Can Catholic Campus
Ministry Take Place
On A Couch?
Let's define catholic campus ministry first...
(Click on the tabs below to open a panel. Reclick to close to minimize scrolling.)
Catholic Campus Ministry is...
Religious Activity...
extended to the college campus
in order...to bring
both
minister and students
closer to God
And this ministry serves young adults from 18 to 22 years old who are at their sexual peak...and most of whom are away from the guiding influence of home values...making decisions entirely on their own...for the first time. So...
The successful transition from parental values...
to near autonomy in making choices...
would have to be a major focus of campus ministry.
However...if catholic campus ministers are themselves not sufficiently mature socially and psychosexually…opportunities can occur easily for boundary violations with this young and sexy population .
According to a famous Aristotle quote words, such as ministry and spiritual direction must be properly defined if ministers are to know whether they are doing ministry or something else.
Undefined terms like spiritual direction have no commonly understood meaning in catholic campus ministry and mean whatever the participants want it to mean.
We have defined ministry on our homepage. And here we will define what the ministry of spiritual direction is so we can judge the scenario in the example below for its ministerial soundness.
Spiritual direction is...
Expert religious counsel...
that activates the conscience with God's law...
and results in moral behavior
In the following example of Catholic campus ministry spiritual direction is not defined. And so without a definition to give the minister's activity a correct meaning, the misnamed spiritual direction in the example takes place in the wrong context and location. And that is how Catholic campus ministry can become romantic and erotic.
Father Jeffrey is a 40 year old...boyish looking...priest who was ordained 12 years and had charge of the Catholic campus ministry in this example.
He had no specific training to work with young adults...it was just an age group that he liked.
Nor did he have training as a spiritual director.
In order to seem "relevant" to the young men who came to see him...he gave them keys to his apartment.
The students could come and go at leisure whether or not the priest was at home.
He did spiritual direction in his apartment...in the living room.
The students began to talk about what they were getting for spiritual direction from the campus minister.
The minister was removed from his assignment and sent for an evaluation and residential treatment.
The interview went as follows. (The examiner's questions are in bold type)...
Where
do you do spiritual direction?
In the living
room.
Where
do you sit?
On the sofa.
Where
does the student sit?
On the sofa.
Such
counseling is usually done
face to face. But this setup creates a picture of two people doing
spiritual direction while facing North. So the examiner inquired
further.
Is this
couch a two seater or a
three seater?
Two seater.
You
cannot assume anything with a
person who has boundary deficits...such as context and location
'blindness.' Most people would not inquire about the size of the sofa
the spiritual director used in his Catholic campus 'ministry'. Being a "love seat" inspires some
interesting questions
How do
you interact with each other?
We are each
leaning against the arm of the
sofa.
Where
are your legs then?
Up on the sofa.
Do you
each have one leg between
the legs of the other?
Yes.
This
information adds an active
sexual element to the proceedings. And so, further questions along this
line get asked
What do
you wear during these
sessions?
Usually running
shorts.
Taking
nothing for granted the
examiner seeks to complete the picture.
Anything
else?
Not usually.
Do you
have anything to drink
during these sessions?
Wine during the
evening sessions.
And as the reader can see...if these sessions took place in an office...set aside for Catholic campus ministry...it would be hard to redefine the session into a romantic quasi sexual event.
And by choosing a highly personal romanticized setting for spiritual direction with young adults...both director and student could think...that because of the 'informality' of the college life-style...they were doing spiritual direction...when they were actually engaged in something erotic.
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