|
By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
ATLANTA—The house sits on the outskirts of the bustling Emory
campus on tree-lined North Decatur Road.
A living room full of comfortable furniture greets those who enter
the house, beckoning one to an occasional power nap or away-from-the-library
study session so essential to the laboring college student.
A bulletin board, hung on a hallway wall, is a mosaic of smiling
college students and faculty, images of college life glued together by a
community of faith.
One of the main ingredients of that glue is Father Jim
Schillinger, an easy-going priest who directs campus ministry at Emory
University and Agnes Scott College. He loves his role as campus minister almost
as much as he loves the Catholic Church.
Father Schillinger has just completed his fifth year as director
of the University Catholic Center, and said he would love to stay at least
another five years.
“I always say I’m the luckiest priest in the
diocese,” he said. “I have the greatest job. I do everything a pastor
does, but I’m exempt from a lot of the headaches that a pastor has to go
through.”
After his ordination and a few years of service in the
archdiocese, Father Schillinger left to pursue graduate studies in Boston. It
was at the Harvard-Radcliffe Neuman Club that he found an energetic group of
young Catholics, as well as his vocation to campus ministry.
“The community was alive, exciting, vibrant,” he said.
“There was a vitality in this place that I had never seen before.”
Father Schillinger had found his calling. He went on to serve as
campus minister at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., before he was
asked to return to Atlanta as Emory’s campus minister. When he began his
role, he knew the community had much room for growth.
“I wasn’t sure about this place at first, but I grew to
see it as a wonderful place with great potential,” he said.
It was also filled with great opportunities to evangelize.
“This is the first time these kids are on their own, they are
trying their own wings and they want to experience freedom,” he said.
“Some of them stay involved with the church; others take a break. I
don’t get too upset with them when they do. I just try to gently encourage
them back.”
College students are notorious for their chaotic juggling acts,
each day running a race of marathon proportions—from classes to study
groups, to meetings, to work. So where does faith fit into this multi-ringed
circus?
“I don’t remember when I was in college ever being as
busy as these kids are,” Father Schillinger said. “It’s
sometimes a challenge to get students involved, but you have to always put a
positive face on the church.”
That positive face oftentimes comes in the visage of Father
Schillinger himself, and his pastoral associate, Louanne Bachner, Ph.D., who
use a strategy he refers to as “creative loitering.”
“During the week we go to the dining hall and just hang
out,” he said. “We may have five or six kids that come and sit with
us, but the important thing is that people see that the priest isn’t this
ogre ... that he isn’t that far removed from them. It puts a real human
face on the church.”
To reach out to students, the Catholic Center sends mailings to
the 1,500-2,000 students registered as Catholics. At the beginning of the year,
during orientations and open houses, Father Schillinger and Bachner sit at a
table with brochures, ready to welcome new students.
“It’s funny to watch the students approach us,”
Father Schillinger said. “Sometimes they come right up to us and they are
excited because they have had good experiences in their parishes at home, and
other times you see the parents dragging their kids over.”
Though getting students involved in the community and keeping them
strong in faith is a challenge, Father Schillinger said he looks to a higher
example.
“You have to love them and you have to challenge them,”
he said. “There is no magic formula other than to do what Jesus did.”
Of course, Jesus never had to compete with the Greek system.
“There are so many other groups that offer community on this
campus and on the surface. Fraternities and sororities are going to look a lot
more interesting than the Neuman Club,” Father Schillinger said.
“It’s an uphill climb.”
Many times, though, students are searching for a group of peers
with the same value system. In those cases, they will gravitate toward a faith
community that can provide them with spiritual support.
Megan McShane, a graduate student at Emory, has been involved in
the campus ministry community for five years. She has seen the faces change,
but never the level of encouragement and support she has received from her
peers.
“I’ve had a pretty hard time in grad school and I know
that I can count on coming here and just being accepted,” she said.
“No matter how I felt about myself, I always know that I can come here and
be loved and accepted for who I am.”
Joseph Amann, a graduate student from Germany, also connected with
the Catholic community, which helped in his transition to the United States. He
first came to Mass and was greeted by fellow students.
“I felt welcomed and I felt at home very quickly,” he
said. “It made my start here very easy.”
Striving to create a community, while maintaining a closeness as
well as an openness to new people, is essential in campus ministry. Social
events such as weekly dinners are ways that new people are welcomed and
involvement is encouraged.
“We do a lot of eating around here,” Father Schillinger
said. “It’s one of the most effective things we do in terms of
getting students involved.”
Each Sunday a dinner is held after Mass, prepared by the
non-student members of the community. Tuesday dinners follow evening prayer,
allowing students to once again combine liturgy and community.
Liturgy is the number one priority of the Catholic Center at
Emory. Two Masses are offered on Sunday at the Cannon Chapel at Emory, as well
as several weekday Masses. Students participate in evening prayer on Tuesdays,
as well as attend Thursday Scripture reflections.
“I’m convinced that we do some of the best liturgies in
the archdiocese,” Father Schillinger said. “A good liturgy is the
principal connection with the church.”
“If you put the basics out there and celebrate really great
liturgies, then God’s going to do the rest,” he said. “If we do
one thing well, we strive to pray well.”
To aide in achieving liturgical excellence, Tom Burke serves as
the director of music, and students serve as members of the choir, as lectors,
as eucharistic ministers, greeters and acolytes.
Father Schillinger and the community are currently trying to raise
$60,000 to convert the Catholic Center’s sun porch into a chapel so that
students will be able to have adoration and regular Mass at the house.
Emory has 27 recognized religious groups on campus. Catholics and
Jews make up the majority. Out of 11,000 students enrolled at Emory,
1,500-2,000 students are registered as Catholic. An advantage to working in a
college ministry, Father Schillinger believes, is the opportunity for
ecumenical growth.
“In a parish, that takes a lot of effort. Most of your effort
is just keeping your own boat afloat. It requires more energy and more of a
deliberate effort.”
But on a college campus often those ecumenical gatherings happen
naturally. Father Schillinger counts several of the other campus ministers as
his best friends, and said that the ministry’s ecumenical work is one of
the aspects of his job that gives him the most pride.
“When you have those personal relationships with people of
different denominations, then the differences don’t seem so
insurmountable,” he said. “You’re more cognizant of the aspects
that bring you together.”
In addition to his role as priest and social justice advocate,
Father Schillinger must also be a friend to the students.
“On average (Emory) loses eight to 10 kids a year—dead.
Suicide attempts are common, there are eating disorders. Their lives are very
complicated,” he said. “All you can do is not try to be a
psychologist. I’m here to be a pastor, to be a brother, to listen to
people.”
Father Schillinger believes that it doesn’t necessarily take
a young priest to serve as a campus minister.
“It takes a good priest,” he said. “It’s
important that they see someone who loves the church and loves to do the work
of the church and who does it willingly.”
As far as evangelizing the students, Father Schillinger hopes to
provide a liturgy that is “dynamic, inspiring and truly Catholic,”
and to expand lay ministry, “emphasizing the gifts they can bring to the
church.”
Above all, the goal is simple and Christ-centered.
“If I can impact the students in such a way that they are
good parishioners and good professionals wherever they go, then I’ve done
my job,” he said. “We just have to touch the Gospel to the lives they
lead.” |
