there are channels to do so. There's lots of like group meets on campus where you might not necessarily like see all around you as apparently as the the the the like dominating group of of identities like there's definitely ways to meet people but based on the experiences that they shared I'm.
I I don't want to speak as if it's my personal experience, but what I learn from them was that at first it was definitely something they weren't sure was going to be something easy to do or or something that was really central to their experience in order. Damon, it. It ended up being the people they surrounded themselves with, but also the experiences of not being surrounded with people who had been from the same background that either strengthened or made them rethink about their puzzle like background. But then in terms of services, I think that they go somewhere off campus and that like campus ministry hooks them up with places like Father abuse saying or.
It was really easy to to get to their services as necessary, but I don't remember too much more about what they said, but I know that they ended up finding a really peaceful way to navigate, not being necessarily with a majority of Muslim peers, but also being able to celebrate that that in this in a shared days both with friends on campus and in spaces off campus.
I'll give you an example of something I'm working on right now. Right now Ramadan is just about two months away and I think it starts on the 2nd of April and so currently what I'm doing is is working to to make sure that the the dining hall is able to provide meals for students as they're keeping the fast throughout that holy season.
And this this came as a result of frankly us not doing this very well over the course of the past couple of years. And and there's a a very active Group One of our clubs, the Muslim Students Association, which Campus ministry we haven't assigned Minister that works with their president and seeks to engage them and say, hey, how are things going? What do you need? How can we help promote some of the events that you have going on? 'cause to the point I made earlier, right? Notre Dame should be a place where faith is allowed to flourish. If all I've done in my capacity as Director, Campus Ministry is to make sure that the Catholic students
succeed and everyone else takes a step back during their four years, Notre Dame, I have failed and and I want to make that point really clear and so always know that as a person of faith and as a human being, I think is Sam has made like it. It is incumbent upon Notre Dame to make sure that we honor and cherish each and every human soul. That's on this campus. And so we will seek to do our very best to care for them in whatever way possible.
And then the last question that I see here does the new Redeem encounter program still exist?
07:41:54 PM
I feel like a couple of questions got passed over regarding choir... could you talk about choir options?
That's a great question. That's that's a throwback retreat and so at present it does not exist. But we do have a variety of other retreats. You know I'll be candid with you all. COVID has has changed the way we've done a variety of things and what I'm really most excited about is to be able to offer meaningful retreats. But it's important to note here almost every single residence hall on campus offers a retreat which is really kind of a cool thing. And in addition to that, we have a series of.
Retreats that we offer for first years right out of the gate at the beginning of the academic year and then also we have a series of different retreats that occur throughout the course of the semester. So for instance, just two weeks ago we had a multicultural retreat, and in fact this weekend we have and lived retreat that we're offering, and so we want to make sure that we're able to provide a variety of different experiences. So for the students who prefer to stay closer to home in the residence halls we work with the dorms to ensure that's an opportunity.
For our first years and and some of our students who come from different cultural backgrounds and we want to make sure that each unique experience is honored and cherished and so really excited about what we have to offer. But as I think about the future, I can't help but get excited about the possibilities that begin to emerge when we've got a little bit more flexibility around travel and eating together and distancing etc etc.
Totally and then we got a question here about the choir options at Notre Dame.
Here you go if you. If you have the desire to sing we we have need so I can talk a little bit about the campus ministry choirs we have. We have 3 principles. The first is the full choir. Folk choir sings at the noon mass at the basilica every Sunday. We also have the liturgical choir they sing at the 10:00 AM and then we have the Magnificat choir, which is the women's choir, and they sing at the five.
PM each choir has somewhere between 50 and 70 students that participate on a weekly basis. In addition to rehearsals. If that's something that you're really interested in, there are great opportunities to to rehearse and excuse me to audition very early on when we arrive in August and then to get plugged in, and I can just say, as someone who's very proud to be apart and associated with this as they form really meaningful communities as well. So in addition to seeing together, it's a chance to come together as a community, but.
It's important to note this if you know what liturgical music music is, not your jam, there's a whole load of student clubs that afford folks the chance to kind of get plugged in. Whether this be acapella, whether this be I don't even know guys, but like maybe Pat and Sam, you can help me out in terms of the things that I'm not thinking of right now, but like I said, if you could sing, there's an opportunity.
Yeah, I I totally agree. And even in dorm masses there's sometimes a little choir. Are different band, instrument, section people are playing the piano. Actually people just play the piano in there to practice for for fun, even if they don't go to mass. So something to note as well.
07:45:12 PM
Are Latin Masses offered at Notre Dame?
And then this might be our last question here, 'cause we're low on time or Latin mass is offered at Notre Dame. That is a good question. I have no idea.
I can confirm they do, so we have a Latin mass. The traditional Latin mass is offered on Sunday mornings.
In one of the residence halls here and we have a small cadre of Holy Cross priests that that faithfully serve this community, and so it's we're very excited to be able to continue to offer that in a meaningful way. So yes, is the answer.
Alannah B.
07:45:44 PM
Thank you!
Great and any final thoughts. Father Peter questions that you have for us.
07:46:03 PM
Thanks for the choir and Latin Mass information!
Joyce Lantz
07:46:05 PM
Thanks so much, Sam, Patrick, Fr. Pete. This was a wonderful conversation. I so enjoyed it.
I have no further questions, but I think I'd like to say one thing which is so grateful for all those who joined us this evening. I know that there's a lot of things going on, and it truly is an honor to be a priest here at the University of Notre Dame, and to be around great students like both Pat and Sam. So to that end, guys, you guys take it away and I'll sit here tight.
I think there's only one thing I want to say. Thank you guys and go Irish.
Mason A.
07:46:20 PM
Thank you,
Hope to hope to you guys. Come here and have just upgraded the experience as we did.
Phelan M.
07:46:23 PM
Thank you!