The Catholic Church has been under a moral microscope the past several months, after a number of clergymen were found to have engaged in sexual misconduct with minors their congregations.
The effects of the scandal were far-reaching, leaving members of all denominations with an opinion on the matter.
Many students said that their faiths were not negatively affected because they were able to separate the actions of individuals with their faith in Christianity.
"I was shocked, of course," said Robert Harris, a junior majoring in media studies and English. "It made my faith stronger, and I prayed for their reform."
Christine Ikeda, a senior computer science major and a non-denominational Christian, said she also acknowledges the wrong in what occurred within the church.
"(The scandal is) the ultimate hypocrisy. How can you mix religion with something that bad? You're giving the word of the Lord and then you come out and violate someone that way?" she said.
Father Patrick Keleher, the director of the Newman Center, said the individuals implicated in the scandal were not of sound mind.
"These poor sick people were not cared for properly; instead, they were shuttled around from one place to another," said Keleher.
Rosaleen Rauch, a junior anthropology and civil engineering major, said one of her own priests was one of the offenders.
"One day he was there," she said, "and the next he mysteriously disappeared and we had a substitute. It was a couple years before we got a permanent one."
Anne Tupper, a Catholic campus minister, agreed with Keleher and said Catholic students understand that the actions are reflections of sick men and not the church.
"It caused questions, but good questions, (students) realized that these men were not healthy and that they had to be stopped," she said. "Students see that their priests are human. It doesn't excuse what they did, but it helps them to understand.
Ikeda said she does not believe the scandal reflects negatively on religion.
"Obviously religion does not support actions like that - the Bible says not to do it - but in religion, just like anything that anyone believes in strongly, there are loopholes for things like that," she said.
Adam Meiss, a senior majoring in aerospace and mechanical engineering, said the scandal was badly handled. He pointed to the hierarchy within the church as the group with whom the blame should fall.
"Any organized religion with a priest figure has a strong recognition of that person as being better than average," said Meiss. "That makes it easy for corrupt men to abuse their power. Since it is the belief of the hierarchy that they really are above average, they cover up for the others so that they overall don't look bad."
According to Tupper, any self-perceived superiority or sickness does not excuse the priests' actions.
"It's certainly not 'poor priests.' The victims suffered and will suffer from the ramifications of what happened," she said "I think that (students) are more aware and they want the church to be held accountable."
"(Catholic students) want the church to be open to the victims' cry for help and also be aware of these priests' problems and to do something to help them so they don't hurt anyone else," Tupper said. "We don't think that they are bad Catholics for feeling this way; they are good Catholics because they want this."
Some students think the way the scandal was presented to the public helped to create negative opinions of the church.
"The media seemed to put a lot of blame on the Catholic religion," said Daisy Lope, a freshman pre-medicine major. "After the media talked about 'corruption' in the church, all Catholics were viewed differently. I think without the media's way of handling it, the whole issue would have been handled more calmly."
Some students said the controversy did not change their perceptions of the church or religion.
Alejandro Gonzalez, a freshman undecided major and an atheist, said the scandal does not affect his perception of religion.
"It never really bothered me, I just thought that they were sick men. That doesn't really have anything to do with religion; it doesn't reflect on religion in any way," he said.
Additional reporting by Dena-Kay Martin
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
