I was in a fraternity in college, but I was largely a fallen away Catholic at that point. We had numerous Catholics, but they were all like me, fallen away.As a Catholic, I believe it is incompatible with my Christian witness to take secret oaths of any kind.I'm genuinely curious...this is not intended as a slam or to be provocative, or anything like that...what is the Catholic Churches position on College Fraternities and Sororities?My frat had a secret oath, as I assume all other college frats do, and we had many, many Catholics as members.
If the “Catholics” in your fraternity are as “Catholic” as I was they probably don’t care much for what the Church says anyway. Do they attend Mass, do they avoid premarital sex, contraception, etc.?
However, I suspect the Church does not have a global position on fraternities. It would teach that drunken bashes are immoral, and that the oaths some of them take are immoral. However, not all fraternities do these things, so to simply say fraternities are bad would be simplistic.
patent +AMDG
We did something called "Chapter Church" where the Chapter as a whole went to church together. Sometimes it was Catholic Mass, sometimes a protestant service.
Not many of the brothers I knew, Catholic or otherwise, made a point of avoiding premarital sex. I wasn't privy to the innermost secrets of their bedroom life, but if I had to guess, I'd say they were indifferent to contraception.
However, I suspect the Church does not have a global position on fraternities. It would teach that drunken bashes are immoral, and that the oaths some of them take are immoral. However, not all fraternities do these things, so to simply say fraternities are bad would be simplistic.
Mine, and I'd bet most are the same, has guiding principals that stress service to the community and the University. We held soccer and softball tournaments to raise money for children with cancer. Some of the other ones did Food Drives and things like that. They all met with representatives of the University on a regular basis to discuss University projects which the Greek system could assist in furthering. All of them had secret rituals, and periodically engaged in "drunken bashes."
FWIW, our Faculty Advisor was the University Chaplain, a Roman Catholic priest, who was a wonderful man, and beloved by all. As I recall, he declined to go through the initiation ritual, a decision which was departed from the norm, but was accepted without comment.