Mission of the Youth
The missionary field has changed fundamentally in the recent past. Where once missionaries left their homes to convert people who had not heard the Good News, today the message of Christ’s love and sacrifice must be communicated to many of those who have heard but do not embrace it.
It is true that the Southern African region has not abandoned God. Church attendance in our region is, by and large, still encouraging. Yet, there are many brought up in the Catholic faith who are abandoning it for other churches or none.
The Church competes with many influences that place a premium on the pursuit of selfish interests and instant gratification.The Church’s missionary apostolate must reach out to these former Catholics. The starting point for that must be to identify the reasons for which such people leave the Catholic faith, and, if possible, address them on these terms.
This examination will form part of the focus in the Synod of Bishops on the Youth in October 2018. To that end, the Vatican has collected by way of an online questionnaire the views of young people around the world. Notably, the invitation to tell the Church about the experience of being young today was extended also to non-Catholics and those with no faith.
The challenge for the synod and for the Church in general is to identify how to convey the good news of the Gospel persuasively at a time when, more than ever, young people are subjected to a cacophony of mixed messages.
The Church competes with many influences that place a premium on the pursuit of selfish interests and instant gratification.
For many young Catholics, the Church and its teachings are irrelevant, its liturgy unattractive, and its community too judgmental. These sentiments may well be induced by a modern culture that is at odds with Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular.
The popularity of Pope Francis, who is urging the Church to open its doors to the marginalised and the seekers, may help to present the Catholic Church as a more inviting place.
But other churches, especially the evangelical types such as Hillsong, are doing a much better job of attracting young Christians — many of whom come from the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church cannot go on helplessly blaming external elements — an amoral world, anti-Catholic bias, proselytism by well-funded churches, and so on. Sometimes the liability resides in our inability to understand and engage with the youth.We must interrogate why this is so. Does it simply owe to styles of worship, or do these new churches offer a better experience of the Christian life than the Catholic Church does? Do these Christians find it easier to locate Jesus there than in the Church which Christ actually called into being?
The Catholic Church cannot go on helplessly blaming external elements — an amoral world, anti-Catholic bias, proselytism by well-funded churches, and so on. Sometimes the liability resides in our inability to understand and engage with the youth.
We must ask: how can it be that some parishes have vibrant youth groups while neighbouring parishes have no youth mission?
The mission territory has expanded. In the age of instant engagement on social media, missionary activity can be conducted, at least to some degree, even on a cellphone.
And this is where we find young people: on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, in WhatsApp groups and on Snapchat. Pope Francis has called on the Church to go out to where the people are. This is where the Church must be to proclaim the Good News.
No amount of exemplary youth ministry guarantees that young Catholics won’t abandon the faith of their childhood. However, a good Catholic grounding—including an appreciation of the Mass and the unique sacrifice of the Eucharist—will help to lay the foundations to which these people may return at a more mature stage in their lives.Of course, though they have the capacity to reach out to individuals and to build community, the innovations of technology cannot replace personal contact. Young people especially must also be personally engaged.
In the parishes, young Catholics have to be catechised in ways that make sense to them. A central component of that must be to equip young Catholics to live as disciples of Christ in an often hostile world, and t empower them to do so as active and responsible members of the parish community.
No amount of exemplary youth ministry guarantees that young Catholics won’t abandon the faith of their childhood. However, a good Catholic grounding—including an appreciation of the Mass and the unique sacrifice of the Eucharist—will help to lay the foundations to which these people may return at a more mature stage in their lives.
For this to happen, the Church’s catechetical efforts must be so persuasive as to compete with the rival influences of secular society and the new churches.
This is our missionary challenge today.
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