Mirror - Vol. 15, No. 11 - December 06, 1990

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 15, No. 11 Thursday, December 6, 1990 The Image Of Fairfield
Bishop Bans Women From Altar
Ann Marie Puckhaber
Editor-in-Chief
Assistant Chaplain Paula
Oddis will not be present for the
dedication of the new Egan Chapel
of St. Ignatius Loyola after being
told that the Bishop will not permit
her to participate on the altar be-cause
she is a woman.
Bishop Edward Egan and his
assistant, the Reverend Kevin
Wallin, will dedicate the chapel
tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. excluding
women on campus in the process.
"No matter what was pro-posed
to the Bishop of what I may
do the answer was no," Oddis said.
"They say women are not excluded
because they say it is an issue ofthe
ordained and not ordained, but the
issue is about women."
"I do not feel lesser than the
ordained colleagues with whom I
work," she added.
Oddis has elected not to at-tend
the dedication at all. "No,
absolutely not, " she said when
asked ifshe would go.'That's about
not doing violence to myself," she
said. "It's the only way I know of
preserving myself."
Oddis said there are things
women are not allowed to do such
as carrying the cross. Campus
Assistant Chaplain Paula Oddis
ing of the cross from the ceremony
for this reason.
Church law also mandates
that if there is a sufficient number
of priests present then lay minis-ters
may not be used, therefore
there will be no student Eucharis-tic
Ministers at the dedication cere-mony
because 30 Jesuits will be
present, Oddis said.
"Fr. Wallin is very rigorous
according to the letter of the law,"
chaplain. Fr. Hayes said that
Eucharistic Ministers are consid-ered
"acolytes" which is an order
of the church.
"According to Church law
only men can be installed," Fr.
Hayes said. "When they (the
Bishop and Fr. Wallin) said only
men can be used we said we won't
use any then."
There will be two female
student lectures in the ceremony,
gregation to read and then return to
their seats.
"The issue is about what we
are used to here and that's a model
of equality," Oddis said.
"The freedom we normally
experience here is a freedom we
don't have when the Bishop is
here," said Fr. Paul Carrier, direc-tor
of Campus Ministry. "I stated
my displeasure with it and that's
all I can do."
Fr. Carrier said the Bishop
has to be present at the dedication.
"The dedication of a public altar
has to be blessed by the Bishop of
the Diocese," he said. "It's an
official ceremony."
However, Oddis said the
Bishop could have dedicated the
Chapel in a private ceremony prior
to the community dedication or the
University could have asked a
Jesuit Bishop from another Dio-cese
to bless the Chapel.
"They have made the Bishop
the center of the ceremony which
is totally wrong," Oddis said.
"People always say this is the way
it has to be, but there is always
something you can do.
Oddis said that she doubts
her absence from the ceremony
will even be noted.
Fr. Hayes said, "I will feel
Ministry has eliminated the carry- said Fr. Jim Hayes, S.J., assistant but they will come out of the con- (continued on p. 2) Frosh Estimates Cause Fear Of Finals
AnnMarie Puckhaber
Editor-in-Chief
Many members of the fresh-man
class will be hitting the books
next week in order to score big on
finals and bring up low mid-se-mester
estimates.
This year's freshman estates
were "below normal," according
to Fr. Henry Murphy, S.J., dean of
freshmen. Approximately 90 out
of 760 freshmen got below a 1.8
and were required to meet with Fr.
Murphy. In past years anyone who
got below a 2.0 was sent to the
dean.
"They weren't great, but
freshman estimates generally aren 't
great," Fr. Murphy said. "For most
freshmen it's an eye opener."
Fr. Murphy said the benefit
of having freshman estimates is
that they give the students an idea
of how they are performing in the
middle of the semester when there
is still time to do something about
it.
"It can shake people up and
get them thinking," he said. "If we
didn't have estimates they would
continue at the same pace."
Fr. Murphy pointed the stu-dents
in need of help towards their
advisors and professors, as well as
Student Services for academic
support groups, tutors, and study
sessions.
"There are a number of pro-grams
here and professors are ex-tremely
willing to help, but the
students have to go to them," Fr.
Murphy said.
Fr. Murphy added that he is
not worried about the low esti-mates.
"The end of the semester is
what counts," he said. "For fresh-men
its the process of learning to
study on a college level and as-suming
personal responsibility."
Fr. Murphy said he does
suspect that freshman floors are an
important factor in the low esti-mates
this year. "There are a
number of students working hard
but they are not going about it the
right way," he said. "The upper-classman
guidance is not there."
Not having upperclassmen
around for guidance is one of the
reasons why freshman Patricia
Sullivan, a psychology major liv-ing
in Jogues, said she does not
like freshman floors.
