Is DePaul a Catholic school? Of course, sort of. DePaul University is a Catholic institution, and its student body-made up of 16,052 undergraduates, 8,017 graduate students and 1,076 law students, according to the college’s website-is well aware of its religious identity. What’s more, and perhaps something the students don’t know, is that DePaul is not only Catholic, it is the largest Roman Catholic university in the country.

Catholicism is evident around DePaul’s campus. For example, there is a crucifix on the Monsignor AndrewJ. McGowan Science Building, which houses DePaul’s biology and chemistry programs; and, of course, there is the St. Vincent DePaul Church on the Lincoln Park campus. Still, some students pay little attention to these symbols.

“There are definitely a few things around campus that reminds me that DePaul is a Catholic school. But it really isn’t evident unless you look really closely and carefully,” said senior Vi Nguyen. “Besides the church, I know that there are a few crosses around campus, but I think we barely notice them.”

Of the various aspects that make DePaul a Catholic institution, the requirement for all undergraduate students to take two courses in both philosophy and religious studies certainly sticks out. Do the required religious studies courses have to deal with Catholicism? Not at all. Within the Religious Studies Department, there are classes that revolve around practically every conceivable faith-even ones that are no longer practiced, like Greek and Roman mythology-and any of these courses will fulfill the requirement.

And speaking of non-Catholic faiths, with campus groups like Hillel and the Muslim Life Center, it can’t be said that DePaul’s student body is homogeneously Catholic or even Christian. And yet, the school’s motto-“I will show you the way of wisdom”-comes directly from the Book of Proverbs. So the real question is, how does DePaul continue to promote itself as a Catholic school yet still manages to be religiously tolerant to students of all faiths (or no faith at all)? In other words, what does it mean to be a Catholic university in 2011?

In order to understand the identity of any school, all one has to do is find its mission statement. Here’s what DePaul’s mission statement has to say:

“By reason of its Catholic character, DePaul strives to bring the light of Catholic faith and the treasures of knowledge into a mutually challenging and supportive relationship. It accepts as its corporate responsibility to remain faithful to the Catholic message drawn from authentic religious sources both traditional and contemporary.”

Seems pretty clear-cut, right? There’s more.

“On the personal level, DePaul respects the religiously pluralistic composition of its members and endorses the interplay of diverse value systems beneficial to intellectual inquiry. Academic freedom is guaranteed both as an integral part of the university’s scholarly and religious heritage, and as an essential condition of effective inquiry and instruction.”

So how can DePaul honor “the religiously pluralistic composition” of the student body while, at the same time, “bring the light of Catholic faith and the treasures of knowledge into a mutually challenging and supportive relationship?” In order to answer that question, another more complex question needs to be answered: what is a Catholic?

“Catholicism is a collective noun. There’s dozens of forms of it,” said Rev. James Halstead, the Chair of the Religious Studies Program. “At DePaul, if you want a Catholicism that’s rigid and rule-bound, we got it. We got the Catholicism for the Catholics who just want spiritual practice but wouldn’t know a rule if it hit them in the face. We got the kind of Catholicism for the types of intellectual Catholics who know about the rules of the church, but they don’t care about them.”

In keeping with Rev. Halstead’s undefined definition of Catholicism, DePaul’s Catholic identity is as difficult to define as the average Catholic’s beliefs. But Catholicism aside, how do DePaul’s non-Catholic students feel about their school? Abdul-Malik Ryan, the Chaplain for DePaul’s chapter of United Muslims Moving Ahead, had an answer.

“As to the relationship between Muslim students and the university, I think it is very positive,” said Ryan, who was a DePaul student from 1992-1995. “I would say in the last 15 years the identity of the university as a Catholic institution and the profile of Catholic ministry at the university has been strengthened a good deal, and at the same time there has been a consistent growth in the support for Muslim students and other diverse non-Catholic religious groups.”

And how are Muslim students at DePaul treated throughout campus?

In any environment, it is sometimes a challenge to be a minority, and for Muslims in the United States, the last 10 years have been ones where the community often feels under a microscope or burdened by misconceptions promoted in the media or arising out of world events,” Ryan said. “Having said that, I am not aware of any significant incidents of Muslim students feeling uncomfortable with the Catholic identity of DePaul.”

But despite DePaul’s willingness to teach those who practice other religions, there are some students who find contention with the school, specifically due to its Catholic background. The most relevant example deals with the Sage Medical Group, the current health service provider at DePaul.

According to The DePaulia article written by Gina Nigrelli in 2008, Sage “does not make HIV and STD testing available for students, along with the availability of birth control and contraceptives.”

So does DePaul stay true to its mission statement, of maintaining a Catholic identity while at the same time being religiously pluralistic? Somehow, yes. But does DePaul hold either of those concepts higher than the other?

In an address to the Faculty Council in 2006, Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, DePaul’s president, answered that question:

“I’ve received over 10,000 letters, e-mails and phone calls in the past 20 months.for somehow being ‘unfaithful’ to the Catholic tradition. They would have us become an institution ‘of Catholics for Catholics,'” said Holtschneider. “That’s not DePaul. It never was. DePaul has always been a place where people of every faith have been welcomed to study and to teach.