Thou shalt engage in drinking, pre-marital sex and shameless self-absorption.
The unwritten rules of the college lifestyle — or at least the stereotype of such — can't exactly be mistaken for tenets of Catholicism, which is why minefields abound for strict Catholic students who pursue higher education at secular institutions like Tufts.
Though senior Christopher Gardner considers himself an observant Catholic, life as a college student often precludes him from participating in his faith as often as he would like.
"In terms of prayer and finding time for reconciliation and confession, it's tough to find the time to do that stuff," he said. "College is very time-consuming. The important thing is that you try, not that you succeed."
Gardner, who attended a public high school in nearby Stoneham, Mass. — "where pretty much everyone is Catholic," he says — is currently the president of the Catholic Community at Tufts (CCT), an on-campus organization that aims to bring together Catholic students.
The need to congregate with peers of similar faith nearly drove Gardner away from Tufts, he said.
"For me, at first, when I was looking at Tufts and I decided to come here, I was looking at local parishes because I didn't know that there was mass on campus," he said. "Honestly, times were rough because I was concerned that I wouldn't have a place to go [for worship]."
A letter addressed to applicants who had self-identified as Catholic, which included information about the weekly on-campus Catholic mass each Sunday at 10 p.m., assuaged Gardner's fears.
"Nothing would ever interrupt that time, obviously, so it fits into my schedule," he said.
Also weighing on Gardner's college choice was his passion for engineering, which took precedence over a desire to attend a university built on Catholic principles like the University of Notre Dame or Georgetown University.
"The only… [Catholic college] I even thought of was Boston College, which doesn't have an engineering program, so that was definitely a no," Gardner said. "I didn't even apply to any Catholic colleges, nor did I ever intend to."
Jacob Denney, CCT's vice president, had a similar decision to make.
"My main priority was academics," Denney, a junior, said. "I knew I was strong and my faith was strong so I realized I didn't need to be at a Catholic college."
Though he attended a Catholic high school, Denney was raised as a Congregationalist before deciding to begin the conversion process as a senior in high school.
"The more I learned about Catholicism, and the more I thought about it, the more logical and accurate it seemed to be in its teaching compared to the church I was following [at the time]," he said. "Catholicism was just more certain in its teachings."
Transitioning from high school student bodies comprised primarily of Catholics to the diverse Tufts population presented its own unique obstacles for Denney and Gardner.
"The biggest challenge was adjusting to a different kind of friend group than when I was in Catholic school," Denney said. "I was friends with a lot of the kids in the campus ministry there, and I didn't really have that coming here because my first friends were from the sailing team and people from my [dorm] floor who weren't necessarily Catholic."
Denney says that he eventually found a balance between social contacts in and out of the CCT.
"It's just important to find people you share interests with and make sure that they respect your background even if they don't share it," he said.
Of course, socializing on college campuses brings about a set of temptations that clash with traditional Catholic views. But Gardner says that his Catholic beliefs have never fallen prey to peer pressure.
"For me and my friends, my faith was never an issue," Gardner said. "They understood that this was my faith, this was what I believe in, and I've never been pressured to do anything I wasn't comfortable doing, never been pressured to drink if I wasn't comfortable drinking. People have accepted and respected me so I've never felt any pressure to betray my faith."
Denney, too, has faced little difficulty, though he states that, in terms of following Catholic tenets in general, he takes a forest-for-the-trees approach.
"I try to follow the main tenets and really be a good Catholic and a good Christian…but I think looking at my [actions] spreads God's message rather than following every little rule," he said.
Mary Sypek, a junior who serves as one of CCT'sspritual coordinators, said that this reconciliation is a part of observing any faith's tenants.
"There were a few things that I've had to reconcile, but I think that's part of being involved with any religion. These are traditions that were created a long time ago… and reconciling that with modern life is sort of a challenge."
Another potentially tricky situation for Catholic Jumbos is the debate over hot-button topics — particularly on college campuses — such as abortion, pre-marital sex and condom use, each of which has come under fire over the years by the Vatican and about which Catholic students may disagree with their more liberal peers.
"Particularly as a freshman, I would argue a lot with my friends about things like abortion and the death penalty," Denney said. "And I still find myself arguing about that stuff constantly with friends who are much more liberal than I am."
Still, the ideological conflict remains civil, he said.
"I've found Tufts to be a place where people can say ‘I don't agree with you, here's my opinion on it,'" Denney said. "There are intellectual discussions without yelling or name-calling."
Gardner has received similar courtesy, he said.
"I tend to look at myself as a very progressive Catholic even though I'm pretty religious," he said. "There are things that I don't agree with the Vatican on, and I come from a fairly liberal parish and a fairly liberal youth group. Not everyone has to agree. But it's about being respectful."
Gardner also has contested the merits of Catholicism and religion in general with peers, including atheists and those in the midst of a post-teenage crisis of faith.
"I have plenty of friends who are atheist, who think that church and religion are stupid, and they ask me why I believe what I believe," he said. "After having conversations with them they've come to respect my beliefs and I respect theirs.
"I lost faith in junior year of high school for a small period of time before finding my way back through some personal reflection, so I understand why people wonder and question why God exists. I've come to the conclusion that He does and I understand that not everyone [agrees] and that's fine. "
One opportunity for Gardner to explore his faith is at the aforementioned Sunday night mass in Goddard Chapel. The service draws hundreds of churchgoers each week, University Chaplain David O'Leary said in an email. Most of the attendees are Tufts students, according to Denney.
Sypec grew up going to church with her family and attended a Catholic high school. Mass at Tufts was an easy way to make the transition, she said. "It's definitely been a learning process moving from somewhere where I was surrounded by Catholics to somewhere where I had to seek it out. In terms of finding the Catholic community, it was really easy because there's a mass on Sunday every week."
"It was definitely an adjustment along with all the other adjustments of coming to college," Sypec said, "[but] I think that a really cool part of being Catholic here is that everyone really knows each other… and it's a really close community."
