Catholicism at Midd more than just Mass

Author: Thomas Brant and Joseph Bergan

The Roman Catholic student population at Middlebury College receives a luxurious gift every Sunday. While every other Catholic in the world crawls out of bed on Sunday morning, in order to fulfill a religious obligation to attend church, the Catholics of Middlebury sleep tight. The Newman Club, the student-run club for Catholics, is mainly responsible for this. Instead of a Sunday morning meeting time, the Newman Club meets on Sundays at 8 p.m, plenty late enough for even the latest of sleepers.

But Michelle Personick '09 stressed that the Newman Club is not merely about late night mass for Catholic students.

"We are here to provide Eucharist, service, catechism and community," said Personick. The Newman Club runs the weekly mass, plans Thanksgiving service baskets and holds bimonthly "Living Stones" dinners at the local Catholic church rectory.

"We hang out and talk about what it means to Catholics," said Personick.

Personick is pleased with how the Newman Club has evolved since she first came to campus.

"When I got here four years ago, it was Newman Club Mass, that was it," said Personick. "We are planning a retreat this year, it's really exciting."

But why does the name of the Catholic organization have the name of the despised "Seinfeld" character?

Hundreds of other Catholic student organizations all around the country actually share the name, "Newman" after the 19th century Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman. Newman was an Anglican convert to Catholicism, and is best known for his defense of Catholicism within the liberal arts curriculum.

While the Newman Club may be a basic way to continue practicing a faith for many, for Personick the club has served as a way to find a deeper faith.

"I found my faith here at Middlebury," said Personick, who described this strengthening of her faith against a sea of religious distrust at the College.

"At Middlebury, there is a general distrust in anything with faith in it," Personick said. "People see religion as belief without reason, but really it is belief in something guided by reason. It's not a belief in something imperial."

Buttressed against those who criticized her, the religious community at Middlebury fostered her beliefs.

"I always thought things that I thought no one else believed, and then I come here and people say, 'Oh, you too!?'" she said.