Danni Xie ’12, an economics concentrator and a self-described agnostic, says she doesn’t “think religion plays a large role in your interactions with other people.”

“I have friends who are in religious groups, and in the groups they find people who are similar to them and get the support they need,” she says.

“Though they don’t talk about it, people are religious here, though they keep it personal. They keep it on the low,” says Alexander E. Johnson ’10, a licensed minister and member of SoulFood ministries on campus.

“You have a large variety of people from different religious backgrounds and it’s not very evident when you first get here, but it is something that beneath the surface is certainly the case.”

As to whether religion will disappear from Harvard, Gomes’ answer is simple. “We are still here. We will always be here,” he says.

—Staff writer Jessie J. Jiang can be reached at jiang9@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.