The Universal Church — Celebrating Diverse Catholic Traditions

Laura Iunghuhn
For The Catholic Moment, Sept. 20, 2020

We say the creed every Sunday, rarely stopping to consider the true meaning of our profession of
belief in “one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Here, catholic is an adjective, not the proper
noun that names our faith — catholic, meaning universal. The Church is universal, international,
and welcomes diverse cultures, languages, and traditions. The West Lafayette community is
privileged to experience and learn about the many diverse ways our faith is lived and expressed.
Purdue University hosts around 10,000 international students, faculty, and staff each year, and
many find a home at St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Tom’s supports a number of student-led organizations to welcome parishioners of diverse

backgrounds and facilitate an open dialogue which encourages the sharing of faith experiences.
Some of these groups include Hispanos con Corazón, Indonesian Catholics, Korean Catholics,
and in particular, Bridges of Hospitality.

Bridges of Hospitality, founded during the 2017-18 academic year, works to connect interna-
tional and domestic students, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, through a 3-week dinner series
that provides a casual and welcoming environment to stimulate conversation about cultures and
traditions. Lancia Raja, a graduate student at Purdue and former leader of Bridges, believes an
important element of the organization’s ministry is “being open to understanding different per-
spectives…regardless of divisions we might have.” She says, “We can understand and experi-
ence the Church across the world…[by] talking to someone about their experiences, or going to
Mass in a different language, or seeing how Mass is celebrated in another country.” Learning
about the experiences of others helps us to recognize the ways in which our own perceptions may
be misguided, and as a result can help strengthen our own faith and compassion.

Oftentimes, faith and culture are viewed as two distinct things — there are elements of faith
(worship, prayers, etc.) and there are elements of culture (food, clothing, etc.). Many Anglo-
Catholics perceive the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe in this way. We consider the shrine
and morning Mass to be “faithful” and the following fiesta with Mexican food and music to be
“cultural.” However, for those who participate in this tradition, faith and culture are intrinsically
intertwined; one does not exist without the other. The same is true for many international stu-
dents who attend St. Tom’s. When asked how they incorporate elements of their culture into
their practice of Catholicism, they were initially confused. They found it impossible to separate
faith from culture, which provides a more complete understanding of the universal Church.

Lancia Raja — United Arab Emirates & India

Lancia was born in the UAE to Indian parents and resided there for fourteen years before moving
to Tamil Nadu, India. She arrived at Purdue in 2016. Lancia celebrates the greater emphasis
placed on community at her home parish in India in comparison with her experience in the
States. “For the Tamil community,” she shares, “celebrating Our Lady of Vailankanni is super
important to us, [and] her feast day would be the biggest event in September.” Thousands join
for prayer at the church for this special devotion. Lancia recalls spending the feast with “literally
every single person in the Tamil community.” This feast, among others, is also a day of service,
further bringing the community together. Lancia describes, “We would also distribute lots of free
food to the people at church, at neighboring churches, and to the poor.”

Paul Thomas — India

Paul Thomas is from Kochi, India, in the southern state of Kerala. He moved to Purdue in 2015,
and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer and Information Technology. Paul attends the dinners
hosted by Bridges, believing it is a “great platform to meet people from diverse backgrounds.”
During the dinners, Paul has the opportunity to share his faith experience, which includes a his-
tory of pilgrimages, an expression of faith that is less common in the U.S. “Kerala has a rich his-
tory of Christianity and Catholicism,” Paul explains, “primarily due to the arrival of St. Thomas
around AD 52.” As a result, there are a number of pilgrimage sites in southern India, including
the shrine of Our Lady of Good Health, a place known for its Marian apparitions. Paul has made
this trip with his family and recalls “how crowded the entire area seemed…and Mass being of-
fered in three different languages.” What has stuck with him most, however, was the “sheer
faith” displayed by the pilgrims. The journey, 200 miles from the closest city, was made, he de-
scribes, while “negotiating the huge crowds, all while dealing with the sweltering heat and hu-
midity.”

Sebastian Kenny — Indonesia

Kenny is originally from Surabaya, Indonesia, 9,838 miles from West Lafayette. He came to Pur-
due in 2015 and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Biochemistry. Kenny has served as a commit-
tee member of Indonesian Catholics, spending much time organizing an Indonesian Mass at St.
Tom’s. The group invites an Indonesian-speaking priest from Chicago and incorporates liturgical
traditions common in their home country. One such element is the gong, Kenny says, which is
used in place of the bells during the Consecration, because it is “one of the musical instruments
we use for traditional music.” Additionally, during the offertory, “we actually offer up fruits and
flowers,” Kenny shares. Indonesia is largely an agricultural country, Kenny explains, and those
are the “products of the land” which “are what we can offer to God, since it’s readily accessible
and what everyone grows.”

Youssef Karam — Lebanon

Youssef moved to Purdue from Lebanon in 2016 to study Agricultural Engineering and has been
involved with Bridges since its inception. He invited his cousin, Johnny L. Hobeika, who was
studying to be a monk, to join the interview. Both relatives are Maronites, which is an Eastern
rite of the Catholic Church that traces its founding to St. Maron in the fourth century. Maronites
share the same doctrine as the Western Church — “It is not different. Period,” Youssef repeats
his cousin’s declaration. There are variations in tradition and expression, but the faith is the
same. One notable difference Johnny pointed out was that Ash Wednesday is instead celebrated
on Monday, a tradition he speculates may be influenced by the Orthodox rite. Maronites also ob-
serve a period of fasting beginning at the Holy Thursday Mass and ending midday Saturday.
Though they don’t celebrate the first Easter Mass until 12 PM Sunday, at noon on Saturday,
Youssef says, “We say Christ has risen and we hear the church bells ringing!”
These various ways to express the Catholic faith, though they may seem unfamiliar to those of us
who grew up in central Indiana, are norms for these students. Our differences, Lancia notes, can
sometimes be viewed as “just plain wrong”; however, when you recall the universality of the
Church, “it would be impossible not to have differences.” Lancia concludes by getting to the
heart of the matter, saying, “At the end of the day, we all believe in the same thing, even if we
take seemingly different paths to get there.”