Ellen Roof, Culture & Thought Editor

Notre Dame offers students the incredible opportunity to study abroad in a variety of different countries.  Many students discover some differences in their faith lives abroad as compared to faith life on campus.  As students eagerly await the announcement of acceptances to study abroad programs, it is interesting to take a closer look at students’ experiences of Catholicism abroad.

Junior Libby Boswell spent last semester in Rome, where she did not notice a significant difference in the faith of American college students versus international college students.  “I saw a lot of young people at Mass in various countries, but I never really had the chance to speak with them individually about their faith,” Boswell said. She did, however, feel that studying abroad helped strengthen her own faith.
Boswell noted that in regard to Catholicism abroad, the most striking aspect for her was how her faith helped her feel she was a part of the international community.  “When traveling around Europe and going to countries where I didn’t speak the language, it was easy to feel pretty out of place—going to Mass was a familiar comfort abroad,”  she said.

Attending Mass abroad highlights the unity of the Catholic Church.  “I tried to attend Mass in as many countries as I could, and every time I did it was an amazing experience,” Boswell explained.  “My friends and I would be in a beautiful European church, surrounded by strangers who spoke a different language than we did, but we still felt a connection to these people because of our common beliefs.  I felt like Catholicism was a unifying factor between people of different countries and backgrounds.”

Senior Maggie Kakenmaster experienced a new type of faith life in terms of diversity during her semester abroad last year in the UK.  “I joined the Catholic Society at the university I was abroad at and found a faith community that was incredibly diverse, built of students from all over the world and with many different stories about how faith has played a role in their lives,” Kakenmaster noted.

“While I love the faith life at ND, it severely lacks diversity and tends to be so focused on very serious events.” Kakenmaster confessed.  “It’s so important to have bible studies, adoration, meditation, etc., but it’s also important to foster the feeling of true community throughout all of the members of the faith community.” After Sunday Mass Kakenmaster would travel with the Catholic society to serve lunch at the homeless shelter, followed by a bowling trip later in the afternoon.  The group went to a short Mass each Tuesday, followed by meditations and a casual dinner where they could talk about subjects other than theology as well.  Kakenmaster felt these outings and group discussions promoted greater group camaraderie and added to her faith life by creating stronger friendships with fellow Catholics.

Kakenmaster did miss the “excited, passionate American worship music” compared to the music abroad, which “was significantly more somber and Gregorian in nature.”

Junior Mary Kate Veselik studied abroad this past summer in Rome. “Rome is an extremely religious city, obviously, so faith was all around us.  Faith was definitely a part of the daily lives of the Romans, more so than it is here,” Veselik noted.

She found the biggest difference in the Masses to be the language barrier.  While she recognized the appropriate times to sit, stand, and kneel, it was difficult to completely follow the Mass in French and Italian.  Veselik additionally noted that “the churches are sights for visitors, so the whole time services are going on people are milling around and touring the churches.”

Ellen Roof is a sophomore business and marketing major who found the most exciting part of the Super Bowl to be Beyonce’s halftime performance.  Email her at eroof@nd.edu.