By Tiffany Ayuda
“Faith makes everyone a mystery,” said Peter Manseau, the world-renowned, author of Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and their Son, a memoir of his life as a son of a former priest and nun.
Manseau visited the University on Wednesday night to tell students about his book and his life experiences.
As a writer with a degree in religious studies, Manseau is well traveled, spending time at a Trappist monastery and working at the National Yiddish Book Center. However, Manseau said that religion is more complex than simply reading from the text. As writers and specialists of religion, they are experts of something they have thoroughly studied, according to Manseau.
“The only time I feel like a Catholic is when I write,” Manseau said.
He added that people categorize others with by religion. “No one knows about God. We all take religion personally. We think that if someone is Catholic, Muslim or a Buddhist, we assume that’s all who they are,” Manseau said.
Growing up in a pre-dominantly Catholic neighborhood in Lowell, Mass., Manseau was the youngest of three children. His father, Bill, was a devout Roman Catholic priest, and his mother Mary, a Sister of St. Joseph, both valued the meaning of religion in their lives. Manseau said he remembers his father carrying holy oil wherever he went, ready to grant salvation to anyone who would ask for it.
But Manseau said it was hard on his parents when they received letters from the community criticizing them for going against their vows. “As a people of faith during the ’60s and ’70s, they were supposed to epitomize the life of sacrifice and morals.”
“People sent letters to my parents, ridiculing their lives. It was amazing what people would say,” Manseau said.
However, he said all stories of faith are all about digging in people’s lives. Manseau read part of a chapter in his book, called “Heart-shaped Stone,” a story of Christianity as a religion of inversion: the Virgin Mary giving birth to a son who would save the world, blood becoming wine, flesh becoming bread, priest becoming man.
“My father lived and breathed Catholicism so much that he believed that as a keeper of the Gospel, he had to take part in the deepest, most intimate relationship of all – marriage,” he said. Manseau said his father just cannot imagine not being a Catholic.
Manseau said that his parents’ marriage has humanized them. It has made them more devoted to their religion, and it was meant to change the world. The Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam and Cold Wars and the nadir of nationalism in the United States all influenced Manseau’s parents to make a difference in the way people see each other.
Manseau added that his parents wanted to prove that a priest and a nun who preached love, peace and justice were capable of living up to their words and raise a family that would be an example to the world.
“The fact that Manseau’s parents still remained fervent and strong in their religious convictions even after they married and experienced aversion from the Church is just fascinating. Looking at the time they were living in, and the influence religion had during the ’60s, it’s just unbelievable that Manseau’s parents still wanted to become a Catholic priest and nun again,” Warren Frisina, associate professor and chairperson of the religion department, said.
For Tesa Purellku, a junior print journalism major, Manseau’s lecture gave her an archeological perspective.
“I liked how it gave me a glimpse of Catholicism, and how much society has evolved with it,” Purellku said.
Gary Staurowsky, a junior international business major, added that Manseau’s lecture made him look beyond the superficial assumptions about religion and look at the person who practices it.
“All I’ve really learned about religion was through Catholic school and the Bible. Manseau’s words were unexpected and something real,” Staurowsky said. “But more importantly, I learned that religion is more than just about the life of one man, it’s about all of us.”
