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At its core, St. Jerome's University is a Roman Catholic University college. It was founded in 1865 by the Reverend Dr. Louis Funcken, member of the Congregation of the Resurrection - and has kept close ties with the local Catholic community ever since.
While you do not need to be Catholic or religious to attend SJU, there are still many opportunities on campus to become involved with the worshipping community and nurture your spiritual side. As we're currently in Catholic Holy Week, I felt as though this would be a good time to chat with Martha Fauteux and Erika Toffelmire, SJU's Director and Coordinator (respectively) of Campus Ministry, to find out why Campus Ministry is important for religious and non-religious students alike. Here's what they had to say.
What are the responsibilities of Campus Ministry at St. Jeromes? What do you do here?
E.T.: The main thing that Campus Ministry does is provide a welcoming environment where people can explore their spirituality. We support the spiritual development of all students, staff, and faculty. We do that in several different ways. Some of that is with liturgies on Sunday and liturgies during the week, some of that is through programming, some of that is also through one-on-one support that we offer…
M.F.: Yeah, I think one of our big focuses is community building…to be Catholic in the best sense of the word is to be welcoming to all. There are specific things that we do because we’re a Catholic university but there are also the kinds of things that we do regardless of any faith tradition. We have spiritual development events like the Busy Students’ Retreat, we’ve been doing meditation groups, Bible study nights, engagement after our student liturgy on Sunday nights – but I think also just the presence that we have in the community helps.
We see spiritual development as a key part of human development. For example, a lot of students come to see us one-on-one because questions start to arise for them once they move away from home. Things that they used to take for granted are now becoming questions for them, so we’ll often see drop-in visits…I definitely consider that part of my job to be programming.
E.T.: We also do a lot of work with the worshipping community on Sundays. It’s kind of a mix between the church community that students might be familiar with from home, but then also some more student programming that might be new to them.
How can a first-year student get involved with Campus Ministry at St. Jerome’s?
ET: Certainly attending events that we put on, certainly coming to talk with us if they have questions or if they want to be learning more about their spirituality or how to be connected in that way. They can get involved in student mass in our liturgies or be a part of our choir…they can help with children’s liturgy at our morning masses.
One of the things we’ve been doing over the past couple of years is inviting first-year students to be a part of our Campus Ministry team in the winter term. Half of our team right now is first-year students who applied and started this winter. It’s a nice opportunity for them if they’re really excited and really interested and wanting to jump in to a leadership opportunity in their second term. It’s a great chance for them to participate, learn, and reflect.
How can religious students of all denominations – including Catholics – practise, develop, and nurture their spirituality at St. Jerome’s?
MF: That’s a really good question. It’s one we’re constantly asking ourselves, “How can we program and how can we be better at being more inclusive to non-Catholic religious students?” The very fact that they’re at St. Jerome’s means that they have access to all the services at UW, including the association of chaplains on campus, which Erika and I are members of. If there is a specific faith tradition that they want to practise, we can put them in contact with the chaplains that are a part of those faith traditions. In addition to that, we’re hoping that we’re going to develop programming for all faith traditions with the ongoing renovation of our worship space. In the past, we’ve had events like Theology on Tap, where we’ve come together and had discussions in the Funcken Café. We want to gear some of our programming towards having people of different faith traditions come together and share their experiences with one another.
ET: There is a lot of programming that we do that is open to anyone of any faith tradition. Martha mentioned the Busy Students’ Retreat, which isn’t necessarily based on any one particular faith and is an opportunity for students to be spending some time in reflection with their own tools that they might have for their spiritual development. Martha and I may be able to offer some support there at times. Then they also meet with a mentor who can walk them through some guiding questions.
Obviously, St. Jerome’s has a very strong and proud Catholic tradition. One of the main questions or concerns that we get from students on our tours is, “I’m not Catholic/religious. Will I still feel welcome at St. Jerome’s?” What would you say to that?
ET: I think that something that we tell students is that your spiritual development doesn’t always fall within the realm of a particular religious tradition. It certainly doesn’t always fall in the realm of the Catholic tradition. So when we talk about spiritual development, we’re talking about the opportunity for students to be asking big questions – not just what am I going to eat for dinner tonight, but questions like, “Who am I and how do I want to develop my identity? What is my purpose in life? Those are questions that all students ask. That’s really the support that we’re wanting to offer. For some students, those questions might be answered within a religious framework, and for some students, it might not. Coming to St. Jerome’s means they’re a student who is wanting a small, intimate community; and oftentimes it means they are open to thinking about the world beyond themselves. I think that’s a very important piece. That might mean working with us, it might mean connecting with other chaplains on campus, it might mean going on service learning trips. Anything that broadens their horizon from their immediate needs, so to speak.
