Throughout the interview, she repeatedly insists that we shouldn’t portray her as some kind of model Catholic. “Because I’m not”, says Lucía Orozco Arbolí (19), a student at University College Maastricht. She does actively engage with her faith, by praying, reading about it and attending church. “Even if it’s not every Sunday”, she adds. “I wish I could go every Sunday, but life gets in the way sometimes.” The point she seems to be making is that being religious doesn’t automatically make you better than anyone else. But it does make a big difference in her own life.
Environment
She grew up in a religious household. Her mother’s side of the family are practising Catholics; her father’s side are non-practising, “but they’re Spanish, so they too have Catholic roots”. Church on Sundays, an uncle who is a priest, religious classes in schools run by nuns – “I was brought up in a Catholic environment.” Belief came naturally to her as a child. “I had a very innocent, childlike faith.” Then came adolescence. “I went through a difficult time where I questioned everything. I became indifferent. I went to church with my mother every now and then, but I’d think, ‘This isn’t doing anything for me, why am I here?’”
However, just a few years later, she has become a consciously religious young woman. The turning point came during a Catholic summer camp in France in 2021. She went there to learn the language, she confesses with a laugh, but she left with a whole new perspective on God and faith. She met people there who talked about their faith “very naturally”, clearly “cherished it and worked on it. I’d seen that before, but it left a deep impression on me. While Catholicism is deeply engrained in Spanish culture, you don’t always see it in people’s everyday practices. But faith isn’t just for Sundays; it’s a very personal thing, a way of life.”
“There I was, up in the mountains, without a phone, the only non-French speaker at the camp. But I wasn’t afraid at all. I felt at peace. I realised that strength didn’t come from within me; there was someone with me. That’s how I rediscovered my connection with God. I’ve never felt it as strongly since, but it gave me certainty.”
Leap of faith
Back home, Orozco Arbolí became a practising Catholic again. In 2022, she took another leap of faith by moving to Maastricht. “I was 17, I didn’t know the city or the language and I was here all alone. Fortunately, I had easy access to a chapel. There, I discovered that God can give you incredible peace to cope with difficult times. It was truly a gift. I don’t know how else I would’ve made it through that first year. I was happy.” But that’s not to say that her faith guarantees nice feelings or an easy life. “There are periods when I feel distant from God – I went through one just this summer. Such minor crises of faith are normal, but they’re also frustrating. It was such a relief when a priest recently told me, ‘If you don’t feel God, it doesn’t mean He’s no longer there.’”
It’s difficult for her that her faith – “an essential part of who I am” – can be hard for her non-believing friends and family to comprehend. “My faith is the most precious thing I have. It hurts that people I love, don’t share that. I wish they could find comfort in God and know that He exists and loves them too.”
Theatre
She understands that there is much about faith and the Church that can drive people away. “It’s true that the Church is made up of struggling and imperfect individuals who make mistakes. I want to remain part of it precisely because it’s not some strange theatre full of saints, but a community that, despite its flaws, seeks to follow the truth that is God. I need those others to be Catholic myself.”
She doesn’t engage in discussions about her faith. “It’s not a life philosophy or political ideology. I believe it’s my duty to demonstrate what it means to have God in your life. I try, emphasis on try, to do that by treating others the way Jesus would – by genuinely caring about them.”