Keeping the youth in Church

by Editor · July 6, 2005

This week, two concerned voices add to the discussion concerning the exodus of young people from the Catholic Church, one that does not always receive the requisite consideration.

As Professor Emmanuel Ngara notes in his opinion column, many young Catholics leave the Church soon after confirmation, either to join a different church, usually of an evangelical bent, or to drop their practice of the Christian faith altogether. While many of the latter may return to the Church as they get older, those who have apostatised from Catholicism may never return.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin puts the blame for this at the Church’s own door, saying that it fails to show its pastoral relevance to young people.

Both Professor Ngara and Archbishop Martin identify the Church’s lack of emphasis on the centrality of Jesus in the Church as a particular weakness.

Professor Ngara suggests that the Catholic Church’s emphasis on dogma and the formalities of worship divert the youth from forming a meaningful relationship with Jesus.

Archbishop Martin believes that the Church has failed to find ways to communicate the “challenge of the message of Jesus” in the lives of young Catholics.

Importantly, he acknowledges that the Church has not always succeeded in showing young people where and how they belong in the Church’s pastoral programmes.

Archbishop Martin turns conventional thought on its head when he calls on the Church to bring out the idealism which is typical of young people, even if their aspirations are sometimes unrealistic.

By embracing youthful idealism, the Church will go back to its roots. The archbishop suggested as much when he said: “When we build up such new communities of idealism among young people, then the message of Jesus in all its newness and challenge will find a new opening.”

Archbishop Martin calls on the Church to present itself as a counter-cultural option for the youth. This is a crucial point.

Modern life is full of distractions. Amid the cacophony of popular culture, many people find it difficult to focus on the spiritual dimensions of life. Rather than competing with popular culture, the Church must be able to show that it can provide a refuge from it, an opportunity to opt out from the mainstream and tune into Jesus.

This does not mean that the Church must dissociate itself from popular culture; indeed, it must remain relevant to modern life. The Church must, however, show that it can offer an alternative, spiritually rewarding lifestyle.

Pope John Paul II understood this when he instituted the World Youth Day events in 1985. Every two years, next in August in Cologne, the world’s Catholic youth gather in their hundreds of thousands and celebrate their faith. The rewards, as we see in this week’s “Youth Centre”, are often lasting.

Many dioceses and parishes have successful youth programmes, often embracing the principles of World Youth Day. These programmes must be identified, as The Southern Cross does in the Youth Centre, and supported, so that they may serve as a model to other dioceses and parishes.

More than that, credible market research into what young people expect from the Church, although a costly exercise, would be a sound investment in the future.

Above all, the Church must take young Catholics seriously and engage with them in a spirit of candid, sincere dialogue, even when their views do not conform with doctrine.

Especially when dealing with the youth, dialogue is the key to good formation.