Voices of youth

A major gathering in the Vatican has attempted to allow the Church to hear the concerns of today’s young people, writes Greg Daly

 “Finally, the Church in Rome has decided to give us a platform; they decided to give us a listening ear,” thought Nigeria’s Vincent Paul Nneji when he was invited to take part last month in a remarkable gathering of young adults in the Vatican.

Vincent was one of 305 young adults to take part in a week-long meeting in Rome allowing young adults to feed directly into this October’s Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment.

Speaking to Catholic News Service ahead of the meeting, Vincent said he had hopes that the pre-synod meeting would help the world to see “a reason for allowing youths to be heard, for allowing (young people) to be part of decision-making, even in society”.

The vast majority of the young people directly involved in the pre-synod were invited to participate by their own countries’ bishops conferences, with the second largest group being students from seminaries and religious houses of formation, and with representatives from Catholic schools and universities also attending.

Culture

Around 50 further participants had been directly invited by the Synod secretariat because of their expertise in such fields as politics, culture and humanitarian work, with over 130 countries represented one way or another at the gathering.

Strikingly, participation wasn’t limited to Catholics; the Church is tasked with taking its message to everyone, after all, so the pre-synod made an effort to hear from those who aren’t currently part of the choir to which the Church can preach: it included Christians from other denominations, two Muslims, two Hindus, a Jew, a Buddhist and a Sikh, with Sandro Bucher, an atheist who attended, describing the pre-synod as a positive step towards building a bridge between believers and non-believers.

Overall, the meeting was an exercise in Pope Francis’ oft-repeated declaration that the Church needs to meet people where they are – that it can hardly serve as a field hospital for the world if it is absent from the places where today’s battles are fought and today’s wounded are found – and if the subsequent 7,000-word report of the pre-synod is imperfect, one might wonder how better it could have reflected the views of those gathered.

The report begins with a generic introduction, describing itself as “a synthesised platform to express some of our thoughts and experiences”, urging the Church to view the contained reflections “not as an empirical analysis of any other time in the past, but rather as an expression of where we are now, where we are headed and as an indicator of what she needs to do moving forward”.

The aim of this, according to the document, was to give the Bishops a “compass” or “navigational aid” for October’s synod, with the intention that it feed into the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris or ‘working document’.

Suitably introduced, the document then moved through 15 sections, the first five of which fell under the general heading of ‘The Challenges and Opportunities of Young People in the World Today’.

The first section, ‘The Formation of Personality’ immediately revealed the magnitude of the challenge facing the Church in this area: the Church is huge, overlapping with numerous cultures, and the problems of one society are not the same as the problems of another, such that one-size-fits-all approaches may not work well.

That said, some points were universal. “Young people look for a sense of self by seeking communities that are supportive, uplifting, authentic and accessible: communities that empower them. We recognise places that are helpful for the development of their personality, namely family, which occupies a privileged position,” it began, before pointing out that attitudes to family vary.

“The Church therefore needs to better support families and their formation,” it said, sounding an alarm bell about the challenges of the Church in situations less comfortable than our own: “This is especially relevant in some countries without freedom of expression where young people – particularly minors – are prevented from attending church and as such, must be formed in the Faith at home by their parents.”

There are specific challenges for immigrants and those who feel obliged to convert to other religions to fit in with their peers, the document noted, observing that often parishes are no longer real places of connection, and that for today’s young people, “We need rational and critical explanations to complex issues – simplistic answers do not suffice.”

Not that the Church should be a place of cold and dry explanations: the document stressed that in a world where young people are troubled by issues as diverse as sexuality, addiction, failed marriages, broken families, organised crime, and human trafficking, they “need a Church that is welcoming and merciful, which appreciates its roots and patrimony and which loves everyone, even those who are not following the perceived standards”.

Under the heading of ‘Relationship with Other People’ the document observed that in today’s multicultural societies there is a need to build profound bonds, and that “There is still an opportunity for the Church to propose another ‘way’ for young people to live their lives, but this needs to be done so within often-complicated social frameworks.”

Noting how difficult it can be to even hear the Gospel message in such frameworks, the document urged the Church to model and elaborate on its existing theological guidelines for peaceful, constructive dialogue with people of other faiths and traditions, and said particular attention needs to be drawn to migrants, refugees, and those Christians who are persecuted around the world. “We remember our Christian roots in the blood of the martyrs and while we pray for the end of all persecution, we are grateful for their witness of faith to the world,” it said.

One telling line stood out in the section on ‘Young People and the Future’. Amidst a section on hopes and fears, on dreams of the future and the weights and wounds of the past, the document says young people need a Church  that will help them find their vocations, in every sense, and then tragically says: “Furthermore, sadly not all of us believe sainthood is something achievable and that it is a path to happiness “

One would like to hear more on this, being so far as it is from, for example, Pope Benedict’s 2011 call for young people to “dare to be glowing saints”. Who did not believe sainthood was achievable, or a path to happiness? Why? It is surely true that many young people – many young Catholics – believe sainthood is beyond them, but it could help October’s bishops, surely, if they had some sense of why this is.

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Predictably, the section headed ‘Relationship with Technology’ presents it as a double-edged sword, something that can augment relationships but can equally become an addiction, with specific problems revolving around such issues as pornography or the fields of bioethics and automation with all they mean for the world in which today’s young people will reach maturity.

“Regardless, technology is now a permanent part of the life of young people and must be understood as such,” the document observes, offering two concrete proposals.

“First, by engaging in a dialogue with young people, the Church should deepen her understanding of technology so as to assist us in discerning its usage,” the document urges.

