Peter Steinfels writes in the New York Times about a new chapel at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, which includes the artwork of Slovenian Jesuit Marko Ivan Rupnik. Steinfels points out that administrators have somewhat different ways of describing what role the chapel is intended to play in the spiritual culture on campus:
This week, Dr. Coppola noted aspects of the chapel in keeping with this spiritual seeking: its motifs of pilgrimage and dialogue as well as the interreligious meditation garden. “Definitely a Catholic chapel, but also a place for people all along the pilgrimage,” he said. Students, he felt confident, would remember it long after graduation as “a place of spirituality, doubt, belief, learning.”
Anthony J. Cernera, the president of Sacred Heart—a layman and a theologian—did not disagree, but said the chapel was a challenge to the “spiritual but not religious” catchphrase.
“It would be a terrible mistake to fall into the trap of accepting that dichotomy,” he said. “The best way to be spiritual in the Catholic tradition is to celebrate the Eucharist and to use all the signs of the faith.”
Read more at the New York Times.