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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

operating. I would add lectures in the field of marital maturity,
the functioning of the family, for which students could enrol as
an optional subject and it would be taught by someone from the
UPC (2M1).

Several church administrators and chaplains have come and gone
at the university pastoral centre. There is also a change in the
style of UPC pastoral care. The following statement from a
participant represents those who took a critical view of the more
focused orientation of the new UPC management towards the
spiritual activities. I had the feeling that it became more
spiritually focused. And that's not what suits the university
students, it suits a certain group of people. But that group of
people can't keep the UPC together because it will become a
closed community that no one else will want to enter. And when
it is more open and not about spiritual matters, other people will
come there. My classmate (classmate's name) wouldn't be there
if you were too spiritual and I wouldn’t either. And if it had been
from the beginning how it was with the new manager, I wouldn't
have gone there. That system doesn’t suit me and never suited
me (4M2). The participant's statement suggests a constructive
discussion on how the church should communicate with
individual groups of believers. A different pastoral style is
required by people whose background is a traditional family of
believers. Another style is required by those who are believers,
but either their spirituality is more fragile, or in their faith they
emphasise practical deeds over spiritual life and pastoral
practice.

In spite of the stated reservations about the university pastoral
centre, the participants attended it either through their entire
university studies or for a substantial part of it, which suggests
that it was sufficiently attractive for them to spend their own
time not only as consumers but also as active members. So, the
positives outweighed the negatives.

5 Conclusion

Based on the conclusions of the research we conclude that the
activities of the university and the university pastoral centre were
like two different worlds for the participants. On the one hand,
the world of empirical knowledge and scientific research, and on
the other, as if its antithesis or even its irreconcilable adversary,
stood the world of spirituality. It made it harder for the
participants that they expected the possibility of integrating these
two worlds. Above all, they blamed the university for the fact
that it was precisely in the topics that offered the possibility of
integrating the two areas that there was a considerable lack of
interest in trying to do so, and also that they implicitly indicated
the insignificance of spiritual life. They criticised the university
pastoral centre for its dogmatic recitation of certain principles
that lacked theological and anthropological argumentation, open
discussion, and respect for the participant's personal freedom.
This fact suggests that the UPC's activities should be more
respectful of all specificities of university students as an
important social group (in both psychological and sociological
terms).

The above research conclusions raise a question that this
research does not answer, which is why the students perceived
the activities of the university and the university pastoral centre
as contradictory. Only as a comment we can state that perhaps a
certain share of responsibility for this situation may be the
persistent conflict of attitudes and opinions on the liberal and
conservative spectrum in all areas of society. Finally, it's not a
new phenomenon, but a continuation of a process that has a rich
history. One more argument worth mentioning, is the certain
form of antagonism that was systematically developed in the
Slovak environment before 1989, and which circumstances
suggest that it still persists. This is the massively enforced belief
of the totalitarian regime that religious belief is an experience
that hinders and enslaves a person.

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