For the past five or six years, Corpus Christi Catholic Church has offered college-level courses about Catholicism through an outreach program of Benedictine College in Atchison.

The classes, which have been open to anyone, have taught participants about the sacraments, the Catholic creed, Scripture and church history. Now the outreach program, called the Institute of Religious Studies, is offering something completely different.

Instead of studying aspects of Catholicism, participants at Corpus Christi, 6001 W. 15th St., will learn about Islam.

Why would a Catholic church be host to a class on the Muslim faith?

“Because people were attending the Institute of Religious Studies classes that we were offering, and they were asking me, ‘Could we have a class on world religion, especially Islam?'” said Nancy Nelson, the church’s director of religious education.

“I’m guessing, for the most part, the interest was piqued by the (Iraq) war, but people who are interested in taking these courses want to expand their knowledge of world religions. Learning about other faiths helps them to understand their own.”

So far, 25 people have enrolled in the class, “Islam: The Way of One God,” a 300-level college course that is worth one credit hour.

The class will meet 7 p.m.-9:30 p.m. on Mondays from Sept. 8 through Oct. 6.

“Twenty-two (students) was our limit, but because we had interest in it, we moved it to a larger space in the church,” Nelson said. “We are accepting a few more (people).”

The cost of taking the course for college credit is $60, or participants can audit the class for a fee of $35.

Participants who’ve never attended an outreach course of Benedictine College also will need to pay a $10 registration fee.

Biagio Mazza, an adjunct professor at Benedictine working through the Institute of Religious Studies, will teach the class at Corpus Christi.

The institute is a partnership between the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and Benedictine. The program offers college-level courses in parishes throughout the archdiocese, which includes Lawrence.

Its main purpose is to train Catholic school teachers and catechists in a deeper knowledge of their faith, but courses are open to the community.

Mazza, who has a master’s in religious studies and theology from Fordham University, has taught the class on Islam several times since it was first offered about two years ago.

“The course will be a basic introduction to the beliefs and practices of Islam, as well as an examination of key passages that are correlated in the Scripture and the Koran. We will examine them for similarities and contrasts,” Mazza said.

The course is an opportunity to foster tolerance among people of different faiths, according to Mazza.

“We come in with a historical, built-in prejudice against the Muslim world as a whole. I’m trying to break down the boundaries that have built up over centuries and build bridges,” he said.

“We may not agree, but we certainly need to forge respect and understanding of our mutual beliefs and practices.”