Faith on Campus | The Crisis of Meaning

In the first of a two-part conversation, Bishop Donald Hying is joined by Fr. David Carrano, pastor of the St. Paul University Catholic Center at UW-Madison, to discuss a striking development: the growing number of college students turning toward religion, and toward the Catholic faith in particular. From a front-row seat on a very secular campus, Fr. Carrano reflects on the crisis of meaning facing this generation – the restlessness, the searching, the fundamental questions young people are asking – and why the Church has a compelling answer to offer.

Transcript

Bishop Donald J. Hying 0:00

Welcome to Things Visible and Invisible, a podcast that discusses life, faith, current events, culture, history, and more, all in relation to Jesus Christ and his church. I'm Bishop Don Hying, and on this episode, I'm pleased to have Father David Carrano with me, who is the pastor at St. Paul's Parish on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Madison. And we're talking just about young people seeking the Lord and just the dynamic of that religious interest that we see in more and more young people. He is the pastor at St. Paul's, which is a very dynamic parish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. And uh he is an exceptional priest and leader for what we see as a significant increase of interest among young people, especially college age students in religion in general and Catholicism in particular. So welcome, Father Dave. Very happy that you're with us today.

Fr. David Carrano 1:14

Thank you, Bishop. I'm delighted to be with you.

Bishop Donald J. Hying 1:16

I'm curious, Father, from your perspective, you're working with uh young people day in, day out on a very secular campus. And I think you have a front row seat to observe the dynamic of more and more young people seem to be attracted to religion, attracted to Catholicism, looking for meaning, looking for perhaps communion, connection in their lives in a way that perhaps young people hadn't been even five, 10 years ago. Maybe just to start there, what what are your thoughts on that?

Fr. David Carrano 1:51

Sure. I think, Bishop, a lot of people have talked about the crisis of meaning. And I think that's hitting our younger generation in a particular way. You know, they've been called the anxious generation, and we don't need to necessarily talk about what contributes to that. But we do find, I think a lot of our young people are struggling to answer some of these questions that we might call fundamental or basic. You know, what's the meaning of my life? You know, why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? What's what is a fulfilling life? And, you know, I think from our perspective of faith, there's something that's built into our hearts, right? We're made by God for a relationship with Him. And no matter what happens, nothing can totally take that away. So in our heart of hearts, there's this yearning, there's this seeking for that ultimate meaning. And so, yeah, so our young people experience that in different ways. You know, they experience a restlessness, they experience a desire for something more, they experience uh a hope that there's an answer to this question. Why am I here, or what's my life about? Um, so I think on a most fundamental level, you know, this crisis of meaning is also an opportunity, right? It's uh it's an opportunity, especially for a faith like ours that can propose an answer to the question, what is my life about? And can propose it clearly in a compelling way, in a in a profound way, in a way that is comprehensive, that really touches every aspect of our human existence. So yeah, we're definitely experiencing young people are wrestling with these questions and they don't necessarily know where to turn. And uh many times they're they're finding that they can turn to the Catholic faith.

Bishop Donald J. Hying 3:41

You've hinted at kind of the Augustinian restlessness. You know, St. Augustine says, our hearts are restless, oh Lord, until they rest in you. And certainly St. Augustine experienced that longing for something more in his own life. And when you look at all the different things he tried, different philosophies, different relationships, different types of work. And it's when he heard St. Ambrose preaching the gospel in the Cathedral of Milan that his heart was finally turned toward Christ. And we see there the power of proclaiming the gospel that if we do so with confidence, people respond. But we're hardwired for God. And so God has placed within us this homing device to draw us home to him and he'll pull that thread in different ways in different people's lives. But I think the beauty of the college experience is that I would say the cement is still wet, you know, that a young person in college hasn't yet fully determined his or her values, his or her worldview. And it's a profound moment where if the church and her leadership can intersect with those young people in that seeking, and as you said, provide concrete specific answers to those fundamental questions like why am I here? What's the point of my life? Uh, what's the meaning of suffering? What should I do with my life? Do I have a vocation? And the church has the these beautiful answers to all those questions. And all that is to simply invite young people to step into a relationship with Christ in the church, and those answers gradually become clear to them. So I've asked several young people just in the last few weeks, like what triggered your entry into the church. And they've they've all given some resume of what you just articulated, Father David. And it's that you know, we we tried other things, you know, promiscuity doesn't work, drugs don't make me happy, just a life of work or material success doesn't feed my soul. So there's that sense of getting in touch with their soul, with their their own spiritual life. Um maybe just to speak to that a little bit. What do you think is the point of attraction at St. Paul's specifically? Because anytime I go to St. Paul's, it's just a beehive of activity. And there's many young people that come there that are just kind of seeking, you know. So we're talking about the these seekers, you know, they're they're not certain yet that the faith is for them. They're they may have a lot of questions about God or religion. But what what's the initial attraction that at least brings them into the doors of St. Paul's in the first place?

