“Being a Christian isn’t for sissies” – Johnny Cash
In the “Profession of Faith” at the upcoming Easter vigil, 52 new Catholics will recite for the first time, “I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.” Quite a courageous statement.
But let’s ask ourselves: Would the University of Notre Dame herself be able to say the same?
Twenty years ago, an American sociologist coined the term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (MTD) to describe the watered-down ‘religion’ of many young people across America. Its tenets are the following: (1) A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth, (2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions, (3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself, (4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem, and (5) Good people go to heaven when they die.
Sound familiar? At Notre Dame, we hear this fluffy rhetoric all the time from the university’s administration.
Sure, the university’s Catholic character might “inform all our endeavors,” as the Strategic Framework proposes. Indeed, every email contains a reference to the “Catholic mission” of the university, and posterboards around campus display countless events promoting community and faith engagement.
“Catholicism” is everywhere at Notre Dame. But far too often, Notre Dame’s “Catholicism” is actually closer to “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” than to the truth of the Faith. It’s not the Catholicism that attracted 715 people in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend—and 52 from Notre Dame—to enter the Church this year. It’s not the Catholicism that Blessed Basil Moreau and Fr. Sorin founded Notre Dame for. And it’s certainly not the Catholicism that the saints were martyred for.
True Catholicism demands a lot. Our Catholic faith is much more than a promotion of niceness and social justice that accepts and promotes other religions with passivity. At Notre Dame, students are told on campus tours that the university is “small-c catholic.” Interfaith prayer rooms appear across from chapels in campus buildings, suggesting—at least at face value—that other religions are equally true.
Why dumb down Catholicism? Often, campus initiatives are geared toward reaching more people, being inclusive, and making Mass an enjoyable experience in a community—well-intentioned goals driven by a desire to spread the Gospel.
But what the university doesn’t realize is that, aside from the dangers of watering down the faith, young people don’t want a religion that just tells them to be a “force for good.” On the whole, young people don’t believe in the feel-good tenets of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism anymore. We want the truth, and the truth is hard.
Catholicism is unique: It must be embraced wholeheartedly, or it has no point. We should respect students of other religions, but when respect becomes an endorsement, we sacrifice our own principles and become lukewarm.
During the season of Lent, catechumens will continue to receive formation through Notre Dame’s OCIA program. And at the Easter Vigil, they will take the most important step of their lives: a confident step into the arms of Christ and His Church.
Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of the Annunciation, the most radical choice made in history. When Mary said ‘yes,’ she welcomed the hidden delights of the home in Nazareth, but she also accepted the agony of watching her son die on a cross. Two thousand years later, her university can’t seem to follow her example.
As a Catholic university, we cannot falter in our commitment to the faith when it is unpopular, and no amount of secular pressure should make us abandon what we hold most dear. Notre Dame’s students want more. They deserve the richness of the Catholic faith, with all its hardship, for it is there that they will find true belonging.
Michael Canady is a junior from Falls Church, Virginia. He can be reached at mcanady2@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Matthew Rice
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