Campus minister's tour could lead to links

Sister Rosemary Sgroi, RSM, campus minister at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, is one of 20 college chaplains who recently spent two weeks in Peru and Bolivia as part of a "Campus Ministry Across the Americas" trip.

The group met fellow campus ministers in the two countries as well as college professors and students. The trip was co-sponsored by the National Catholic Campus Ministry Association, of which Sister Rosemary is a member, and the Maryknoll Center for Research and Study. Maryknoll has a number of South American missions where the group stayed.

Creating links

"We listened to their stories and they listened to us," she told The Evangelist. At one meeting at a college in Peru, for example, "each one of us would talk about our college and what programs we had. They wanted to hear how they could improve [and] wanted to create some connections in the future -- perhaps come to America for graduate school."

The campus minister, who is the former president of the Sisters of Mercy, was surprised to learn that many South Americans are college-educated.

"The problem, as they told us, was not that the young people couldn't get the education, but that there were no job opportunities," she explained. Even with college degrees, "some young people were taxicab drivers. That's sad."

Peering into Peru

She remarked on the beauty of one particular college in Peru, where "the campus ministry area was huge! The students seemed to be very involved. They put on shows for us; they really wanted us to know their culture."

Sister Rosemary found that campus ministry programs in South America have much that U.S. colleges could emulate. "A pivotal point in many campus ministries is the celebration of the Eucharist, and that was very prevalent," she said. "They did a lot more with music; when we walked around the campus at Puno [a Peruvian city], there was a gathering of musicians just playing."

South American colleges, she said, also do more Bible study and sponsor self-esteem courses -- something only touched on by many U.S. campus ministry programs. And in Bolivia, the second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, the group found that one university had an entire building solely dedicated to campus ministry.

Contrasts

It's also easier for campus ministers here to meet one another; in the Albany Diocese, she said, campus ministers from all the colleges have regular meetings. South American colleges and universities are usually too far from each other to do so.

That distance may have something to do with the development of technology in South America. Sister Rosemary didn't expect her fellow campus ministers to be computer-savvy, but found that "everywhere we went, everybody wanted your email [address]! They have computers all over the place there, too -- I was surprised at that. They have quite a bit of technology."

Best part

She noted that having to use a translator during lectures on the political and cultural backgrounds of Peru and Bolivia was frustrating, because it slowed down communication.

"I feel enriched by the people I met," she stated. "I feel I have a story to bring to my own students about looking beyond ourselves to another culture. You come home with a deeper appreciation of what people live through, what we have that they don't have."

More to come

"The sense of solidarity is so important," she said. "You come away understanding their situation so much better once you're in it. In the interchange with real, live people, you come to know them."

(09-13-01) [[In-content Ad]]