Empowering the Catholic youth

by Editor · Published August 10, 2011 · Updated March 6, 2012

As you read this, some 1200 young people from South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland are enthusiastically preparing to participate in the World Youth Day celebrations in Madrid, Spain.

The international event, held every three years, will bring together hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from all over the world, culminating in a vigil and Mass with Pope Benedict. Organisers anticipate that the attendance figures for the papal Mass will be close to a million.

These figures and their context ought to give us pause for thought. A million young people are coming from afar to be at a Catholic Mass led by an octogenarian whom the secular establishment has declared irrelevant (or worse), on a continent where the obituaries for the Christian have already been written.

The secular media�the same media that give prominence to protests against the Catholic Church attended by a handful of people�will mostly ignore this remarkable event. The numbers and the energy created by hundreds of thousands of young Catholics simply does not correspond with the secular narrative that the Christian faith is becoming extinct in Europe.

Of course, there is no denial that Catholicism in Europe is facing profound challenges and, in some places, a very real crisis. For that reason, Pope Benedict has made the re-evangelisation of Europe (and, by extension, all societies affected by aggressive western secularisation) a priority of his pontificate.

The choice of Spain�a traditionally Catholic country which is rapidly secularising�as the host country of this year�s WYD forms part of the programme whereby the Holy See aims to revitalise the faith in Europe�a process in which the youth, as recipients and sources of that catechetical process, is central.

Pope Benedict notes this in his message to the youth for WYD 2011: �The Church depends on you! She needs your lively faith, your creative charity and the energy of your hope. Your presence renews, rejuvenates and gives new energy to the Church. That is why World Youth Days are a grace, not only for you, but for the entire People of God.�

World Youth Day is a good time for the Church on all levels to consider its relationship with youth. The key question is this: Does the Church succeed in taking advantage of the fruits of the World Youth Day for the good of all the faithful? Many other questions will emerge from the answer.

On the diocesan and parish levels there must be acute reflection on whether the youth are being served adequately in existing structures. We must be alarmed when the vibrancy (or even existence) of parish youth groups is dependent on the engagement of a few individuals or, more importantly, on the quality of support provided by a transient pastor.

However, the engagement of young Catholics in the Church must not be reduced to youth groups and special events, essential though these are. Pastoral care for the youth is a necessary specialised ministry, but at the same time young Catholics must not be seen as a separate interest group.

Young Catholics must be seen as an intrinsic part of the Church�s life. They must be integrated in the Church�s structures, and consulted in parochial decisions that affect them. They must be given a voice, not be condescended to.

To that end, this newspaper has taken a deliberate decision not to run a regular youth section. Instead, the ideas, experiences and aspirations of young Catholics occupy a place in the mainstream of our content, acknowledging the Catholic youth as full members of the Church community.

The youth is, of course, the future of the Church. But as we will observe in Madrid this month, the youth is also very much the present of the Church. Let young Catholics be treated accordingly.