MEREDITH RODRIGUEZ & BRITTANY PICKENS
Assistant Living Editor & Staff writer
Senior Christi Alvarado, president of Seaver’s Catholic Student Association, sings in the choir at Our Lady of Malibu, the parish minutes from Pepperdine.
“It’s been amazing getting involved,” Alvarado said. “It doesn’t matter what church. Getting involved brings you closer to community. It helps me examine myself and why I am doing certain things.”
Alvarado is not the only one who has found a home within Pepperdine’s Catholic community. CSA students put on mass once per semester, and various Pepperdine professors are prominent leaders in the church. Though they all work at and attend a Church of Christ institution, their Catholic faiths have flourished at Pepperdine.
“At its core, belief in God and love of God is the same,” Alvarado said. “There are just different ways of going about it.”
Roman Catholic students, numbering 1,248, outnumber Church of Christ students across Pepperdine’s schools. At the undergraduate level, however, Catholics represent the second largest denomination 504 declared students at Seaver, just under its 654 declared Church of Christ students.
Considering they make up such a high percentage, Catholics undoubtedly contribute a significant dynamic to Pepperdine’s diverse Christian community. Though many Catholic students and faculty said they find common ground and even mutual support at this Church of Christ institution, some said they have felt spiritually disconnected among a distinct Protestant majority.
Freshman year has strengthened the Catholic beliefs of Katherine Florita, she said. Yet as she closes upon her first year, Florita said she has not connected religiously with Pepperdine’s many other Christian denominations.
“It sometimes feels like Catholics are the lowest form of Christianity to students here,” Florita said. “I have never felt more disconnected with Christians.”
Students she has met seem uninformed on Catholic traditions as well as the areas where Catholics and Protestants differ. Florita suspects the conformity and traditions she loves in the Catholic church, such as the way a priest intermediates, are frowned upon by other Christians. She added that she feels out of place in Pepperdine’s spiritual gatherings, where anyone can lead a worship service. Fellow students are more versed in the Bible and people pray differently.
“It’s a weird feeling,” Florita said. “Every time I am in the chapel, it always seems so empty like it is not complete.”
Despite Stauffer Chapel’s majestic stain-glass windows, Florita said she feels more deeply moved by traditional mass in Catholic churches adorned with sculptures, paintings and carvings.
Florita has joined many other students and faculty in finding a spiritual home at Our Lady of Malibu.
“I love the residing priest,” she said. “He reminds me of my priest back home. I love that the church is small and quaint; it makes me feel more at home.”
Freshman Brett Wasinger’s first-year experience has been less difficult than Florita’s, largely due to his Catholic roommate, with whom he attends mass.
“Since my roommate was Catholic, it hasn’t been that big of an issue,” he said. “It doesn’t really affect me either way if I’m around Catholic people or not.”
Wasinger said he has found a strong base of Catholic students on campus. He also found that other Christians are willing to discuss differences and similarities between Catholicism and other forms of Christianity.
Alvarado agrees that most people are open to discussing denominational differences and similarities. She feels torn as to whether or not Pepperdine is wholly accepting of Catholic beliefs, however.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think people are starting to be open and accepting.”
The Catholic club has been official for only four years, she said, since Alvarado’s freshman year in college.
Much like Florita, Alvarado said her time at Pepperdine has strengthened her faith.
“It makes me question ‘Do I really believe that?’” she said. “Yes I do, and that makes (my faith) stronger.”
Though Alvarado occasionally attends University Ministries (UM) at Malibu Presbyterian, she considers UM simply a supplement to her faith, while Catholic mass remains its foundation.
“There are a lot of intricacies about the mass that I really do like,” Alvarado said.
The way a Catholic Church anywhere upholds the same traditions comforts Alvarado.
Social Action and Justice professor and Humanities Chair Marie Mullins reverberates Alvarado’s sentiment. Mullins, who is a Catholic, said she loves that while mass’ readings differ every week, its structure remains the same.
“What I love about mass is knowing that I can go to any mass in the world and find the same structure and tradition,” Mullins said. “Being part of that community of believers is very nourishing spiritually for me.”
Mullins added that she loves Pepperdine’s body of Christian students.
“They are bright, committed to their Christian faith and activism in doing good in the world,” she said.
Mullins and her husband, English professor Paul Contino, are highly visible and involved in spiritual life, both on campus and off at Our Lady of Malibu. Contino is the associate director of The Center for Faith and Learning at Pepperdine and led the faculty retreat in Florence, Italy.
Although Catholic student percentage has slightly declined in recent years from 21 to 15 percent, the percentage of Catholic faculty has slightly increased over the past five years from 10 to 13 percent. Other prominent Catholic professors include school of law’s Douglas Kmiec; Cynthia Colhburn, who teaches in the Fine Arts Division; Teresa Flynn and Donald Marshal, who are Humanities professors in the Teacher Education Division.
Humanities professor Jeffery Zalar said he wasn’t concerned with Pepperdine’s specific denomination, rather he sought the opportunity to “collaborate in a project of leading Christian higher education to the next generation.”
“Pepperdine is a leading voice,” Zalar said. “Naturally I wanted to be a part of that.”
Contino agreed that Pepperdine’s mission statement likely attracts Catholics.
“There are many Catholics in the United States and many are searching for a university that is grounded in the Christian faith,” he said.
Paul Long, Dean of Admissions said that because the Catholic Church has the largest number of members of any single Christian denomination in the United States (24 percent), it makes sense that Catholics make up such a large percent of Pepperdine.
“While the Church of Christ and Catholic traditions are dissimilar in many ways, the uniting elements of the Christian faith, coupled with our campus community, openly embraces and encourages a Christian worldview and faith development that makes this university attractive to both groups, as well as others from various faith traditions,” Long said.
Contino, who taught at a Lutheran school before coming to Pepperdine said he has felt blessed by his ability discuss his faith with other Christians, which he said is a freedom unique to Pepperdine.
“Not every other Catholic University would value that, and I feel welcomed to bring the Catholic traditions into my conversations here,” Contino said. “You end up learning more about your own traditions from viewing the differences of others.”
Contino emphasized the common ground between Catholics and Christians.
“We believe you are justified by grace that comes through Jesus Christ,” he said. “We have the responsibility to respond to that grace, but it is a free gift. You don’t have to work your way to heaven.”
Contino noted differences, such as the way Catholics use different terminology like “cooperation with faith” to express their responsibility to Christ’s grace.
“Protestants might not be comfortable using this terminology, but having minor disagreements isn’t as important as the key agreement about Jesus Christ,” he said.
Contino added that he has connected spiritually with Church of Christ brothers and sisters.
“We may not worship together, but our prayers are even more impacting when we come together,” he said, relating such experience to the Bible verse found in Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”
Professor Zalar has experienced the spiritual camaraderie Contino describes.
“Pepperdine is a welcoming place for Catholics,” he said. “There is a significant doctrinal difference between Catholics and Church of Christ members, but the differences don’t seem to be barriers in the development of evangelical relationships, kindness and mutual support.”
03-30-2006
