College chaplains are not religious operatives

I work as a chaplain in higher education. Every day I and others – both ordained and not ordained – provide pastoral care to students and staff through a ministry of presence and gentle human encounter.

Chaplains are not religious operatives. We do not proselytise. Our priority is to accompany students and staff in their search for the good, the true and the vast horizon of meaning.

In recent times, chaplaincy has been understood in terms of religious attendance only. (An Irish Times article last month reported that only a handful of students were turning up to weekly Masses held in some third-level colleges). However, a fuller understanding is needed of the role.

We are well aware of the changing make-up of students. More international students bring a variety of cultures, learning traditions and world views. Mature students bring lived life experiences and a rich dynamic to the classroom. More students from various socioeconomic backgrounds are attending college. And large numbers of students who commute to school require different and particular supports.

Because each student matters, pastoral care recognises and responds to specific needs experienced by students at the beginning, middle and end of their academic years. Chaplaincy responds to that which discerns, nurtures, challenges and heals the human spirit.

We offer mediation as a neutral and noninstitutional presence. On occasion, chaplaincy is the voice of reason in a volatile environment of ego and privilege, where intelligence can be mistaken for maturity. Portfolios of entitlement sporadically come with tantrums.

Financial priorities

In contemporary times, university budgets and balancing the books are prioritised, but often with an expectation of finance to somehow abracadabra what it has into a pot of gold.

The financial metrics of industry that are now being applied to education are perhaps more appropriate to a factory floor that produces light bulbs or exports washing machines.

Real education will not be achieved by budget decisions only. More than just financial books need to be balanced. The quality-of-life book also needs balancing.

We need to transmit to students a passion for authentic living as well as for learning; building a “knowledge society” is meaningless unless this knowledge is values-led. Without values, all knowledge is the same; good and bad is of equal status.

Youth is, of course, a vulnerable time, but also an exciting one. Students have ever- expanding digital lives and have never known a time when they were not connected. In other ways, however, students are more fragile than in previous generations. Loneliness remains. Isolation and mental distress are still prevalent in a culture of the instant.

Those whose work is the pastoral care of students observe young people still trying to find their own identity and place in the world. Yes, they do feel let down and betrayed by the scant supply of ethical leadership across Irish society, by the destruction caused by greed and arrogance. But they possess a sharp awareness that a good society still requires two things: trust and trustworthy people.

Students remain idealistic in the best sense of the word. They do not wish to postpone their future but wish to create a better one by opening up spaces for deeper questions with opportunities for dialogue and discernment.

Philosophy should become a module in all third-level courses, not just to equip young minds in ethical inquiry and values thinking, but as a respite from the tyranny of the instant, and a constant reminder than not all life questions can be answered by Google or Facebook.

Education at third level should not be afforded tiered status; the priority should remain with undergraduate students.

Because the new student has a need, there is a job to do; because the student has sensibilities, we must be considerate; because each student is unique, we need to be flexible. Because of undergraduate students, universities, institutes and colleges exist.

WB Yeats said that “education is not about filling buckets, it is about lighting fires”. A third-level education of worth is one that empowers a young person to enter maturely into his or her world and take responsibility for it, to become a more thoughtful and engaged citizen beyond graduation – to move from university of the academic to the university that is all of life.

Chaplaincy, through pastoral care, connects students to this wider world – and to playing their unique part in creating a better and more civilised future.

• Fr David Keating is chaplain at the Waterford Institute of Technology