Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, in June 2016 undergraduate student Sarah Jannarone interviewed Father Tomaž Mikuš, S.J., the university chaplain to the Sinaj Catholic student group in Maribor, Slovenia. In this interview, Mikuš discusses ways Catholic university students can become part of a community, including the Catholic student group and Jesuit College Magis in Maribor, and the challenges Catholic students face expressing their faith in a secular environment.

Could you begin by introducing yourself and your work?

I’m Father Tomaž Mikuš. I’m a chaplain to students in Maribor. I work at what’s called the Catholic Student University Center, Sinaj.

Sinaj had a huge change about three years ago because the building and church where it operated was lost, due to the diocese bankruptcy in 2008. Sinaj then moved to our Jesuit parish. The Jesuits themselves have been responsible for the work in Sinaj for the last 12 years, though Sinaj in itself is not a Jesuit work. We are doing a service to the diocese.

What are your daily responsibilities?

Well, I think it’s best to start with the main activities at Sinaj. The biggest is the student choir; there are about 26 students that come to student choir and sing at the weekly student Mass, and after Mass there are meetings with guest lecturers. This is our core activity, though there are others. We hold weekly movie nights where we watch a film and discuss it together later, and we host a group that teaches about natural planning methods. This year we ran a course called Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life for about 8 students. Every November we have one week of lectures, which are made open to the public. Additionally, there are events or activities open to students that coincide with the Church in Maribor. Sinaj also puts on retreats about twice a year for students. We host other Catholic student groups in our building too, though they aren’t a part of our work.

We are a small center that serves a small community of about 30 to 40 people. There are about 70,000 students in Maribor, which means our student chaplaincy really is very small. The approach of this student chaplaincy is an old way of pastoral care, which I think needs to be changed in the future. Basically we take care of students, but there are no mission activities. For example, if we compare ourselves with an American organization, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students or FOCUS, we have a lot to learn. They make missionary activities on college campuses. At the moment there is one FOCUS chapter in Graz, which has three student missionaries who work to evangelize the campus full time for two years.

Personally, as a student chaplain I would like to have a missionary to collaborate with, but this will not be the reality here for a while. First you need students who, after fulfilling their degree, would work here for two years. With pastoral care, you have to try to offer something that will attract students. I think a difficulty in working with students at Sinaj is the lack of collaborators, since the best collaborators in this case are student missionaries. This is also my first year so I’ve had to get to know people; some people are still attached to the previous chaplain, but that is just a small reality.

What are other difficulties that the organization faces?

Well, since the diocese went bankrupt there are financial difficulties. I think pastoral care here suffered quite a lot because of the bankruptcy of the diocese. For example, in the moment I have no co-worker, and forget about having a secretary. In the past they had a secretary, some co-workers, and they were able to have more activities. But next year a [Catholic] sister will work here part-time, so that will be an improvement.

The main problem with the bankruptcy was the loss of the church and of church buildings. We had to move to a new location that isn’t as good as before. Now we are further away from students, and our office is almost hidden. It’s hard to find. These things affect our work.

How do you engage students?

We don’t engage them, which is the problem. That’s why I said we are missing missionary activities on campus. Engaging students can only be done by students. I thought we would do that this year, but then we started building Magis so it wasn’t possible. Next year we are planning to invite students by going to the university, but I think the best way is the missionary way, where missionaries make friendships and then invite students to participate.

Getting students involved is a problem because we almost don’t exist for the university. We aren’t allowed to put up our posters in university buildings. It’s still a part of the ex-communist system; religious activity has no place in the university, so basically we have to work outside of the university. Of course we get the university rector to come to an academic Mass at the beginning of the year, but this is all, nothing more. So this is a challenge. The second challenge is to get students to promote Sinaj. They need to stand out and give leaflets, but they have a problem with that.

Why is that difficult?

They are ashamed and afraid. Because in order to do that you need to expose yourself as a Catholic. They don’t expose themselves as a Catholic at the university.

Why not?

Perhaps some people do, but mostly it’s an unfriendly environment. In the past, like for my generation about 25 years ago, there were huge conflicts with those who exposed themselves as Catholics. Secular student organizations prevented them to be involved on campus. But okay, that’s not important now, that’s the past. But for the moment students need to be invited by other students to Sinaj.

Do you see the work of Sinaj and of the Jesuit College Magis as fulfilling a need in the community?

The need of Catholic students is to meet together. At Sinaj, they can come to Mass and meet afterwards. As far as educational needs go, I think we need to change the way in which it was done up until now. Inviting special guests and having meetings hasn't fostered community. I suppose we need to go to the old model of student groups. Or perhaps have small Bible groups, which allows for more intimacy. This is something I plan on starting next year.

How would you describe the mission of Magis?

Basically I think the idea was born from visiting Budapest and seeing the residential college there. Starting Magis also gave this building purpose, since it had become too big for just the Jesuits.

Is there a need for a college?

There are some other Catholic residences in this community, and they aren’t full. However, to have a co-ed residence was seen as something that was needed in the city. But more than this is creating a place for young people where they can live and we can transfer some Ignatian thought.

