Religious life at Cambridge

------------By MAIL V KNIGHT
THERE has been no shortage of
Cambridge undergraduates, past and present. to join issue with my original correspondent's gloomy view of the Church's position in that University. If readers are getting a little tired of Cambridge, I expect other Universities would show much the same reactions. Several of my correspondents were converted to Catholicism while at Cambridge. Here is one
"I went to Cambridge in 1954 as a non-practising member of the Anglican Church. National service overseas had helped to give me a respect for the unity and strength of Catholicism (which I still knew little about at that time) and emphasised the relative weakness of my own position.
"My doubts increased in a cumulative way, but I was extremely fortunate to meet a group of Catholics in my own college, and their help led, eventually, to my being received into the Church in my final year.
THE EFFECT
"WHAT 1 want to make clear from this is that, though the difficulties of the lay apostolate arc considerable, the work is tremendously important, and the effect on the undergraduate community of a few ardent Catholics can be, as I know, quite striking ...
"People at Cambridge. if I may generalise. are interested in religion and are very often ready to talk about it. A reasoned point of view commands respect, if not agreement ...
"The relatively large number of Catholic clergy, both resident and student, are always willing to assist by answering queries. NonCatholics quite often have odd ideas about priests, and an informal meeting with one, over tea or coffee. can remove more irrational and emotional barriers than the born Catholic would suppose.
"Catholicism is a challenge today, and Catholics at Cambridge have .a great opportunity to present it to their contemporaries... If it is any consolation, it is not that greater numbers of Catholics are needed at Cambridge, but that what is effective is the determined witness of a few; and it is as a beneficiary of that witness that wish to pay a tribute to it now ..."
REAL INTEREST
wIDESPREAD interest in religion among undergraduates is a point made in other letters. For instance:
"In two years of living with future undergraduates in the Services, and in three years of college life, I have met very few who have ever mocked me for being a Catholic ... The average undergraduate, it seems to me, is often haunted by the hopelessness of his personal relations and the pointlessness of his work.
"Such a man will invariably respond to anyone who can show real personal interest in his happiness without lapsing into smugness or sentimentality. Most people at Cambridge. however cynical their
pose. still treasure some ideal, some values, and if you start from there and show them that these are parts of a greater truth they will always listen to you and be far too concerned for themselves to despise or deride you.
"The idea of the Catholic undergraduate at Cambridge as a lone figure battling against a hostile and atheistic milieu, which is the picture most readers will have drawn from your correspondent's letter. seems to me an entirely mythical one. The society and the views of a reasonable and sympathic Catholic are being sought on all sides at Cambridge..."
THE CHAPLAIN
ANO1HER letter pin-points the work done by the chaplain: "The impression of Catholic life in Cambridge left by Hilary Knight's correspondent is surely misleading. The general attitude towards the small Catholic body is one of tolerance and even respect; one reason for this is the prestige enjoyed by the chaplain himself within the University at large, and the tacit encouragement which he gives to his undergraduate flock to take part freely in the life of the University. rather than to become a tight 'Roman Catholic' clique..."
I am very grateful for these letters. and for others which cover roughly the same ground. But those which recommend making greater use of Fisher House and the chaplaincy arc in a way irrelevant, as my original correspondent is not specifically complaining that he cannot meet other Catholics if he tries; rather, he is describing the outlook of his friends, all of whom happen not to be Catholics. and he is wondering how the faith can be made more vivid to them. The answer is, obviously, that the onus is on him.
SEGREGATION
IUSTIFICATION for the separate J chaplaincies (to hear of which an Oxford correspondent is "appalled") are offered in two letters. This seems to me a problem (involving the very nature of a University) which requires a column to itself, and I will discuss it next week.
To sum up: I get the impression from most of the letters that I have received — including one pointing out the vitality of Anglicanism in Cambridge — that religion is in a comparatively healthy state there, and that it evokes sympathetic interest in agnostics.
My original correspondent must have been unlucky in his friends: one can only hope that his witness will bear fruit.