SEEK26 Interview with Fr. Mike Schmitz & Divine Mercy University President, Fr. Charles Sikorsky, LC

0:16So this is father Charles Sikorsky, president of Divine Mercy University, and I'm joined here today by father Mike Schmitz Yes. Who needs no introduction. And thank you so much for being with us, father Mike. Thank you, father. It's it's great to be here. Question I have for you. Our mission is to integrate the best of science with the best of Catholic understanding of the person, and openness to God's will and the spirituality and so forth. We're forming psychologists and counselors at the master's and doctor level. Tell us a little bit from your perspective as a campus minister and all that you do for the church. What are some of the main issues where you see that could be important? Yeah.

0:50No. I well, I think you know, I I actually know of at least one, campus ministry on a state's campus that they have a, a psychologist or a therapist that is dedicated to the university or to to the campus ministry. Mhmm. Because they see so many people who have so many, struggles, so many, even just kind of this this, I think well, you know this, but was it maybe ten years ago that anxiety overtook depression as the number one diagnosed, mental health issue, on college age students? And I see that again and again. And there's a certain uncertainty, right, when it comes to looking at the future, looking at their own someone's own ability to to manage the future. I think there's a lot of fear that happens that's that's kind of, like, rips a lot of our young, young people.

1:35And then it translates into fear that groups are adults. Right? And so that I think that there's a a huge need in, a lot of campus ministers I work with or college university universities I work with for really, really good help to be able to like, even just that set that sense of how do I manage life, which I think is really, really it's it's one of those it's very basic thing. At the same time, you can understand how in a in a such constantly changing world with, with very little certainty, like, how these issues would dominate a person's life, the point where they feel debilitated. Yeah. I think too, going to college, you know Right. A lot of times they're away from home for the first time.

2:20They may no longer be the best student. Right. And there's all this you add all these different things up and you see all kinds of struggles. And Right. We see it around the world around the country where, more and more, the the university council centers are full. Yeah. And so what do we do? And so what does yeah. I I I I'm sorry. I'm not meaning to interrupt you, but I I see that a lot where there's, I have a student and say, hey. I can get you in touch with some some therapists off campus. They're like, yeah. I'm on the waiting list to talk to the counselors on campus, and it's I can get in in a month. Mhmm. Or it's just the h the extent it's full. And then when they see them, it's like, you know, here's thirty minutes.

2:56I'll see you again another four weeks. It's like, well, hey. So I think there's there's a great need. And and there's no guarantee that they're gonna give values that are consistent with the Catholic faith or consistent with what you're what you're trying to do Yeah. And the Catholic, you know, the the Catholic chaplain's trying to do. Well, having that, I think that's one of the reasons My Mercy is so important is because having that, that that Catholic anthropology where it's actually I mean, you know this, but that that sense of, okay, so far made for love, what's love? Love is willing the good of the other. So these three we always do this with our students. We break it down. So willing means choosing.

3:28To choose not just wanting it, but choosing the good. What's the good? They have to know what the other is, not just to know what the good is for them. Mhmm. And so at the Catholic anthropology that you'd have it to my mercy would be so critical because if you don't have it, then you don't know what the good is. Right. And therapy has a goal. Yeah. But if you're not sure what the good of the person is, like, you're you're gonna go I mean, you're the hamster on the on the cycling around all day. Right? You're not or or worse. Right? We see it all the time now with different set questions of sexuality and so forth that You're affirming something that just can't be affirmed. It's not gonna lead to a health.

4:03It's not gonna lead to thriving. So here's a question. What what's the goal of therapy? This is this is me asking the question for my own sake. Sure. The goal of therapy is really, ultimately, is to help people become who God made them to be. To make them the best version of themselves, however you wanna say it. Yeah. Which ultimately is is holiness. Right? God made us Right. For him to love him and love others. So and so many psychological barriers, are barrier really barriers to love. They interfere with our ability to love God and our ability to fully love others. And so what we're trying to do in therapy, we're trying to do it through counseling is to eliminate or diminish those barriers as much as possible to let God's actions, be primary and and and and allow people to become who they're supposed to be.

4:48That's so good. I was talking with, sister Miriam James, if you know sister Miriam James. She works a lot with a lot of healing the whole person. Right. We talked about shoots. At one point, we're talking about what is it what is it to be healed? And she was saying something that, you just said it in such a unique way too because she said, we sometimes think that to be healed is to be fixed. Like, I no longer have a problem. I no longer have a wound. And what I hear you saying is that we're gonna address the wound. We're gonna address that, that psyche that needs help, but the goal might not be, now there's no wound anymore. The goal might be, actually, in the midst of the wound, how do you love?

5:25Like, in the midst of the wound, how do you begin is that accurate, or am I am I mistaken? Accurate there. Right? And you think about Saint Paul. Right? The thorn in the flesh. Right. Yeah. Beg God three times, and God says, no. My grace is enough. And in certain ways, it's mysterious, but God wants us to carry certain crosses. Right. Now we should try to do whatever we can on a human level to get rid of the obstacles, I would say, but but, yes, we're not all we're never gonna be fully fixed because we're subject to this thing called original sin that's always around. Right. It's always gonna be rearing its ugly head. So, yeah. That makes sense. You know, there was, years ago, I maybe recounted the story before.

6:01There was a we have a women's household on our campus. And a number of the the young women at that time, they, you know, wrestled with different psychological issues. But, at one point, they had this crisis, and the crisis was one of them was reading a book about the life of Saint Catherine of Siena. But it wasn't about the life of Saint Catherine of Siena. It was someone had proposed the idea that here at Catherine of Siena died at such a young age, and she did such serious penances because she actually had an eating disorder. And so she had some body dysmorphia and because of that, she had eating disorder. And because of that, that's what killed her. That's what led her to having a a a a shortened life.

6:35And they, like, they needed to have this family house meeting because they were so in turmoil over, like, wait a second. But she's, like, Saint Catherine of Siena. She's a great saint. Amazing. How could she have this thing? How if this contributed to her death? I mean, I talked to my spiritual director about this. Mhmm. And he's, he's a hermit. He's, been living in Northwoods Of Minnesota for years, but also, like, very genius man. And I said, father, what do you think about this? And he was like he said, a, well, there's no evidence for that. Like, that's one thing that you're able to realize. There's no evidence for that. There's someone reading back into her life and putting their stuff on her.

7:09But he said, but, b, if that was the case, so? Like, what do you mean so? Well, that means that God made her a saint in the midst of her wound. Like, that that sense of and again, probably not true because it's just someone again writing in 1990, But here's God who makes can can, like you said, to make all this saints the chapel dedicated to different saints or pages of different mental health disorders, you know, who had these problems and struggled these problems, and but they're saints. Yeah. And so there's always that hope, you know, not not that we're gonna live in misery, but but we can carry our crosses. We have a father who loves us, and he's gonna he's gonna be with us Yeah. And helping people to understand that.

7:54Yeah.