<p>Choc, it’s so rare for anyone to be so consistently offensive to me face to face that I don’t have a valid basis of comparison. I think the last time it happened in the context of the Church was when a visitor from another country stood outside on the steps and loudly complained that one of our priests of being a heretic for his homily (which I think was on the misuse of governmental power); I walked past by about ten steps and then thought “Nuts!” and turned around and let him have it, seeing how the good Father wasn’t there to defend himself. But I have no a priori compunctions about returning fire if fired upon. For an interesting contrast, please note the tenor of the exchanges between SJMom and myself in which she expressed similar views but without any personal animus attached.</p>
<p>FarAway, if you’re interested, you might want to seek out a good work on Vatican II, which, among other things, profoundly redefined the role of the laity in the Church. The outward symbols–Mass being said in the language of the local vernacular, the priests turning around and facing the congregation as active participants instead of observers–are just the tip of the iceberg. Someone at the time spoke of the shutters to the Church being opened to admit light and fresh air. More recently someone else said something along the lines that the shutters were being shut again under John Paul II but I am not so pessimistic. I know that the Tridentine Mass (Latin) is still celebrated in some places and that some long for the Fifties: Habit-dressed Sister smacks the hands of erring students with a ruler, abstinence (no meat) on Fridays, and compliant parishoners who do what they’re told by Father, but those days are dead and gone, Pandora’s box has been opened. But the Church has always been evolving: you have but to study, say, the practices of Communion (and the underlying theology at the time) over the centuries. </p>
<p>Timely, Vatican II wasn’t the endpoint. Ecumenicism has had a zig-zag course but generally forward and there are more recent encyclicals on the subject. I don’t think anyone would go as far as to say that Catholics and Protestants comprise one big happy family since neither Catholics nor Protestants themselves could be so considered. (And if anyone things so, please ask Hans Kung and Charles Curran about their opinions on the subject.) I think the official phrase is something like “out of unity,” which describes “difference” but diminishes sense of “conflict.” And certainly you get into some contortions where in some circumstances both Episcopalians and Lutherans have concelebrated Mass with Catholics, sharing Communion, and at other times such things have been emphatically Verboten. </p>
<p>As with Religion in general, perhaps its best to approach the Church in a frame of mind able to entertain contradictions without blowing a gasket.</p>
<p>I think we’ve strayed quite far from the original topic… If anyone has anything to add about on-campus discrimination against Catholics, please feel free to do so. Otherwise, save the theology discussions for another venue. Thanks…</p>
<p>Motherdear, my D attends a private, secular college, and attended catholic schools K-12. She hasn’t encountered any negative issues, and attends mass with like minded teammates and friends Sunday evenings, plus has a minor in religion. If anything, on her campus, all the various religions seem to be curious about each other, so there is a lot of interfaith sharing and socialization. </p>
<p>The campus culture and leadership seems very supportive of religion too; for example, she is flying out this morning for a race, the team was scheduled to return Sunday evening, but, because exactly one catholic member of the team wants to attend mass early Sunday, the coaching staff made last minute arrangements for different flights, so they’re returning at 3:00 a.m. Sunday or something.</p>
<p>Okay, as Roger said, back to the original topic, is there anti-catholic bias.</p>
<p>If you look for something you can always find it. You can also find a number of examples of quite the opposite, i.e. 5 members of the supreme court are or were Catholic.</p>
<p>In looking for a bias, I have been having trouble explaining the US News peer assessment of the Catholic colleges, i.e. ND, Georgetown, BC, HC, etc.</p>
<p>Looking at ND for example, they are ranked 18 by US News overall but they have a peer assessment of 3.9. That is lower that the other schools ranked close to it. Considering that peer assessment is worth 25% of the overall score for each school this number is quite significant. Is there a reason for this?</p>
<p>It is also true for other religiously affiliated schools, i.e. Wake Forest (now sectarian but formerly Baptist) and Yeshiva University (2.9!!). It seems that at least in the institutions of higher learning there may be a bias against religious based schools . . .</p>
<p>My friend, a Catholic convert, works in the music dept. at a large state U. in the south and uses practice rooms there. A couple weeks ago, she had accidently left a very small (2"X3") holy card (picture of Mary) in the room (not attached to the wall, but propped up on a music stand–she was adopting a child, and was praying about the upcoming trip after a practice session). </p>
<p>Yesterday, after several weeks away, she used the same room again and found her holy card with a very large note attached to it, which said, "In this age of religious hypersensitivity, I would very much like to know what could have possibly motivated a person to display something like this (holy card) here. Please contact me and explain yourself. Jane Smith (assumed to be faculty member)phone, email, etc. " </p>
<p>My friend showed this note to me for a laugh–she had already thrown it away. I thought she should answer it. I don’t see how anyone could be offended by a tiny picture of Mary. It is hard to know if the writer was offended herself, or worried, in a very PC way, that SOMEONE might be offended by something religious, or something associated with a particular religion. And she seems to assume that the card was left there on purpose. (I imagine that papers, other personal items are left in the rooms all the time by accident). She could have thrown away the card. Personally, I can’t think of anything less offensive–it’s not like a tract, no words on it. Even Muslims and Protestants respect Mary. (I’m guessing by the name that the writer is Protestant, or atheist). As my friend pointed out, there are, on public display in the nearby art dept. plenty of very large and (much more likely to be) offensive pictures–and no one complains about those.</p>
<p>I don’t consider what most Protestants feel for Mary respect. On more than one occasion I have heard her referred to as a “mere vessal” by some fundamentalists at my school. Sometimes from women!
Also, Catholics do believe that anyone can go to heaven no matter what their religion, as long as they are a good person and do right. I love this part of my religion. However, Protestants believe that only Christians with complete faith may go to heaven. It’s called “salvation through grace.” At my little sister’s preschool, my mother told the teacher we were Catholic and she replied, “You haven’t been saved yet?”
I’ve gone to public schools all of my life, and there have been other such experiences. I don’t know. I feel like I’m kind of tired of it and want to go to a Catholic school like BC or ND. But at the same time, I value diversity. It’s still something I need to decide.</p>
<p>You know, there are people of every faith who just can be insensitive. In a college environment, I don’t think you’ll run into that kind of thing very often. There might still be people who wonder about your salvation and want to engage in a discussion about that, but they’ll probably do it in a less offensive way. :-)</p>
<p>'At my little sister’s preschool, my mother told the teacher we were Catholic and she replied, “You haven’t been saved yet?” '</p>
<p>Even worse, when my kid was in preschool, she had a lapsed Catholic who had converted to a tongue-speaking (no joke) Pentacostal sect. This teacher brought religion to the classroom to a non-religious private school and even tried to get me in a debate. Luckily the owners of the school listened to complaints and she was fired.</p>