A Less Parochial Education

Although in its early years the Divinity School served mainly as a training ground for Protestant ministers, the school today has more Roman Catholics than students of any other single religious denomination. Catholics began to attend the non-denominational school in significant numbers (more than 30) about ten years ago. Today 45 students out of 300 enrolled at the school claim affiliation with the Catholic Church, according to the answers to a questionnaire sent out by Bernard Swain, the counselor to Roman Catholic students at the school.

About half the Catholic students are enrolled in the Master of Theological Studies (MTS) program, which trains scholars. The other half will receive a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree, which for Protestants often leads to ordination for the ministry. Catholics in the latter program generally plan to work in a lay capacity in the Church. Some of the fields these graduates enter are religious education (like Swain, who runs such a program in a Dorchester parish), campus or hospital ministries and counseling.

Why do future Catholic Church workers attend a non-denominational school such as Harvard? Swain cites the lack of alternative institutions for these students, since "few Catholic seminaries will train lay people for anything." Harvard especially appeals to students because of its reputation for academic excellence and generous financial aid policy. The non-denominational status also attracts people. Most Catholic students at the Div School have attended Catholic grammar schools, high schools and colleges, Swain says, and "want a break from a kind of ghetto educational experience."

Susan Coffin, a third-year student at the school, fits Swain's description. She says that attending a non-Catholic school "puts your own tradition in context. Since I've been at Harvard, I've become very aware that I'm very Catholic. When you grow up in a tradition, you're so submerged in doctrine you often can't articulate it."

Coffin typifies most Roman Catholic students at divinity schools in that she encounters problems not with the school, but with the Catholic Church. The Church offers few professional job opportunities for lay people. In Coffin's words, "the only thing you can do is religious education." Consequently, the Church pays less attention to students training for non-clerical religious careers than the students would like. Coffin switched from the MTS to the M.Div. program to open other career options besides college teaching, but still is uncertain about her future. She foresees no special problems being a woman entering the Church's male-dominated organization. "Lay men are in just as much trouble as lay women. They're getting nowhere either," she says.

Stephen Torraco differs from most students at the Div School in that he will be ordained as a Catholic priest after graduation next year. Before entering the Div School two years ago, he attended high school and college at a Roman Catholic seminary. He applied to Harvard because of a "commitment to the larger Christian church. I wanted to be able to come to grips with fellow students from different traditions." Terraco says the attendance of Roman Catholics at non-Catholic schools is "not contrary to Roman Catholic thought; at Vatican II the Church committed itself to the ecumenical spirit.

Torraco feels that Harvard has especially benefitted him in preparing for his future in a parish in Brazil. Although Torraco is not a Brazilian, since coming to Harvard he has come to feel Brazil needs people educated in an ecumenical tradition since the churches there have problems with what he calls Brazil's "fascist government." "People are getting shot left and right down there. Many times if churches can't get their act together, the government plays one church against the other. There's an added sense of urgency to work together, to save their own necks if nothing else," he says.

Torraco says schools such as Harvard allow people to "break through stereotypes." He adds, "To live with students from other religious backgrounds is a challenge you won't get in a denominational school. In a Catholic seminary, for example, everybody's celibate. You're surrounded by these people, so it's sort of easy to assume the whole world is celibate. But as a priest, I'm not going to be dealing with a celibate parish."

Room for improvement in relations among students of different religions still exists at the Div School, however, according to Swain. "There are not many courses in which people are encouraged to talk about what it's like to grow up Catholic or Protestant," Swain says. He adds, "You don't talk about your religious experiences. In class, you deal with issues on broad, general terms. There's been an improvement but there's still a lot of ignorance... It's not complete progress; it's a step. But it's way ahead of what's happened in most parishes."

As fewer Catholics enter religious orders, the Church may have to allow lay men and women coming out of schools like Harvard to assume a larger ministerial role. Last October, Harvard and Yale Divinity Schools sponsored a conference on the training of Roman Catholics for professional leadership in the Church, and have scheduled another such conference for this spring. As Terraco says, the full implications of the trend have yet to appear, but for the students involved, attending non-denominational schools provides "a good way to round off your ecumenical view."