Contacts & Publisher

Subscription Form

Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Students learn about world religions up close and personal

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 25, 2008

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Buddhist monk Bante Sankichcha addresses students at Our Lady of the Lakes High School in Waterford. Many high schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit give their students a perspective on other world religions through interfaith studies or world religion courses.

Waterford Twp. — The sound of a bell reverberated through the air at St. Joseph Hall, heard by a roomful of 11th graders sitting on the carpeting. Their eyes were closed, and the slowly fading sound of the bell consumed their attention.

Dressed in a red robe, Buddhist monk Bante Sankichcha sat in front of the class. He had just taken the students through a simple, classic Buddhist method of meditation. Such is the way junior-year students at Our Lady of the Lakes High School learn about faith traditions outside the Catholic Church. Instead of picking up a book, they visit a Jewish temple, a mosque, a Hindu temple, or a Holocaust museum.

"If the learning of the students is confined to their book, that's a very one-dimensional experience," says Patty Merlo, teacher of the World Religions class. "If we can take advantage of the fact that we live in Oakland County, in a metropolitan area, and within a half-hour we can go to a Hindu temple, or the Holocaust Memorial Center, we can go to a Jewish synagogue, or the Muslim Unity Center — that really helps it take on flesh and bones. It gives it a real life."

Across the Archdiocese of Detroit, Catholic high schools approach the subjects of interfaith studies or world religion in various ways. Some teach about other religions in the context of history or social studies classes. Others have designated courses to teach students about religions the world over, and about the ones in their own backyards.

Msgr. Patrick Halfpenny, ecumenical and interfaith officer for the Archdiocese of Detroit, says that high school might be a good time to introduce Catholics to other world religions from the Christian perspective. Students can see the pope's interfaith dialogues. Gaining the first-hand knowledge of other religions can also foster respect for those faiths, he says.

"High school kids are old enough to learn some things about other faiths, presuming they're doing it in a way that strengthens their own faith," says Msgr. Halfpenny, who also serves as pastor of St. Paul on the Lake in Grosse Pointe Farms.

Dialoguing with non-Christians is a topic the Church addressed in the document "Nostra Aetate" ("Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions") in 1965. Since that time, the pope and other Catholic leaders have opened up more communications with those from outside Christianity.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Junior-year students from Our Lady of the Lakes High School in Waterford close their eyes and concentrate during a Buddhist meditation.

Msgr. Halfpenny says that so long as educators address the false secular notion that two conflicting "truths" can coexist – essentially saying one religion is as true as another, so it doesn't matter which you follow – learning about other faiths can help students fulfill their own baptismal calling.

"It can prepare a high school student to be an evangelizer," he says, "and to take part in the New Evangelization that Pope John Paul II called us to be a part of."

At Marian High School, an elective world religions class for upperclasswomen has students visit a mosque, a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple. The class, says its teacher, Terry Topolinski, uses the Church's document on interfaith dialogue as its starting point.

"We start with 'Nostra Aetate,' which says Jesus has saved the world," Topolinski says. "And it talks about other religions and how they shed a ray of light on that truth. Jesus is our savior, but all peoples do not believe in Jesus, so there is that respect for where they are in their faith life. We start from our faith first."

University of Detroit Jesuit High School in Detroit similarly has students take a semester to study Islam, Judaism and eastern religions. Fr. Brian Lehane, SJ, chairman of the school's theology department, says the Jesuits have held interfaith dialogue as one of their "main concerns" since 1995.

"Part of that is having a sense of the self-understanding of the other people we're dialoguing with," Fr. Lehane says. "There's a concern of just having some basic literacy for our students of other world religions."

Few, however, delve into world religions like the students at Our Lady of the Lakes. Since last year, their World Religions course — a junior-year requirement — has had the students sitting in on prayer services they wouldn't have dreamt of going to otherwise, and hearing about other faiths from those who live them. Each semester, it includes a half-dozen field trips, and guest instructors, such as the Buddhist monk and a yoga instructor.

Each day, the World Religions class at Our Lady of the Lakes first starts with an affirmation of the one true faith, Merlo says.

"We begin every class with prayer intentions and a reading from Scripture from the daily Mass, so we're fully grounded in the fact that we are Catholic Chrisitans," she says. From there, the class turns its attention to subject of those who don't share their faith. By and large, the students appreciate the experience and say its helped them gain perspective on a world of religions.

"You never fully understand your own religion until you compare it to different religions," says Allison Robb, 16, who took the course in the spring semester. "You learn so much more through other religions."

James Bastian, 16, says the experience has helped him understand others in a new light. James says while he used to see Muslims as "very strict" and "just different," a trip to the Muslim Unity Center changed his views.

"When we go on field trips, it helps us better understand the human world and the religious world," James says. "It makes us smarter, and it helps us with stereotypes and different ethnic backgrounds."

Several in the class say the first-hand knowledge of how Hindus, Muslims and Jews worship has helped them appreciate knowing Christ.

"I used to think, 'Oh yeah, Jewish people don't believe that the Messiah has come and everything,'" says Meagan Mooney, 16. "But when I got to experience it, it just, like, hit me. We went to the Jewish temple, there were no crosses there. They were so believing that the Messiah was still trying to come, and I believe that He already came. There was a big difference."

Her classmate, Rachel Burckhardt, 17, says studying Buddhism helped her appreciate the grounding she had in Christian truth.

"In Buddhism, you don't have a soul. You're ever changing," Rachel says. "To me, you really appreciate having a soul and saying 'This is constant'… compared with something that's always changing."

Still other students say they were buoyed by the dedication of those who practice other faiths. Matt Spillane, 16, says he was impressed by how, at Ramadan, Muslims could fast from sun-up until sun-down, not even drinking any water.

"The fasting made me wonder how the people could pull it off for an entire month," Matt says. He adds that the example could even help him when he practices his own faith. In the end, Merlo says the goal is to help the students prepare for a world of diversity. While they currently consume their minds with such high school concerns as sports and putting gas in their car, they're going to face deeper issues in a couple short years.

"At this point, we're really at the formation," she says. "They're just getting the basic understanding. Hopefully, as they get older and go on to college, they might be a part of an interfaith effort."

Already, her students all can point to how they've learned through different experiences they've had in their world religions class, and see their fellow man with a better understanding.

"This class has been a phenomenal experience," says 17-year-old Christian Mulligan. "How many kids our age get the opportunity to do this?"