A Catholic in the cafeteria
Dowling, Regina Plunkett
Take, for example, the matter of evangelization. American policy of not inviting parents to consider joining the church. Catholics are hesitant to evangelize. In fact, Catholics take a ...
...I smiled in gracious anticipation...
...Put down we will secure a blessing for all God's people...
...ify on both counts), it is easy and tempting to dismiss the If we invite them to take the choicest places at the table, complaints of teen-agers and college students...
...They remind me adorned the Mass with ad-libbed prayers were subject to of the Galilean and Judean villagers following, from the gentle rebuke...
...one-third of their alienation to simple adolescent carp- REGINA PLUNKETT DOWLING ing, another third to the reach of the prevailing culture Regina Plunkett Dowling is the former chaplain at Saint and its current crop of idols (personal choice, disposable Joseph College in West Hartford, Connecticut...
...Hers was a familiar refrain...
...There were exceptions, to be sure-mostly all the church...
...Yet she gave me an invaluable gift, forcing me to ward glance...
...Others stayed in, falling in love with the Body recognize anew what Paul first saw two thousand years of Christ...
...Dinnertime in the college cafeteria...
...to their own particular fears and failings and moments of Out poured the adjectives: "cold, remote, unfeeling, judg- grace...
...They want to hear, now and then, a word addressed by Catholic...
...Well, what exactly do you mean altar...
...In fact, Catholics take a This is like a car dealer boasting that while consumers may certain satisfaction in appearing not to proselytize...
...they want to be acknowledged...
...Not that I could a desire may often go undetected just because students take much credit for myself...
...For themselves, or for right...
...They don't want to wait until they're fifty before mental, rigid, exclusive"-a tissue of impressions, gath- they can serve as lectors or eucharistic ministers...
...They want music good gust, as if recalling an ancient aunt who didn't smell quite enough that songs become prayers...
...candidate at Yale University...
...Certainly that night in the cafeAmong those angered or disgusted or wearied by their home teria, I had a great desire to throttle my sophomore comparish, many walked away from the church without a back- panion...
...we hear...
...Still others, like this sophomore, bloomed with ago in Corinth: how thoroughly all our elaborate labors on enthusiasm, but were anchored to the church by fragile behalf of grace are dependent on the simplest gestures of roots...
...They want ered layer by layer in the parish of her youth, hardened to he invited...
...porated into their own local churches...
...they want to now into a carapace of disdain...
...Catholics who had grown up in the fabled dioceses of the The impatience of younger Catholics can chafe, and their Midwest, where, it was reported, things were "different...
...They want to walk into church on She said the word "Catholic" with a small moue of dis- Sunday and be called by name...
...But this efthe chapel...
...be known...
...Basic stuff...
...Think of buy the competition's car, he services them at his repair shop...
...For the hyper-educated and for pastoral leaders (I qual- We can do better by the younger members of the church...
...Spontaneous student confessions of enthusiasm for the litur- Moreover, this is what they themselves desire...
...The If only...
...how many parishes in the inner-city boast of the great num- The real pride in Catholic inner-city schools, it seems to me, bers of non-Catholics attending their school, yet many have a would come when the parents of students at these schools are third to ignorance...
...You know the thing I like best about Mass in Catholics into the wider community of faith...
...Commonweal 10 September 1993: 11...
...thoughtlessness can sting...
...If we could leave off feeling harried and train our at"The best thing about Mass," she went on, "is how it's tention on our younger brothers and sisters, what would not really Catholic...
...sophomore was beaming at me across the Chicken Education is an essential means of incorporating younger Marengo...
...I kept the simple lines of tra- tend not to possess a theological vocabulary...
...Yet, such gy always warmed my chaplain's heart...
...college classmates, I had listened to changes rung on the Their thirst for inclusion is a gift from the Holy Spirit for same theme...
...Beginning with my own They want, in short, to be part of the One Body of Christ...
...If the gift is awkward to receive, so be it...
...Visiting celebrants who favor the swift, direct, concrete appeal...
...This last, being susceptible to remedy, ushers in the further temptation to educate: if only A Catholic college-age Catholics could read (pick four out of six)in the cafeteria Merton, Lumen gentium, Flannery O'Connor, Teresa of Avila, Raymond Brown commentaries, or Commonweal...
...Jesus' progress toward Jerusalem, liturgy committee, had to be a gift of the Holy Spirit...
...designed such a satisfying ritual...
...hospitality...
...fort will flounder, I'm afraid, if students aren't first incor"No, what exactly...
...Left lobbing their demands through the noise of the crowd, solely to our own devices, we humans could never have fended off by harried disciples...
...The Mass, as I often reminded the student margins of the road...
...their younger sisters, they want a chance to serve at the I recovered my voice...
...Those I know dition uncluttered, or tried to...
...At present income, and the perfect body a la MTV), and the final she is a Ph.D...
Vol. 120 • September 1993 • No. 15
