Material culture plays a vital role in Catholicism and is central to the lives of many Catholics.  Traditional holy relics and saintly figurines facilitate a relationship with the divine and are a testament to the presence of God in the daily lives of devout, pious Catholics.  But Catholic material culture is varied and diverse, and…

In February of 1967 a group of students on retreat at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania spent a weekend in prayer where they invoked the Holy Spirit and asked God to allow them to experience the graces of Pentecost. The students began to undergo manifestations of the Holy Spirit, such as sleeping in the Spirit, prophesying,…

By Maggie Smith My introduction to the widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests was the movie Spotlight, based on the true story of the Boston Globe Spotlight investigation team that revealed the abuse of children in the diocese of Boston. I saw the movie with my mom, and I remember walking out of…

Growing up in a Catholic family, that became increasingly lax in their beliefs and morals, and thus, their identity, I have now come to question why individuals are now becoming negligent in their faith. As a child, I explicitly remember being awoken every weekend at precisely eight o’clock in the morning to get dressed in…

By Delaney Hewitt While attending mass with my family at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, in August of 2018, I listened to my parish priest issue an apology on behalf of the Diocese of Kalamazoo to all Catholics, especially the victims, whose trust in the Catholic Church was soiled by the recent Pennsylvania Grand Jury…

This course introduces students to Catholic life in the Americas, from colonial encounter to the present. By engaging with primary documents and ethnographic texts we explore the everyday texture of Catholic life and how Catholics negotiate issues of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, and immigration through devotions and religious rituals. This course encourages students to think…