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| Ideas & Identity: Catholic students in the National University of Singapore, 1951-85 (Part I) by Nick Chui Yongtai (Cont’d) |
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Catholic students’ poems expressed disdain for secular humanist ideas and also dealt with spiritual dilemmas. One example, To Jesus Crucified, captures the paradox of the Christian who feels the anguish at the seeming indifference of the world and of his Creator while at the same time knowing that His Creator felt an even more crushing burden while he hung on the cross:
Lord You who as an infant Needed mother love and protection, Crying red-faced, like any other, Did you as God From Gethsemane to Calvary Anticipate heaven’s ease, Or did You, like any other man, Feel lost and helpless, When after those bloody deeds They stripped You of Your skin And drove iron nails Between Your wrist bones And in Your feet? Father Father, Why, Hast Thou Forsaken me?43 Change is in the air Catholic thought in the university seemed to be of a high and idealistic level. Although possessed of a fortress mentality somewhat, these students had a strong sense of identity and could recognise threats to their faith. Indeed, at their annual study camp in 1961, students noted that “antagonism and contempt for the Church is found in the University with charges that the Church is un-Christian, unscriptural and on the side of Capitalism.” In refuting the charge, the Aquinas concluded that “such opposition and criticism is to be expected since Christ himself anticipated it and warned his disciples of it.”44 Like most student movements, the leaders were constantly frustrated at their less enthusiastic peers. Yet it seemed a lively period of intellectual life, with attempts to bring to bear the best of Catholic thinking onto the problems affecting Malaya and the world. Catholic optimism was at an all-time high. Towards the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, the editorial of the Aquinas proclaimed a new era for the Church and expressed its enthusiastic reception of “the susurrus of fresh air that whispered through the vast and venerable institutions of the Church that has quickened into a refreshing current of cool breeze.”45 Yet in only six years’ time, students would express “disappointment at the Church, and regretting their Catholic education.”46 The story of what happened in those years will be told in the next chapter.
Nick Chui Yongtai graduated from NUS with a honours degree in history and is now working at the Family Life Society as a marketing executive. He also teaches catechism at St. Joseph’s Church (Bukit Timah).
© Copyright MMVII, Nick Chui Yongtai. All rights reserved. |
Above: A painting of the Flight to Egypt done in a Chinese style which hung in the Society's Room. It was one of the Society's attempts to promote appreciation of Chinese culture. 
Above: The Executive Committee of the Catholic Students' Society 1960/61. |
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43 John Tan, “To Jesus Crucified”, Aquinas 1962, p.25 44 Elizabeth Eber, “Report of Study-Camp in Port Dickson”, Aquinas 1961/62, p.39 45 Editorial, Aquinas 1964, p.7 46 Editorial, Aquinas 1970, p.4 |
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