For example, this year we invited them to World Youth Day in Poland this summer. In this way we are exposing them to a new reality, like a new culture, and then teaching them to reflect on this reality in order to learn something new. We also do this through discussions every Monday, but we can’t overdo this type of work because they are students, and they have limited time. The amount of education that they offer in Budapest at the St. Ignatius Jesuit College would be very difficult to offer here. In Hungary there is a tradition of this type of residential college. In Slovenia there were colleges before World War II, but they were abolished with communism and taken away from the Church. We now lack a tradition here for this type of reference.

How do organizations like Sinaj and Magis cultivate cura personalis?

At Magis this is done quite well through the tutoring system which Father Peter [Rožič] introduced. Some of the students are really able to forge a relationship with students, and I see that some are really helped by them. Some may not ask for help as often, and of course if you don’t ask for help the system won’t work as well. There is also a Jesuit who has a spiritual presence here. He says Mass with the students and offers them his time for spiritual direction. Of course, this is optional.

In terms of Sinaj, it’s small, and thus more difficult. The needs of some students for spiritual direction or for a student group is already satisfied in other ways. If someone lives at Magis and has the opportunity for faith formation here, he won’t look for this at Sinaj.

How does a sense of community and education intersect?

If you compare Magis to a typical student dorm, usually there is a very poor sense of community in the student dorm. I’ll give you an example. In the student dorms it’s normal for students to take each other’s food. I haven’t heard of someone taking something that doesn’t belong to them at Magis. They often cook together—not only do they cook, but they discuss things. Here they had this need to start a student group based on faith formation; certainly that kind of need doesn’t exist in a student dorm. They also learn to live with others, more so than in a student dorm. Students usually live in a state student dorm because they just want to be free and alone. Here, for example, we have a garden, which requires collaboration. I suppose that by just living together in a Christian community is a type of formation in itself. There are some who find it difficult, but that is about their personal difficulties, or they just have different needs.

In pastoral care the question is always whether or not we are working for students or with students. When we work for students they become customers and take what they want. At Magis we work with students, not for students. We may give them the house, but they need to take care of it, which means they need to facilitate their own community life and is a type of learning itself.

How does the communist past present challenges to Catholicism?

One of the challenges is that we learned to live our faith in private. This means that if we find ourselves in a group of people who are discussing something we won’t say anything or state our opinion. There are more initiatives now encouraging people to stand up for what they believe in, because they learned that faith isn’t discussed in public. This is evinced in students having problems saying that they are Catholic and inviting other students to join groups like Sinaj.

The wounds that people carry from the communist past are not healed. Many families were hurt during World War II, and they still remember that their relatives were killed or that they had to live in extreme poverty due to their religion and political orientation. Before the war these families may have been wealthy, but afterwards they didn’t have anything. This in a way is transmitted from one generation to another. There is still a big need to talk about this because it isn’t resolved. Some people just bear the past. I suppose living as a second-class citizen was being a Catholic in Slovenia.

I suppose it affects the self-esteem of Catholics. In many cities, like here in Maribor, that were communist cities, it’s still hard for the Church. Basically the Church is not as respected as it would be somewhere else. People came here for economic reasons, so they aren’t very keen or interested in spiritual issues. The churches here in Maribor are quite empty. It’s a city where people from all of Yugoslavia came to work, mostly in factories, but they haven’t survived because they were built on military and state industry. Once Yugoslavia fell apart they couldn’t survive.

I do think that low self-esteem for Catholics is a problem. Communism permeated the society, even from kindergarten. This wasn’t just for my generation, but for generations up until now. If you were from a religious home and learned religious songs, then went to kindergarten, you quickly learned that that wasn’t a space where religious songs could be sung. So already at age 5 years old people are shut down because of expressing their faith. You learn not to express yourself as a Catholic because already in kindergarten someone stopped you. Even today in kindergarten a kid can’t sing "Hallelujah."

If the definition of social justice is making society a place where all different types of individuals are treated fairly and are valued, do you see organizations like Sinaj and Magis as promoting social justice for the students that it works with?

I suppose the students that come to Magis or Sinaj are in a way a privileged part of society. First because they have the opportunity to study, even if in Slovenia you don't need much money to study, just the desire to go. Still I suppose it’s quite a privileged society.

As I understand it, social justice here is more in the sense of students trying to do some social justice work themselves. In Ljubljana there’s a project called Men for Others, where about 70 volunteers help in different parts of society. That kind of project we are missing here in Maribor. At Magis they have talked about organizing a social justice project here. We will be able to dedicate more time to this next year. In Sinaj there were some projects like students going to the prison and talking to prisoners, but at the moment there aren’t any. I was thinking of starting Men for Others here, but I need help.

How are Catholic communities for university students important for students?

They give students a sense of identity and the feeling that they aren’t alone as a Catholic. There is support and a sense of belonging, especially during hard times in a student’s life like during exam periods. I suppose you need that kind of support. What is especially helpful is the small size of Magis. There are at the moment six to eight people that attend the faith formation discussions here. In a big group you can’t be personal or intimate.

What makes you most proud about your work?

This year I saw what is working and what isn’t, so now I have the chance to change things next year. Student Mass and preaching there really works. The choir is very good. I also sung in the choir, which was my first time singing in public. I’m proud of the film nights where we employ an Ignatian way of reflecting; we didn't have these nights before.

Next year we will reflect about what to change, and what to make different. We plan to start Bible groups, and probably teach students mediation.