As I was reading Theresa Cooley’s opinion piece “Come one, come all—It’s just casual sex” in The Badger Herald last week, a particular comment caught my eye. “A student from the 19th century came back,” it said, a reference, I suppose, to Ms. Cooley’s Biblical references and religious perspective on sex.
This brief comment illustrates quite well the current climate surrounding religion at UW-Madison; our highly secular campus views religion and the students who strive to live out their religious beliefs in their daily lives as backwards, old-fashioned and out-of-touch. I would like to propose, however that perhaps it is those who view religious students as artifacts of the past who align more closely with the 19th century than students like Ms. Cooley, who fearlessly live their faith each day.
Enter the Know Nothings, a mid-19th century American political movement fueled by nativism and anti-Catholicism. While the name of the Know Nothings is a reference to the secrecy of the organization (members who were questioned about its activities were instructed to reply “I know nothing”), it unintentionally reflects the reason behind the bigotry of its members: They knew nothing of the people they hated. They were ignorant, and perhaps innocently so; however, that ignorance spawned fear, which in turn fueled hatred and contempt.
To a large extent, a similar problem exists on our campus today. One need only look at Michael Podger’s recent op-ed on Badger Catholic in The Daily Cardinal or The Madison Misnomer’s pieces on Badger Catholic and St. Paul’s University Catholic Center to see that anti-religious sentiment is alive and well on campus. As a Catholic, what pains me most about these articles is not the fact that somebody disagrees with me, mocks me or attempts to tear down my beliefs; it is that the faith and the Church I know and love are so grossly misrepresented. And why? It may be apathy, it may be fear, or it may be that we as Catholics have done a poor job showing the world who we truly are. However, the writers of these articles and many other students on campus remain largely unaware of what the Catholic Church is and believes. A quick scroll through the comments of these pieces, as well as those of Shaun Blanchard’s response in The Badger Herald, only confirms the extent of the problem. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen summarized the situation quite well when he said, "There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church—which is, of course, quite a different thing."
So what is the Catholic Church? What do we believe? Who are we? We are your friends, neighbors, roommates, classmates, TA's, and professors. We believe in God, in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. We want to be saints; our goal is Heaven. We pray, we adore, we praise, we worship. We strive to live lives of love and service. We sin and we fall. We seek God's forgiveness, are healed by his mercy, and get up to try again. We see all people as our brothers and sisters in Christ. We want to know you, and we want you to know us.
Caroline Klinker is a student at UW-Madison and works as a peer mentor and board member for Badger Catholic. You can contact her at klinker@wisc.edu. Please send all additional feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
