Catholic students find refuge in the space of worship of Princeton University and encourage the new Pope

Princeton, nj – While other students could be in class or socialize at lunch, a group of young Catholics frequent mass every day of the week at noon at the chapel of Princeton University.

They sing Gregorian songs in Latin, pray and receive communion in a side chapel – inside the huge non -denominating princeton chapel – which the devoted young Catholics consider a sacred refuge in a mainly liberal and secular Ivy league environment.

“I think that people’s faith is so strong here,” said student Logan Nelson about the dedicated Catholic space where he is witnessing daily mass. “It’s like a house – even more than my own house.”

The chapel of the Gothic University was built in 1928. At the time, said Princeton, its ability to welcome more than 2,000 people was only second in the King’s College chapel at the University of Cambridge.

Today, the chapel welcomes services, concerts and interconfessional weddings throughout the academic year and is known to the university under the name of “the bridge between the city and the dress”.

On May 8, Catholic students loved the daily mass in the side chapel as usual when the service was interrupted by news alerts on their phones. In the Vatican, white smoke elected the Sistine Chapel, indicating that a new leader in their faith had been elected.

The Reverend Zachary Swantek, Catholic chaplain of Princeton, told the group to meet at the office of the Catholic Ministry. Together, they watched the election of the first pope born in the United States on television.

“It was electric,” said Nelson, adding that there was “an uproar” in the room when the original cardinal of Chicago, Robert Prevost, became the 267th pontiff. “It was so cool to see an American pope.”

Like other members of the Catholic ministry, he hopes that Pope Leo XIV will help bring a renewal for Catholicism to America.

“I think there is a resurgence of Catholicism today,” said Nelson, who was not religiously affiliated until last year when he converted to Catholicism. “You see people who are passionate about their faith. There is a new wave to come, and we are going to have more converts like me, which come from “none”. “

In a large part of the world, the number of people who are not friendly or not affiliated with an organized religion have increased considerably over the years. Persons known as “nuns” – atheists, agnostics or nothing in particular – represent 30% or more of the adult population in the United States, according to a survey by the public affairs research center of the Associated Press -Noc.

Princeton’s office of religious life says that he supports members of the school community “of any religious identity or none”.

Being a devoted Catholic on a mainly secular campus can be difficult; Swantek says he never felt “no more necessary as a priest”.

He is proud of the united and welcoming Catholic community that he directs and how they helped recent converts to enter the faith.

The news of the first pope born in the United States was welcomed by Catholics through the ideological spectrum of the fatherland of Pope Leo XIV.

“Something that brought me a lot of hope is that Pope Leo has a missionary training,” said Ace Acuna, a former princeton. He recently attended a chapel mass before starting a Catholic pilgrimage almost five weeks from Indianapolis in Los Angeles.

“In a world where, in some places, it might seem that faith is on the decline, a church that is ready to get out of the margins and to evangelize and be put on a mission, it will be so important,” said Acuna.

When he was a student in Princeton, Acuna said that the chapel had become crucial for his university life.

On the way to the class every morning, he passed near the chapel for a silent prayer. He would come back for the midday mass and again at the end of the day for a last prayer.

“Princeton is a very busy place and there is a lot of noise both outside but also internally because we are so busy and we are still worried about the next thing,” he said. “Sometimes you just want silence, and you just want a place where you can put your loads.”

At the end of a recent mass, David Kim and his girlfriend Savannah Nichols continued to pray near the altar, holding his hand, kneeling or prostrating himself on the ground as a sign of reverence.

Kim, a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, converted to Catholicism last year and was an altar server at the Chapel of Princeton University. He called the altar on the side of the chapel “An island of Christian life in an incredulous world”.

The Princeton University has always had a dynamic religious community and a religious community, said Eric Gregory, professor of religion there.

“In a way, it is so secular or even post-laic that it is not threatened by the Christian presence on campus,” he said. “The religious students of our campus are not cloistered from the campus. They are also in sports teams, clubs and the newspaper. They are integrated.”

Catholics of the University of Illinois in Urbana -Champaign were delighted by its election – and invigorated to practice their faith.

“Being able to live my faith in this extremely secular campus is such a blessing for me,” said student Daniel Vanisko, a Catholic for life, adding later in an email that the pope’s election “really helps me to get closer to my faith, seeing that someone who grew up in the same state as me, is Peter’s successor”.

Cavan Morber, an amount junior, said that participation in the UIUC “gives me the chance to be challenged in my convictions, to critically think about what I believe and to share my faith with others.”

Asked in an exchange of emails on the pope’s election, Morber replied: “What a time to be alive!”

“I hope how he can unite the church with a great division among Catholics and everyone in the world,” added Morber.

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