The Younger Generation May Be Lost to the Church
THE UNPOPULARITY OF TRYING TO BE 'WITH-IT'
I want to propose a radical idea. Perhaps the reason teenagers bolt from the Catholic Church the minute they are out from under the parental roof is not that they want a trendier liturgy with more contemporary music. Perhaps what they really want isn’t more pizza parties and more “ski-retreat” weekends. Perhaps their biggest argument with the Church isn’t even her teaching on pre-marital sex or birth control or abortion or the ordination of women.
Perhaps they just don’t believe.
Perhaps they don’t believe in God. Don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Don’t believe in the saving power of the sacraments. Don’t believe in an afterlife.
I think it’s time to consider the possibility that young people’s indifference to, defection from, and — in some cases — contempt for the Catholic Church (and often for Christianity in generabpmay not be so much a matter of style as of substance. Their attitude may be due not so much to the desire for a church more in tune with contemporary secular society as to their lack of desire for any church at all. Furthermore, I would like to offer the unsettling suggestion that their lack of faith may reflect a lack of faith they see in their elders — especially certain Church leaders.
You May Also Enjoy
Rocks that block the mouths of tombs
Give sermons of great gravity
On the benefits…
Why don’t the “underclass” want to leave it? Is there, perhaps, some failure not of psychology or school experience but of the moral imagination?
The Waning Legacy of Cardinal Bernardin... The Exclusivity of the "Gospel of Inclusion"... Pictures at an Exhibitionist Protest... Is Vatican II Ancient History?... Opium for Catholics... What About Predator Lesbian Nuns?...