I write in response to Mr. Lionetti's Feb. 27 letter "Where's the Meat?" While you raise an excellent point concerning the University's decision not to serve meat in the dining halls on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent, I must respectfully disagree.
It may be fair to criticize Notre Dame for seemingly making the decision for us. However, it would completely go against our Catholic faith for her to do otherwise and thereby tempt us with meat. Furthermore, rather than portraying us students as not being "responsible enough to take notice of the day of the week and remember to abstain from consuming meat," doesn't this decision demonstrate the University's faith that her students (the majority of which are practicing Catholics) would naturally want to observe days of fasting?
Notre Dame is not trying to enforce Catholic tradition upon her students, but is rather helping us along our Lenten journey. We are only young students and are still in need of spiritual maturation. After all, did not Blessed Basil Moreau believe it important to educate the mind and the heart?
That being said, if denying dining hall meat on Ash Wednesday and Lenten Fridays is imposing "a belief-based decision on all students," then couldn't we say the same for a lot of other Notre Dame traditions? What about the Crucifixes in every classroom or the theology requirements? From how I see it, we should applaud the University of Notre Dame for being strong in her Catholic faith and helping us students grow in ours as well.
Lindsay Williams
junior
Lyons Hall
Feb. 27
