A prominent number of young people were present at the Divine Mercy Conference over the weekend.
Speaking with The Irish Catholic, they said they had found new strength in their faith by joining communities in college and realising they were not alone.
Jack Ryan from University College Cork (UCC) said he had been private about his Faith in school: “Once I started meeting one or two others in different prayer groups in college, then going to Youth2000, one of the biggest things that helped me was that I wasn’t alone, there are other young people.”
Isolation
He works with Ignite, which brings together Catholics from different campuses around Ireland. “We know how hard it is for university students who feel isolated on their campuses and a lot of times people might have the Faith and practicing on their own and going to Mass but not knowing that there’s any other Catholics on campus
“It makes college so much easier and it really brings on your Faith.”
Jason Osborne from Pure in Heart, who only recently left college, said that he came back to his Faith after becoming atheist in secondary school.
While in college, he had a friend who invited him to prayer meetings and he began to properly read into the religion.
“Catholicism is really based on cold hard truth, it’s very philosophical its very rational and I think you won’t know that unless you open yourself up to reading about it,” he said speaking of the misconceptions a lot of young people have.
“What Catholicism has enabled me to do is to put things in perspective and prioritise properly and that’s an incredibly liberating thing.”
Annette O’Donovan, a student of radiation therapy in Trinity College, also volunteers with Ignite and said she really enjoyed her work with them: “There’s a niche and a need and a want for that in Ireland – every university in Ireland.”
While it might seem that young people aren’t as involved in the church, in 2018 the European Social survey found that young people in Ireland between age 16 and 29 rank as some of the most religious in Europe.