Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Letters

Church’s Quest for Eternal Youth

byStaff writers
23 December 2001
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

THE Advent Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Bathersby (CL 2/12/2001) singled out the power of Christ’s vision to especially attract young people. The Advent Letter and the synod both have unfinished business differentiating a Church that is eternally young from a mere Church of young people. We risk misdirecting our energies.

To build a Church of young people requires us to be energetic about building a Church that is always young. If young people are to feel at home they must have a spirited Church.

Do we treat young people as if they represented some superior segment of Church membership? There is no doubt that they must be addressed where they are “at”. But must we define success solely by the response of young people?

We have a remarkable Catholic school system, but there is evidence of low level Church affiliation even during school years. The seeds of the problem were being sown at least in the 1950s. The problem was masked by the school system and the school system has been unable to reverse the trends.

Young people were and are restless because their elders were and are restless in the Church. The problem is not age related. The culprits are the essentials. They are doctrine and scriptural interpretation.

In a recent article in The Courier-Mail (R. Brunton 24/11/01), the journalist related his experiences as an anthropologist in Vanuatu to argue that fundamentalist sects achieved more converts than the Catholic missionaries because they gave people definite teaching. He noted that the island people were not put off by the rigid discipline of these sects.

He went on to question the place of those religious who supported ‘Womenspace’. He indicated that their alternatives represented disloyalty to a unified vision and required them to consider leaving the Church. He inferred that the relative decline in Australian Church attendance would be reversed by a conversion experience as made by the Vanuatu people.

Australian Christians have generations of Christian experience and respond to Christianity differently. Australians are putting out the “tried and rejected sign” not the “it’s too much discipline sign”.

That sort of change is by analogy akin to an ongoing “adolescence”. Transition often involves challenge, ambiguity, sometimes mistakes, but certainly it involves experimentation.

The adolescents of today are tomorrow’s leaders. Adolescence is not a sign of disloyalty and its “darkness” requires faith rather than rejects faith.

Related Stories

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

Jesus was crucified to give certainty. Jesus himself lived with ambiguity but his faith delivered to his life an unambiguous direction.

When we crucify the nuns of “Womenspace” are we crucifying prophets or pretenders? To a Church that strives to remain young they appear as prophets.

People want a youthful, adolescent and searching Church, one in which they participate. In the past, many issues were sorted out behind the closed doors of the clerical establishment. Participation requires access to information and topics must be free of taboos and censorship.

Adolescence is a harrowing time for child and parent. A youthful Church is not necessarily a comfortable place to live in. I think that Jesus would agree that “… Life wasn’t meant to be easy but it was meant to be enjoyed…”

Christ’s Church wasn’t meant to be a sanctuary from the world. It was meant to be a home to grow up in, but a home with a difference. Living in the Holy Spirit it is a home that does not grow “old” even when it’s residents’ age.

VINCENT HODGE Paddington, Qld

ShareTweet
Previous Post

CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL

Next Post

Stop Scandal: Womenspace Nuns Told to Put House In Order

Staff writers

Related Posts

Braving the cold: Caloundra Unity College Principal Daniel McShea ,Our Lady of the Rosary College Principal Dr Michael Stewart and Caloundra priest Fr Joshua Whitehead.

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

30 June 2022
Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes
Vatican

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

30 June 2022
Performer: Liza is a trained gymnast and contortionist and has enjoyed performing at St Eugene College.
Education

Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

29 June 2022
Next Post

Stop Scandal: Womenspace Nuns Told to Put House In Order

Heroes of Bushfires

Three to be Canonised

Popular News

  • Performer: Liza is a trained gymnast and contortionist and has enjoyed performing at St Eugene College.

    Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Federal and state parliamentarians encourage pro-life Queenslanders at March for Life rally

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Christianity still top, but numbers decline amidst a secular shift

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Braving the cold: Caloundra Unity College Principal Daniel McShea ,Our Lady of the Rosary College Principal Dr Michael Stewart and Caloundra priest Fr Joshua Whitehead.

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

by Hannah Kennelly
30 June 2022
0

WHEN asked if this year’s CEO Vinnies Sleepout was easier than the last, Caloundra priest Fr Joshua...

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

30 June 2022
Performer: Liza is a trained gymnast and contortionist and has enjoyed performing at St Eugene College.

Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

29 June 2022
Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide

Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide

29 June 2022
Tragedy: Debra Ponce, left, and Angelita Olvera of San Antonio mourn near the scene where dozens of immigrants were found dead inside a trailer truck a day earlier on June 28. Photo: CNS

Pope Francis asks for prayers after 50 migrants found dead in Texas trailer truck

29 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping