College Catholics

Laziness, poor time management hinder students from attending Mass

Dominican Father Robert Keller celebrates Mass at St. Paul Catholic Center with students from Indiana University in Bloomington. Father Bob estimates that 2,000 students attend Mass at St. Paul Catholic Center each weekend. (Submitted photo)

By Kamilla Benko

While Friday and Saturday nights at college are filled with partying and the latest music, Sunday nights are reserved for a different kind of celebration with its own laughter and songs.

“The Masses are fun,” said Elizabeth Flood, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame in northern Indiana. “I mean, the boys will be banging on the pews and it’s just really lively.”

At Notre Dame, students have the option to attend “Dorm Masses.” On Sunday nights, the halls empty as students make the short walk down the hall to attend a Mass brimming with student participation.

“There was almost a positive peer pressure to go,” said Flood, a 2008 graduate of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis. “A few times, I would be at a review session on a Sunday evening and at 9:55 p.m. almost everyone would get up and leave. It was time for Mass.”

While Notre Dame makes it easy for students to attend Mass, students at other universities sometimes find it more of a challenge.

“Freshman year, I went [to Mass] on Ash Wednesday and that was it,” said Ball State University junior Jonathon Maple.

When asked why, he gave a crooked smile and said, “Laziness.”

“Mass was on a Sunday and I could sleep in. [At college,] no one is telling me to go, and it just happens,” said Maple, a 2007 graduate of Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate Conception in Oldenburg.

Kathryn DelaCruz, who will be a sophomore at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, said she also found it hard to attend Mass every Sunday.

“I would just get so busy with school work and other extracurriculars that I would sometimes not go to church on Sunday,” said DelaCruz, a 2008 graduate of Roncalli High School in Indianapolis.

“Time management would sometimes be challenging. So, because I got caught up with everything else, my faith would sometimes drop down a level or two on my priority list,” she said.

But both Maple and DelaCruz acknowledge that prayer and attending Mass on Sundays are important.

“With school work and times where I may feel afraid, weak or like giving up,” she said, “I pray to God and ask him for guidance and strength.”

“My sophomore year,” he said, “I made a Lenten commitment to attend Mass every Sunday. And I think that the discussions in church and the homilies do influence people [in their everyday life].”

Tim Bennett said he enjoys attending Mass at Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he will be a sophomore in the fall.

“Mass [at Xavier] was really comfortable,” said Bennett, a 2008 graduate of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis.

“I enjoy singing. But when not many people start singing, I feel somewhat self-conscious. But at Xavier, when everybody is singing, you just let it rip,” he said.

Celebrating Mass with other enthusiastic young adults helped Bennett learn about his religion.

“Church isn’t supposed to be stiff and mandatory,” he said. “One of the things I have learned in college—and this may sound goofy—is that God is your friend, and he’s comfortable with everything.”

Going to Mass at college also helped Tim realize his faith is his own.

“[At Xavier,] it wasn’t like my parents were making me go to Mass,” he said.

“I went on my own. And it was cool realizing that [practicing Catholicism] was actually something I wanted to do,” Bennett said. †