Abstract

Rymarz, Richard A number of years ago a colleague and I attended the commencement Mass at a large Catholic university. During the service my friend observed that there did not seem to be many students taking part. It is always hard to be definitive here, but a quick glance over the congregation seemed to confirm his view. The following year we both, again, attended the commencement Mass but this time, were a little more aware of those who were attending. To be fair the congregation was not large but if you discounted the students who were providing musical accompaniment and the students were being inducted into some sort of leadership role during the service there did not appear to be a single undergraduate in attendance. A sense of proportionality is important here. I do not think our observations would have been noteworthy if there had been a small number of students present but what struck us was there appeared to be a complete absence of student participation in the liturgy