Shannon Campbell, Pastoral Manager at Queen’s University Belfast’s Catholic chaplaincy Youth ministers at the grassroots level in the Church in Ireland have said a new survey revealing that younger people are twice as likely to pray than older people is an opportunity for the Church to reach out beyond those who currently attend Mass regularly.
The study found that 51% of 18 to 34-year-olds polled said they pray at least once a month, compared to 24% of those aged 55 and over.
Pastoral Manager at Queen’s University Belfast’s Catholic chaplaincy, Shannon Campbell told The Irish Catholic that young people’s desire for prayer “is something to be welcomed, and indeed nurtured”.
“Young people must be given a safe space to explore their faith in an intellectual and meaningful way,” she said.
Ms Campbell said that they see first-hand in the university’s chaplaincy young people’s spiritual hunger, with many students availing of their facilities for both Eucharistic adoration and “extended periods of prayer”.
“Other students, often new faces, simply pop into our main chapel between lectures and before exams to light a candle and just ‘be’ for a moment,” she said, continuing, “it’s easy to see the draw”.
Ms Campbell praised young people as “some of the most open-minded, inquisitive members of society”, and said that in the university context, the transition from secondary school to further education prompts a searching for the answers to “life’s big questions”.
She said that she was not surprised by the research – carried out in the UK – and said: “There is a spiritual yearning among young people, and, through prayer, they can begin to form their own spiritual outlook and…grow closer to God.”
She highlighted research done by the Mayo Clinic in the US which links religious involvement and spirituality with better health outcomes, greater longevity and coping skills, as well as less anxiety depression and suicide.
Meanwhile, Tony Foy executive director of NET Ministries Ireland said young people are searching spiritually because “inside every one of us, we’re searching”.
“If you ask me, God is really on the move…People are searching, and we need to get out there and engage with them,” Mr Foy said, adding that this is “totally” an opportunity for the Church, which will only be seized if the parishes “gets out there” and meet the needs that young people experience.