MY husband Matt and I have worked in youth ministry most of our adult life.
Matt is currently a full-time campus minister at a co-ed Catholic school of 1000 students. I teach at the same school.
The issue of youth involvement in the Church is one that is a passion to us, and I would like to express a few of our observations.
Firstly, youth of today have a tremendous hunger for ‘authentic spiritual experiences’.
They are not going to just accept that they have a duty to be a Christian or Catholic as past generations have.
Pope John Paul II has talked about the need for a new evangelisation, and nowhere is this a greater reality than with the current generation of youth.
In our experience, we find that today’s youth are not hardened to the Gospel. Wow, does that surprise some?
Well, here’s the way we find it.
A very large proportion of the youth that we relate to have come from homes where religious practice is either non-existent or minimal. That means that there is a spiritual void.
A lot of the time, there is not so much an antipathy towards the things of God, but just plain apathy.
This is good news for those who hunger to share the ‘Good News’!
One of the biggest mistakes that I believe Catholics are making with regard to youth in the 21st century is presuming that they don’t/won’t/can’t be open to the fullness of the Gospel message.
Instead of sharing the story of Christ with joy, confidence, enthusiasm and optimism I believe that too much of the Catholic approach to reaching youth is to ‘dance around’ the core message.
We dress it up in ‘social justice’ talk or ‘spirituality’ (devoid of mentioning Jesus) talk.
We certainly avoid any mention of sin or being forgiven in the false presumption that this will scare youth away. Wrong.
Youth today have more problems, sadnesses, pressures and life stresses than ever before.
So many young teens are walking around with emotional and spiritual weights that once would only have been carried by weary old people.
This is why they are hungry for a message of hope – a message of life and freedom and help in their daily lives.
We see in our daily contact with youth, a desperate need to experience a world that is beyond this world.
We Catholics must tell them about Jesus in clear and unequivocal ways – or someone else will.
It has been noted that there is a huge growth in attendance at pentecostal/evangelical Churches.
I find that Catholics like to ‘poo-poo’ these Churches as irrelevant and superficial but we do so at our own ignorance and peril.
My husband and I have seen many great young Catholics be drawn to these Churches.
Why are they so attractive?
Well, it is true that the music is usually very upbeat, and the congregation usually very friendly, but my observation is that young people are attracted to these Churches for one main reason – because they hear the Gospel preached clearly, confrontingly and in a way that leads them to a change of life.
These Churches have learnt how to present the Gospel in an uncompromising way and in ways that use all the latest in communication technology and techniques.
Of course there are problems with these Churches, but we cannot ignore the fact that they are filled to the rafters with youth. They must be doing something we can learn from.
Finally, I believe that the loss of our youth is a serious tragedy in our Church and one that we should all be losing sleep over.
I sometimes scratch my head at the way in which we as a Church throw ourselves into current political and social issues like the war in Iraq and boat people, but can sleep soundly knowing that each Sunday there is a whole generation missing from our faith community.
CATHY RANSOM
Bayview Heights, Qld
