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Take Place On A Couch? |
Catholic Campus Ministry is... extended to the college campus in order... |
And this ministry serves an age group from 18 to 22 years old that is at its sexual peak and most of whom are away from the guiding influence of home values...and making decisions entirely on their own...for the first time. So...
The successful transition from close association with 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 for boundary violations with this population can occur easily.
And if the minister is male and homosexual this puts certain of his young male parishioners at risk for sexual abuse...which does not fit any definition of ministry.
Also heterosexual ministers...who have few rules of engagement for their ministry...put the female students at risk for sexual exploitation.
That's not a Catholic campus ministry either.
In the following example spiritual direction is not defined. And without a specified meaning...according to Aristotle ...it has no meaning.
Then without the boundary that a definition implies..."spiritual direction" can take place in the wrong context and easily becomes romantic and erotic.
A 40 year old...boyish looking...priest who was ordained 12 years 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 boundary 'blindness.' Most people would not inquire about the size of the sofa the spiritual director used. Being a "love seat" inspires some interesting questions... How do you interact with each other if you are both facing the same way? 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 that they were doing the spiritual direction...when they were actually engaged in something erotic.
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