Dear Reader,

“Hey, could I go to Mass with you tomorrow?”

I yelled that question over the blare of music and the haze of party air in March of 2023. It had been ages since I last attended Mass, and at the time I didn’t know what possessed me to ask my friend Ellie that question at that moment.

Ellie graciously invited me to attend 10 a.m. Mass at the Basilica with her and our other friends the next morning. I realized as I walked over that it would be my first time going to the Basilica as a student. In the almost two years I had been at Notre Dame, I never saw a reason to go. I went to the odd dorm Mass, but the Basilica was always just scenery to me.

I won’t describe what it was like to experience Mass in the Basilica for the first time (especially because Kaitlyn Boston does it so well on pg. 31). I’ll just say that, for me, the Basilica will always be the place where my life changed.

Now, my faith is the most important thing in my life. There are many people, places and things to thank for that conversion, but primarily, I have this university to thank. Notre Dame abounds with resources, guidance and community for young Catholics like myself.

I wanted to make an issue centered on religion from the moment I became editor-in-chief because I know what it means to try to secularize and evangelize one’s time here as a student. I know how to turn my back to the Catholic identity of the university and I know how to embrace that identity. As someone who was raised Catholic, though, I had a much easier time here both ways.

In this issue, our cover story presents perspectives on Notre Dame from a variety of faith backgrounds, including Muslim, Greek Orthodox Christian and atheist student perspectives. In News, the diversity of rites within the Catholic faith takes center stage. In Culture, we present various paths of different priests in the Congregation of the Holy Cross. In Perspectives, Carson Feldman writes about his experience as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In Opinion, two students debate the merits of Basilica and dorm Mass. In Humor, we look at the hidden points system that determines our eternal fate. In Sports, we review the seasons of our heavenly hockey and women’s basketball teams.

I wish you all the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of holidays.

 

Peace,

Claire Early