For Catholics, a new outlet

During adolescence, life for Kellie Ernzen '00 was nomadic.

Uprooted from home each time her father changed military posts, Ernzen was exposed to a myriad of Catholic youth groups. And in each of these groups — some highly active and some barely existent — the experience was distinct.

Some of these experiences were especially enriching.

Spending the past two summers in Arizona working with a youth group, Ernzen has watched a once-small group evolve into a thriving community of more than 200 involved members.

"The church I am with now, four years ago had 30 students that came from a variety of high schools in the area," she said, adding that she believes the enthusiasm displayed by the group's leaders prompted its boom in membership.

So when at the beginning of this semester Geoff Gasperini '01 and several other students approached her to coordinate music for a new Catholic fellowship on campus, she was thrilled.

"I think leadership is so important," she said, "and I think the student leaders this year really have the vision to raise up a Catholic fellowship. That's one of the reasons why it's coming about now."

Unlike Ernzen, Gasperini did not participate in a Catholic youth group while in high school. Looking for a supplement to his faith when he arrived at Princeton, he joined campus Christian fellowship groups in addition to attending Mass and other activities at the Aquinas Institute — the University's Catholic ministry. Yet, as a Catholic, Gasperini said he experienced "a sense of incompleteness" in the predominantly Protestant fellowship groups such as Agape, which, by serving a broad-based Christian community, often exclude denomination-specific rituals.

"When I came to campus, I got a lot of support from other non-denominational fellowships," he said. "The advantage is that there is an emphasis on what we all agree on. But on the other hand, there are specifics in the practices of different groups that are dropped because they are not followed by all adherents."

In speaking with other Catholic students, Gasperini discovered he was not alone in feeling this way.

He teamed up with a handful of other undergraduates and enlisted the help of Father Thomas Mullelly, the director of Aquinas, to launch a series of bible studies for Catholic students. Out of this small pilot program ultimately grew the Aquinas Fellowship — the first University evangelical group for Catholic students.

The Wednesday Night Fellowship — as most of the about 30 participants refer to it — begins with a traditional rosary: a series of prayers led by one student and echoed by others. The gathering later combines a discussion of faith, saints and scripture with a social aspect, according to Jaime Taylor '01, one of the students who initiated the weekly bible study.

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Meant to supplement, not compete with, other religious groups, the meeting provides an opportunity for students "to grow in their faith together through prayer and song," according to Ernzen.

"We are really trying to encourage growth, faith and reaching out to people," Gasperini said. "But we are not necessarily out to convert non-Catholics. We are just trying to build a strong foundation."

Making up only one branch of the larger Aquinas organization, the fellowship is different from the institute's other activities because of the meshing of Catholicism's social and spiritual components.

"It's different in the sense that we do different activities, and I think it's a lot more aimed to increase our faith than a purely social gathering," Taylor said.

"I was definitely a little disappointed when I first got here, and I was unsure where I was going to fit in religiously," she continued. "While there were many different groups on campus and within Aquinas itself, I really felt something was lacking, not in a religious sense, but in terms of relationships and friendships. And there were others who felt the same way."