Jamie Gilroy

RSOC 9
Self-Introductory Essay
September 29th, 2019

A Journey of Catholicism Into the Unknown

I have been on a path of the Catholic and Jesuit education since the day I was born. My
mother immigrated to the United States in her mid-20s and established herself here, living in a
predominantly immigrant-Catholic neighborhood. This meant that the only schools in the area
were private and based on the Catholic religion. My entire faith-learning experience was
surrounded with the strict ideals of the Catholic religion, meaning mass every Sunday, singing
every Psalm, putting more than we could afford in the offertory baskets, and getting coffee and
donuts with fellow parishioners after each and every Sunday service. This tradition followed me
into my teen years, as I continued my education in an all-girls private Catholic high school. At
my high school, the religion classes only further gave me insight into a religion I had pounded
into my head.
I was never exposed to anything but the rules and regulations of Irish Catholicism. The
idea of learning about other religions scared teachers and priests; it was their way or the
highway. This close mindedness impacted the lives of fellow students and myself because it
attempted to create another generation that was ignorant to the other faiths of the world. My
main reasoning for taking this class was not just to fulfill an academic requirement, but to
broaden my knowledge of the other religions that other people consider their livelihood, just as I
do.
As a budding scholar of religion, my goal is to retain as much information as I can about
how other cultures and faiths express their gratitude or love towards their God or gods. I want to
expand my knowledge in order to not only educate myself but educate those in denial that other
religions thrive in our world. As a child, I would always ask too many why questions or how do
we know? This would infuriate Father Carozza, as he constantly told me that the only thing I
need to worry about is, “Catholicism is the way to heaven, nothing more and nothing less.” The
list of bias and sometimes racist things that Pastor would say often hurt my idea of religion. A
man like him, so cruel and hateful, should not have a high position in a church. Yet, he did. He
was the pastor for the majority of my elementary school life, terrorizing our religion class to be
as hateful and ignorant as him. I wanted to argue and talk back to his racist values, but that was
not the “good Irish Catholic girl way.” To fight back against him would be to fight back against
God, which in turn would be committing a mortal sin. I suppressed the constant questions in my
head as I got older, out of fear that I would be questioning God and his commandments. After
all, I needed to get into Heaven.
After graduating from elementary school, I thought I would be getting away from the
ignorant lectures from Fr. Carozza and be able to express my questions about ideals not
pertaining to the “Catholic way”. However, I was greatly disappointed. While not met with such
aggressive and hateful lectures of my past, my questions were shot down in the most infuriating
way: “We will get to that at another time, Jamie.” As you can infer, we never got to my
questions. All I wanted was to experience what other religions and faiths had in their repertoire. I
finally decided, if it was not going to be discussed in my religion classes, I will find answers to
my questions elsewhere. I began to conduct personal research into understanding the different
religions of the world. Through documentaries, personal stories, and religious texts, I was
opened to a world I yearned to learn about. Through this 10-week journey of RSOC 9, I hope to
encounter a safe space where I can discuss what I have learned through my own research and
through the material brought forth in class by both teacher and student.
I truly believe that knowledge is power. Ignorance is not bliss. Those who believe in the
latter are those who do not venture outside their comfort zones. As a political science major, I
strive to help everyone and anyone. I do not believe that I can do this if I do not acknowledge
that the differences in our world make it a colorful place. In studying the religions of the world
and how to understand them, I am called to stray from the close-mindedness of my past and look
to solve problems by using the various beliefs and ideals of others. With my quest, I must be his
surrounded by others who also wish to remove themselves from the ignorant. One pet-peeve I
have in studying religion, due to personal experience, is that I do not want to be involved with
people like Fr. Carozza. In the society we live in today, there is no “one way or the highway.”
With such hate and death surrounded Religion, the ignorant must be educated. Compromise is
the only foundation needed to live in a world rid of such hateful and discriminatory people. In
RSOC 9, I believe that I will prosper in my goal of understanding, and perhaps even inspire
others outside the classroom to become a fellow scholar of religion.