The view from the pew
In its recent article on a very personal and private crisis in a young man's monastic vocation, Cherwell has succeeded in "outing" one of Oxford's finest and best kept secrets. St. Benet's Hall is one of those places everyone seems to have heard of, but nobody quite knows where it is or even if it really exists at all. Well, the Cherwell has exposed to you all that we are here and now I would like to respond to their leading article 'Student out for being gay' and to tell you even more about our Hall.
St Benet's Hall is the smallest of six Permanent Private Halls and admits monks and lay students every year to study the various subjects offered by the University. It enrolls as many new theology students as any College. Academic standards are scrupulous and we maintain a regular 15 per cent of First Class degrees. The Hall is all-male and distinctly Roman Catholic in religious persuasion, with much emphasis placed on developing mature and compassionate men in a monastic structure. This does not, to any extent, mean that all the lay men or academic staff are Catholic; we have a Jewish Senior Lecturer in philosophy, we have had Greek Orthodox, Sikh, Anglican, and atheist laymen.
We have also had straight and gay laymen and black and white, British, American, Asian, African and European students who, whether monks or laymen, bring an unconscious and cherished diversity to the Hall. We also happen to be pretty successful in the wider sphere of the university with a smattering of Blues in various sports, representation at the Oxford Union, in the Choral Foundations, on the stage and most spectacularly on the River with the first VIII scaling the tables every Summer Eights (now with a score of +37). Most recently we came 5th out of over 30 boats in the Isis Winter League.
I inform you of the above because I am extremely proud of our successes and it was acutely felt by everyone at St Benet's that these achievements were in some way under attack from a contemptuous and ill-thought-out editorial. As a Hall we do not need to defend our existence, but as a member of it I merely wish to correct the false criticism levelled against us.
The monks in question are mature and professional men, preparing to make a permanent commitment to a vow of celibacy. They have been recalled by their superiors to their respective monasteries and asked to consider their own deeply personal and individual idea of their place within religious life. This is not a matter in which either St Benet's or the university has any right to interfere. It is, however, something in which those who sponsor their formation must play some part. It was crass of the Cherwell to interpret this as an act of institutional homophobia on the part of St Benet's. The Cherwell's problem lies in a gross misunderstanding of how communities within the Catholic Church care for their members.
It was such care for the education and formation of their younger members which led to the founding of many of the institutions which lie behind the modern Colleges of this university, Durham College, Canterbury College, Gloucester College, St Bernard's Hall (now Trinity, Christ Church, Worcester and St John's). Vows are part of a monk's spiritual life and to fail them means they are being dishonest to themselves, dishonest to others and dishonest to God.
The Editor of Cherwell sees St Benet's as 'an anachronistic arrangement that has no place in a 21st Century academic institution'. I beg leave to disagree. Most College authorities exist in some apprehension of introducing procedures or rules that might insult or prejudice some of their students; so every faction of every segment of an 'ism' has, and must always have, representation (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). But a result, and by the editor's own volition, colleges now are almost indistinguishable from each other so far have they focused on labels and forgotten the individual.
Standing against this trend is St Benet's Hall. How does this microcosm of a monastery 'fit in' with modern Oxford? I can only explain it thus: that to belong to a Hall which is Roman Catholic does not interfere with the nature of ones personal faith. Students are not chosen because they are Catholics, but because they deserve an academic place at Oxford like anyone else who carries a Bod-card. For its size, St. Benet's contains a rich diversity including the most varied group of people you could ever wish to meet. There exists an integrated, honest and accountable community who recognise the importance of 'universality' within the University, and themselves subscribe to a wide diversity of religious values. To choose religious values is itself an important liberty, which cannot be imposed on others, but must be allowable otherwise how can we be truly diverse?
13th Feb 2003