"It would be better if we had
someone on the floor to tell us
there's a time for everything," she
said. "We don't know the right
study habits and we messed up."
"Freshman floors have a lot
to do with their grades," said so-phomore
Jacqueline Carelli, who
is a freshman facilitator. "Coming
out of high school, it's a whole dif-ferent
scene - freshmen must learn
how to study and they need some-one
to look out for them."
William P. Schimpf, vice
president of Student Services, said
that freshman floors are evaluated
on an ongoing basis and this is one
of the things that need to be looked
at in their evaluation.
"I think freshman year is a
critical time and it's important that
we pay attention to it," Schimpf
said.
However, Schimpf said any
judgment before one complete year
would be "premature".
"We're going to have to look
at these things over a period of
time," he said. "I'd like to see
more than one generation to
through this experience,"said
Schimpf.
'Tis The Season To Be Merry
Debra De Shong
Staff Writer
During the busiest time of
the semester, members of the resi-dence
halls will celebrate the joy
of the season by taking time to get
together and share Christmas with
those who are less fortunate.
Gonzaga adopted Holy
Rosary, an elementary school in
Bridgeport, and the children will
be special guests for a Christmas
party being thrown on December
8. The children are being driven to
Gonzaga for food, games and toys.
"I think it's great that we
are all taking the time to show
warmth and caring for those less
fortunate, especially in this ex-tremely
stressful time of the se-mester,"
said Gonzaga resident
Rebecca Hayes said.
Gonzaga is also having a
social and tree lighting ceremony
for the residents.
Regis is hosting a party
complete with Santa bearing gifts
for a group from St. Charles Par-ish.
The kids will be treated to
candy and be entertained with
games involving the residents who
wish to participate. Later in the
night a social will be held for stu-dents
only.
Jogues is throwing a party
for the children in the Pembroke
Shelter in Bridgeport. It is the
third year they are throwing the
party and this year IRHG will
subsidize the event, with the money
going towards refreshments.
"It's a really nice tradition
and we hope it continues," said
Christine Looby, an R.A. for
Jogues.
Jogues is also donating
money towards lights for the uni-versity
tree and for gifts for chil-dren
in Bridgeport. The students
are also taking a trip to New York
to see the Christmas show at Radio
City Music Hall.
Kostka and Claver, in ajoint
effort, had theme week this past
week.
R.A. Kate Kasper said, "We
chose to spend a week celebrating
Christmas because it's a subject
everyone likes. As a result, we got
a great response for all the activi-ties."
(continued to p.4)
Chapel
Dedication
Ceremony
By Invite
Only
AnnMarie Puckhaber
Editor-in-Chief
Never before have you
needed an invitation to enter the
Lord's House, but for tomorrow's
dedication ceremony of the Egan
Chapel of St. Ignatius Loyola you
need just that - an invitation.
Only a sample of faculty, ad-ministration,
staff, students, trus-tees,
donors, and friends have been
invited to partake in the Chapel's
long-awaited opening due to the
Chapel's capacity to hold just 500
people.
"Because of space we
couldn'thave everybody," said Fr.
Paul Carrier, director of Campus
Ministry. "It could never have
happened. Wehad to limit it some-where."
Approximately 100 out of
those 500 people that will attend
are students, according to Fr. Car-rier.
The students invited were
drawn from the Mission Volun-teers,
Loyola Folk Singers, and the
Campus Ministry Council.
However, many people
around campus feel excluded by
the University's decision to have a
guest list.
"To be selective in a reli-gious
event is wrong," said sopho-more
Lory Pinett.
"This is the same as with the
Dolan dedication - picking and
choosing who they (the admini-stration)
want to go," said sopho-more
Anthony Martini. "If the
Chapel is for the community, then
the whole community should be
able to attend."
Freshman Justine DTsidori
said, "it's silly and ridiculous to
have invitations."
"The invitation only business
is so badly handled and so many
people are hurt by it," said Paula
Oddis, assistant chaplain. She said
that she assumed that all the lec-tures
and Eucharistic ministers
would be invited because they work
in the Chapel all year, but they
were not.
"The operative word here is
excluded," Oddis said. "And ex-clusivity
has to do with who's more
of a person than you are."
She added that she is troub-led
by the amount of apathy on
campus concerning this issue.
"People just assume they can't do
anything about it, but someone has
to," she said.
The completion of the $4
million Chapel replaces the 35-
year-old Loyola Chapel and ful-fills
the long-range planning ofthe
University.
The Chapel will be dedicated
tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. by Bishop
Edward Egan.
19 More Shopping Days
Til Christmas!!! Menu Christmas 19 More Shopping Days
Til Christmas!!!