Fr. David Carrano 6:15

Yeah, that's a question we are constantly asking and assessing uh in our ministry. And of course, everyone's story is unique. You brought up St. Augustine. Um, just to touch on that before we move on. But in our chapel, we have some mosaics of some of the saints that we think relate to the lives of young people on university campus. And so St. Augustine is certainly one of these saints in that this intellectual search for God. And um, you know, one of his famous sayings that he was searching for God outside, but he found that, you know, he was closer to him than his own self, right? He found him inside, that God was already there working, you know, drawing him to himself. And as you mentioned, it is the proclamation of the gospel that can make that encounter possible, right? And St. Paul says, how can they believe if they have not heard, and how can they hear if no one is there to preach, right? And Saint Paul's our patron, right? So essentially, Saint Paul's is here on the heart of campus to proclaim the gospel of God's love and salvation in Jesus Christ to our students, whether or not they know that or they want that initially, right? That's what we're there for. And we're very blessed to be right at the heart of campus, very visible. So we're there. That's that's step one, right? That we're present. We're present on campus. And I think what is what is it that attracts students to St. Paul's? We can kind of use the kind of the classical breakdown of the true, the good, and the beautiful. And I think we're finding perhaps most prevalent right now is the beautiful, is is kind of an entryway for students that may have little exposure to religion, or you know, they were nominally part of the Catholic faith or some other faith growing up. Their friends might invite them to a mass and they encounter the beauty of the space, the beauty of the music in the liturgy, uh, the reverence of their fellow students. Particularly, we have on Wednesday nights, we have our candlelight mass, which is a kind of a different tone, right? So it's very mysterious, quiet, you know, the choir singing a cappella, beautiful uh music from our tradition. And you can kind of be anonymous, you know, because it's dark. And so we have a lot of students that feel very comfortable inviting their friends, sec secular friends, to to that mass. And whether or not it moves them to faith, it always moves them in some way. There's something that is kind of you know kicked up in their hearts, this desire for the transcendent, I guess I would call it, through the beauty of the liturgy. So I think that's a great starting point, you know, our art and our tradition, our music, the the beauty of the liturgy. And I think so much of our entertainment just becomes mundane, right? We in our culture, we just flood ourselves with so much, you know, mindless entertainment, you know, and it's not really pointing to something transcendent often. Um, so there's something very different when when students encounter this um this beauty from our tradition. I think that's one of the big things. The secondly is the goodness, right? Whether I think primarily that's through the goodness of the community. I think coming into a community where people are joyful, where people have genuine concern for each other, where people are looking more to build bridges with each other and true connection and bonds rather than to find reasons for division and and separation and difference. I think there's something beautiful, the the work of the Holy Spirit in our community that is very visible, very palpable to students when they come. And yeah, they just desire everyone desires a genuine connection and belonging. And yeah, we were made for that joy. You know, we we clearly want this. So there's something about that. And then I think many of our students are such good witnesses, you know, in caring for each other and caring for the poor. This goodness is an overflow or an outflow of their relationship with Jesus, right? Then their friends can start to connect the dots. Like, where do they get this from? You know, um, it's from their spiritual life. And of course, the truth, right? The um, like St. Augustine, that search for truth. Obviously, that's at least in theory why students are coming to university to to learn to seek the truth. And we have, again, something to propose, right? We have something that's not only compelling but coherent. You know, it fits together, it makes sense of of our life, it makes sense of sin, it makes sense of a lot of things that we go through a creation and God's goodness and his design for creation and his redemptive plan, right? It makes sense of a lot uh of our life. And I found especially uh in in in a sense surprising to me, but our young people want clear answers to the questions that they have. The response well, what do you think? You know, they're they're not very comfortable with that, you know. They want they want someone to lead them, they want someone to give them uh guidance and and direction, sometimes a little bit too much, right? Sometimes they want it to be more black and white, and they're a little less uncomfortable with kind of the vagaries of of life and kind of that the tension that it is to be human in our world. But nonetheless, we we do have answers to these questions, right? That our faith is is rich, our tradition is is clear. Um, and I think there's a there's a sense of comfort in that for students when they're seeking the truth, if they can get an answer to these questions.

Bishop Donald J. Hying 12:20

That's a wonderful articulation, I think, of just the the points of attraction which the Catholic Church offers. And I think as you were speaking, Father, I was thinking about the vertical and horizontal dimensions of faith, is that we need that vertical connection with God, you know, that pointing towards the transcendent. And we see there the sacramental vision of the church, but then also a longing for communion, you know, for community, for connection. So I think St. Paul's gives a kind of a safe place for somebody that is seeking, that's asking those questions, that they're going to feel welcomed, they're going to feel accepted, they're even going to feel loved in a place that is often um at odds with what they experience in the world, and that is a disconnection or coldness or indifference. So so many people that have found God at St. Paul's would say, I felt accepted, and that acceptance gave me the freedom to explore the faith.

Fr. David Carrano 13:21

Yes, yeah.

Bishop Donald J. Hying 13:21

And I think sometimes our modus operandi has been you need to believe first and then you can belong. And I think part of the the the wonderful grace of St. Paul's is that people feel they can at least partially belong before they they make a profession of faith or or a commitment. But it's that those points of attraction that food helps, uh, community helps, joy helps, that there's something very attractive about all of that. And then something as as beautiful and mysterious as that Wednesday night candlelight mass. It's something that they're not going to experience anywhere else. So I think sometimes older Catholics are tempted to think, well, if if we make the faith more palatable, it'll attract young people. If we kind of water down or hone down some of the harder edges of faith, and I think both of us know that the opposite is true. So young people want something that's markedly different than the secular world in which they live because they've been immersed in that and have found it lacking, have found it wanting. So if we try to be just like the world, in essence, there's an irrelevance to that. So I think something like the candlelight mass is a beautiful example of you're never going to experience this anywhere else. And this can be a point of at least initial attraction and connection with the church and with God. So kind of put on full display the beauty of our faith and all of her traditions in the liturgy, in all the different aspects that you know form Catholic culture, and to allow them to kind of just drink that in and experience it. And that leads to the sense that perhaps the Lord is calling me to be uh a Catholic, to be a member of the church. So grateful for uh your time today, Father David. We're gonna continue in the next podcast with obviously not every student that um enters the doors of St. Paul's becomes Catholic, but many do. So we want to hone in on the next session of those that come into the church and kind of the the details of that and and what that looks like. So thank you, Father David Carano.

Fr. David Carrano 15:31

My pleasure.