Catholic Dorms at Secular Universities

Texas A&M

By David L.


Recently, Texas A&M Kingsville and the Florida Institute of Technology have begun building Catholic dorms on their campuses in conjunction with the Newman Centers there. Previously, The Newman Centers have served as centers for Catholicism on campus. These dorms won't require that their residents be Catholic, but will have stricter rules regarding alcohol and guests as well as chapels for Mass and reservation of the Blessed Sacrament

   I can see some people objecting to these communities on the grounds that Catholics should be a part of the larger community and not segregated from it. However, this would be a mischaracterization. The value of the Christian community has been a part of the tradition sine Biblical times. Reading the letters of Paul will give a sense of these communities, made up of people helping each other in charity. The tradition continues through the entirety of the Church's history, from monastic communities to tight-knit parishes. Furthermore, these are dorms, not cloisters. The students will still be participating in and engaging the larger campus. However, they'll ideally also have their Catholic community to fall back on.

Florida Institute of Technology

These communities, I think are an extension of communities I already see on campuses like my own. As I see it, there is a vague Catholic community centered around Campus Ministry. However, its rather easy for the High Mass crowd to avoid the Folk Mass crowd, creating an unfortunate dichotomy between progressive and traditionalist Catholics. We have traditional devotions and folk Praise and Worship, but the overlap in attendance is negligible  A Catholic living community might foster greater unity within the Church on college campuses.

 I think it will be interesting to see how these communities develop, and whether this will become a new movement in Catholic education.