“Moreover, the Church should view technology – particularly the internet – as a fertile place for the New Evangelisation. The outcomes of these reflections should be formalized through an official Church document. Second, the Church should address the widespread crisis of pornography, including online child abuse, as well as cyber-bullying and the toll these take on our humanity.”

A section headed ‘Search for Meaning in Life’ draws to a close the first part of the document, noting that young people have often lost faith in institutions, including religious ones, not least due to scandals whether real or perceived, and so do not see themselves as “religious” even when they are “open to the spiritual”.

Promoting the dignity of women was highlighted as one area where the Church could help young people feel accepted, the document noted, pointing out that for some young women examples of lay and religious female leadership are not always visible.

Arguments about sexual teachings are clearly not a thing of the past among young people, noting that many young Catholics whose convictions are in conflict with official teaching “still desire to be part of the Church” while others find Church teachings to be “a source of joy” worthy of proclamation with greater urgency.

Ultimately, the document says, while many young people want to know Jesus, there can be a struggle to realise that he alone is “the source of true self-discovery”, and that as such people who can share this reality are desperately needed.

“Thus, we have found that young people want authentic witnesses – men and women who vibrantly express their faith and relationship with Jesus while encouraging others to approach, meet, and fall in love with Jesus themselves,” the document said.

Noting that there are as many relationships with Jesus as there are people in the world, the document ranged through a variety of ways in which young people think of Jesus, not all of which are helpful or true.

“One way to reconcile the confusions that young people have regarding who Jesus is involves a return to Scripture to understand more deeply the person of Christ, his life, and his humanity,” the document proposed, stressing that young people need to encounter Christ’s mission, rather than what they can perceive simply as impossible moral expectations.

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Considering ‘Faith and the Church’, the document mapped out how young people can often feel detached from  the Church and observed that some young people feel the Church has developed a culture which focuses heavily on members engaging less with the person of Christ than with institutional aspects of the Church, with others feeling the Church is focused on administration more than community, or simply irrelevant.

Crucially, the document stresses that this is not always so, with young people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America tending to experience the Church as very close to them, with a sense of belonging and family sustaining these young people on their journey. It is worth noting that 123 of the young people at the pre-synod were from Europe alone, though anyone with an eye to Church demographics will know that there is no way that over a third of the young Catholics of today live in Europe.

Far from pollyannaish in its analysis, the document says it is crucial to understand why young people are leaving the Church in some parts of the world.

“Young people who are disconnected from or who leave the Church do so after experiencing indifference, judgment and rejection,” the document notes. “One could attend, participate in, and leave Mass without experiencing a sense of community or family as the Body of Christ Christians profess a living God, but some attend Masses or belong to communities which seem dead. Young people are attracted to the joy which should be a hallmark of our faith.”

Again the answer seems to lie in large part in the Church upholding authentic witnesses of the Faith, whether in terms of dynamic and devout Church leaders or in terms of allowing young people themselves to lead and “take ownership of their mission and responsibility”.

Vocation, the document stressed, needs to be emphasised as a gift and call from God, and one that goes beyond priesthood and religious life to such areas as lay ministry, marriage and family, and the universal call to holiness, with the Church having a role in accompanying young people as they discern their vocations.

Considering the factors that go into vocational discernment, the document said: “Spending time in silence, introspection and prayer, as well as reading the Scriptures and deepening self-knowledge are opportunities very few young people exercise. There is a need for a better introduction to these areas. Engaging with faith-based groups, movements, and like-minded communities can also assist young people in their discernment.”

Companions on these journeys were identified as key to discernment, with these mentors being living testimonies to Christian witness who evangelise by their lives in a range of different ways. At the same time, the document stressed, “an especially important quality in a mentor is acknowledgement of their humanity – that they are human beings who make mistakes: not perfect people but forgiven sinners. Sometimes mentors are put on a pedestal, and when they fall, the devastation may impact young people’s abilities to continue to engage with the Church.”

The third and shortest part of the document considered ‘The Church’s Formative and Pastoral Activity’, and began by considering the Church’s ‘manner’.

Urging the hierarchy especially to be “a transparent, welcoming, honest, inviting, communicative, accessible, joyful and interactive community”, the document says:  “A credible Church is one which is not afraid to allow itself be seen as vulnerable. The Church should be sincere in admitting its past and present wrongs, that it is a Church made up of persons who are capable of error and misunderstanding.”

Further, it added, young people have many questions about the Faith, but “desire answers which are not watered-down, or which utilise pre-fabricated formulations”, moving on to urge the Church to include more young people in leadership roles at all levels of the Church, and stressing that “beyond institutional decision-making, we want to be a joyful, enthusiastic and missionary presence within the Church”.

Imperative

Suggesting that the Church try to meet people where they are, rather than where the institutional Church might simply wish them to be, the document also stressed that the Church support those who are already engaged, along with seeking to engage with those who are currently not so. This, it said, was “imperative”.

Initiatives that offer young people an understanding of Sacraments, prayer and liturgy are particularly valuable, the document said, detailing numerous examples of such and noting that “because of the lack of clear and attractive presentation as to what the Sacraments truly offer, some of us go through the process of receiving but undervaluing them”.

Finally, the document ran through a variety of other ways the Church can help young people hear the Gospel, these ranging from traditional liturgies and contemplation to beautiful Church music, personal testimonies, and gap year experiences.

By no means perfect – how could it be? – the document is nonetheless a compelling survey of thoughtful young Catholicism today. Intended though it is for the bishops to ponder this October, the document could well be worth grappling with by Church leaders at any level. Enterprising priests and pastoral councils could seriously gain from pondering it.