MF: I think what we offer here is ultimately about the community. It’s about making St. Jerome’s a safe place where you can explore who you’re becoming, where your values are, and why you have those particular values. You can ask the harder questions.
I always think about a student who came to talk to me around the time I first started here. She had grown up in a household where her family held very black-and-white beliefs, and then she moved away for university and started questioning what she had been living by for her whole life up to that point. I remember telling her, “Welcome to adult spirituality, this is completely normal.” Adult spirituality really is about being comfortable with asking the questions and not always having the answers, but also having a safe place to explore those things.
I think because we’re a nice, small community and we do put a lot of emphasis on community, feeling at home, and feeling safe – it is a place where people can ask big questions – and feel comfortable asking big questions – whether or not they’re of a spiritual nature. Certainly, it’s a place where you can explore all of that.
How can students who aren’t religious practise, develop, and nurture their spirituality at St. Jerome’s?
ET: I always think that there are lots of opportunities, and those opportunities are embedded in lots of other things that we do at the university. Any leadership opportunity that involves reflecting on experiences, growth, and values – that’s a huge opportunity for students to be practising spirituality. I also think about things like Relay for Life, where we see this big chance for people to be thinking about loved ones and being with one another and supporting one another, and I think that ends up being a great opportunity.
MF: I’m always amazed by Relay [For Life]. It crosses all spiritual lines. Everyone is so supportive of one another…I mean, who hasn’t been touched by somebody with cancer? Seeing peers minister to peers is truly awe-inspiring. I think our student leadership roles provide opportunities, as do our service learning trips…the very fact of being at university means you probably move into this realm of questioning, thinking beyond yourself, asking the difficult questions. We’ve found that students are realizing that they’re now being challenged to think independently once they get to university, and a lot of questions follow.
ET: I think also for me, spiritual development also falls within wellness – it’s very difficult to feel well, whether physically, emotionally, or mentally - if you’re not living with integrity or you feel that there’s something wrong with how you’re living your day-to-day life-
MF: -it’s like a call to accept who you are, the uniqueness of you – rather than feeling like you have to be like someone else.
ET: Right. Any experience that offers reflection offers a whole lot of opportunity. They’re things that most people won’t normally classify as “spiritual” but I think that it’s a way for people to be developing themselves.
This year we have the St. John’s Bible at SJU, which is pretty special. What’s that all about?
MF: Well, the St. John’s Bible was commissioned by the Benedictine Monks at St. John’s University in Minnesota – they wanted someone to actually hand-write the Bible and put images in there that are really for younger generations. The last time that there was a written bible was, I think, about five hundred years ago. This one, if you take a look at it, has beautiful illustrations of a DNA strand, you have the Hubble Telescope, images depicting Indigenous peoples…the real purpose for these images was to create a Bible that wasn’t strictly for Catholics. The monks wanted everyone to be illuminated by the word of God and how it’s present in our world.
A couple of years ago, Katherine [Bergman, President and Vice-Chancellor of SJU] and I were at this conference and the St. John’s Bible was there. Katherine saw it and she thought it was so cool. It really does connect with our heritage because St. Jerome actually translated Bible scriptures into Latin by hand. Anyways, Katherine decided it would be a great opportunity for St. Jerome’s to take on this Bible for a year – so the Bible came here.
There’s a whole lot of programming that’s being developed around the Bible so that people can really understand it and appreciate it for what it is. For example, we did a calligraphy workshop and that was an attempt to appreciate why it took eleven years to finish the Bible. One that I want to do is take that calligraphy, get participants to write their names - and then do some illuminated artwork around it.
It goes back to what we were saying before about helping people to appreciate that their spirituality can be thought about in so many different ways, including through creativity. That’s what’s behind the Bible. It’s not meant to be kept in its case – it’s meant to have people interact with it. People can turn pages, look at it - people can ask questions. It’s exciting.
What would you like prospective students to know about Campus Ministry at St. Jerome’s?
MF: We’re not just about the 7 p.m. mass! There’s so much more than that. Campus Ministry offers you a place to grow internally, to grow into your values – you can feel supported, you can celebrate your faith – we’re more than the 7 p.m. mass. We’re here for you regardless of any faith tradition that you have, because we really do believe that spirituality transcends faith.■
For more information about Campus Ministry at SJU, please visit http://www.sju.ca/campus-ministry
Interview by Jon Franchetto. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.