How can the Church better reach the young?

Youth and Religiosity in the Socio-Cultural Context of Europe
10 November 2010

Discussion Group: 

Patrick Anthonyraj Alexander, Srimal Gajasinhage

Tessa George, