This blog post is completely and severely off-topic, so feel free to skip it if you’re looking for my usual AdSense and Internet marketing commentary.
St. Jerome’s University
I live in Waterloo, Ontario. I arrived here in 1985 to attend the University of Waterloo (UW) and study computer science. For some reason, I never left and in fact I live very close to the university.
UW shares its campus with four religious educational institutions, one of which is St. Jerome’s University (SJU), a Catholic university founded in 1865 by a religious order known as the Congregation of the Resurrection (CR). Although legally a separate entity, SJU has been federated with UW since 1960, which means that SJU students are granted degrees from UW, not SJU. SJU students can take UW courses and vice-versa.
Although I’m Catholic, I was never registered at SJU and in fact my church attendance lapsed while I was in university, which is not unusual from what I’ve seen. I’m not an alumnus of SJU and I really don’t have any links with the university — UW was my alma mater.
There’s been some controversy at SJU lately. The majority of SJU faculty members have lost confidence in their new president and a number of staff members have been fired and/or quit and/or gone on sick leave. In particular, the entire chaplaincy team quit. Which is why I’m writing about this.
The University Catholic Community
Every Catholic university I’ve visited has regular church services that anyone can attend, but of course are really geared towards the needs of the students, faculty and staff of that university. However, the situation at St. Jerome’s is somewhat unique because of the sheer number of non-SJU people that attend church there and form what is known as the University Catholic Community (UCC). About 1000 people consider UCC to be their church, enough to support four Masses per weekend.
Although not a formal parish, UCC offers many of the same services as a parish. My wife and I were married there. Our daughter was baptized and had her first communion at UCC. There are choirs and musicians for each Mass (I play piano and lead the choir for the 11:30 am Mass on Sunday). The setting is a bit different, because UCC long ago outgrew the confines of the Notre Dame Chapel and Mass is now said in a lecture hall, the only place at SJU that can hold the 300-400 people that might show up at each of the two Sunday morning services.
I discovered UCC shortly after I graduated from UW, when I guess I was looking to get back to my religious roots. If you’re used to traditional Catholic churches, UCC is certainly different. It’s the same Mass, of course, but the community is different — younger (in attitude, if not in age), more open, more casual. It’s very welcoming. There are people who travel from all over the Kitchener-Waterloo area to attend Mass at UCC, so obviously the community has a strong pull and fulfills an unspoken need among area Catholics.
The Chaplaincy Team
Core to the success of UCC was its chaplaincy team, who had dual roles as chaplains for SJU students, staff and faculty and as leaders of UCC. The team consisted of three members: Father Jim Link, the ordained chaplain, a Resurrectionist priest gifted in homiletics; Melinda Szilva, the lay chaplain, who is now using her skills and compassion as executive director of HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre; and Carol Persin, the secretary who kept everything running smoothly and was always available to listen.
UCC is more than these three persons, of course, as the community existed before them and continues on (somewhat) without them. Father Jim could have been posted anywhere at anytime by his religious order, of course, and Melinda and Carol could have found other jobs at any time. To have all three leave at the same time, though, indicates that something is wrong at SJU, because their departures certainly had nothing to do with UCC.
Has the Board of Governors Made a Mistake?
The Board of Governors at St. Jerome’s University clearly made a mistake when it hired the current president of SJU. While university administrators are never universally loved by their constituents, it seems that what was once a happy and collegial place of work for faculty and staff is now a place where people are afraid to speak their mind (anathema for any academic) and are afraid of losing their jobs.
How else can we explain the results of the no-confidence vote report in the article above and the departure of the chaplaincy team? We never saw anything like this with the previous deans and presidents of SJU. The very fact that the faculty association felt it necessary to even hold such a vote is extremely telling.
Since many SJU staff and faculty are UCC members, even those of us who are not directly associated with SJU have heard stories (often directly from the people involved) of SJU employees being forced out of their jobs, going out on extended sick leave, and/or seeking counseling for stress and depression. This has caused great concern among members of UCC. After all, these are our friends, our fellow community members. How can we not be concerned? Losing the entire chaplaincy team as a result of these issues was perhaps the last straw for many of us.
Most of us are outsiders to SJU and thus have no say in how it runs its affairs. We can still make our voices heard, however, and perhaps influence the SJU Board of Governors to do something concrete about what’s been happening. I do hope some of them read this.
UCC’s Uncertain Future
UCC is clearly a wounded faith community at this point. I know some members have expressed an interest in leaving UCC to attend another church. I wonder how many will simply turn into lapsed Catholics, unable to find elsewhere the spiritual sustenance they found at UCC?
I’m sure that there are some in the university administration that would rather see UCC wither and die, returning to its roots as a student-only community. If we all disappear, that’s clearly what will happen, and I think it will be a tremendous loss to the greater community and to Catholicism in general. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point.
Eric,
First, I did not know you were Catholic. I am a cradle Catholic myself and like you, returned to the Church after my univeristy lapse as well.
What was the reason for the entire team to quit? What was the atmosphere like for this to happen? Surely there must be a specific (anti-religion, anti Catholic Church? etc.) reason or reasons for this to take place.
What does the Bishop in charge of this area have to say? Was Father Jim assigned to the parish? Which diocese oversees the parish?
I have seen what happens when a Church changes priests or outside forces causes problems like this. Not good for the congregation. But there must be more to the story I missed here.
St. Jerome’s is a Catholic university. The new president is in fact a Catholic priest, although a member of a different religious order. So it has nothing to do with religion, and certainly not anti-Catholicism.
UCC is not a parish and does not fit into the typical diocesan structure. Obviously, the bishop is ultimately in charge of all Catholics in his diocese. But our priest is a member of a religious order, not a diocesan priest. When he was unavailable (or he needed a break!) another member of his religious community would fill in… a bunch of them live in a residence right on campus. It’s different. But it’s still church!
Eric
It’s funny, I was just reading about Boston College here in Mass. having some issues of its own relating to the display of Christian symbols in the classroom. It too is a community divided.
What does the Bishop in charge of this area have to say Was Fathe Jim assigned to the parish Which diocese oversees the parish.
Hey, I’m a student at the University Catholic of Sacred Heart in Italy (lol, I’m actually writing this from the Internet Room of this University).
Luckily enough, here we don’t have the issues you spoke about in this post, but I was wondering, is there any chance that our universities are somewhat related each other?
My family’s been attending UCC for 10 years. We are neither staff or faculty, just Catholics in the community.
It’s been heartbreaking to lose Fr Jim.
We feel totally in the dark about this. The chaplaincy resignations hit us like a ton of bricks. While I have instinctively disliked Mr. Perrin’s stilted and arrogant manner, I didn’t assume he would cause such a rife at SJU.
What are the issues or changes at stake that stirred the faculty so? Why aren’t we told?
Hey Eric,
Just wanted to let you know that I like this off-topic post and would encourage you to write more like this occasionally.
I do agree with the above poster that there are too many internal rifts for the Christian/Catholic community to get along universally.
I’m a member of UCC. The impression I got of the departure of the chaplaincy team was that it’s purely coincidental. Father Jim has been needing a break for a while, this job opportunity came up for Melinda, and Carol saw a good opportunity to retire. Certainly there may have been some influence by the unrest among SJU staff but I think their leaving is primarily independent of the lack of confidence.
It could very well be that these departures put an additional strain on an already-uncomfortable situation at SJU, leading to the necessity of voting non-confidence.
Again this is just the impression of an undergrad (at UW not SJU), but from what I’ve seen there is more trouble between the academics and support staff and the new president, rather than between him and the UCC. I think UCC is wounded by these departures, and SJU by non-confidence with the president. While there is assuredly some overlap, it seems for the most part an unfortunate circumstance that these two distinct events occur is such close proximity.
I’ll now leave you to your regular blogging.
What’s Catholic Community future?
Matthew, I know the SJU administration made it look like these things were coincidental, but they weren’t. That’s what disturbs me most about all of this, the way the administration is hiding and glossing over things.
Eric
For the record, I have the former chaplaincy team’s permission to state publicly that they left St. Jerome’s University because of the “toxic” work environment. We are attempting to organize a general meeting of all concerned Members of UCC for next Wed, Mar 4th. At that meeting I will be able to present 2 letters written to Dorothee Retterath, the SJU Board Chair, indicating why our team left. It is NOT coincidence. We have also set up a separate blog for UCC members at http://www.supportucc.blogspot.com
Information will be posted there shortly.
If you want to know more, you can also contact me directly at jackie.dallaire@sympatico.ca
What does the Bishop say??
Certainly the champlaincy’s decision to all leave at the same time was no coincidence!
Futhermore, I was quite shocked to learn that Perrin was a priest. I had no idea until he actually said mass one Sunday. He has always referred to himself as Mr. Perrin – whatever happened to the Father aspect? Isn’t being a priest a calling? Something to be proud of? So why hide it?
Actually, I think he refers to himself as Dr. Perrin — he’s an academic with a PhD.
My mistake – I guess I was at that lecture, oh, I mean sermon!
This is a great piece you should dig deeper into the reason the chaplains left. There was a great cover article of Imprint last week on the topic.
Maybe they should revert their name to just Saint Jerome’s College, it took 2 legal name changes to get to SJU, and with the direction the reputation is going they will be just a second rate church college at a university, not the Great Catholic Institution that took decades to build. In a short time Perrin is managing to tear down all that was done by his predecessors. But then I have never met an Oblate I could respect. Mediocre lot at best, reminiscent of J. F. Power’s fictional order in Morte D’Urban. If only Higgins could be lured back from St. Thomas or Tataryn was willing to leave the classroom and take the position he had been offered.
LOOKING FOR MORE FACTS ON THIS STORY?
See the Facebook Group ‘UCC – Community Organizing Centre’
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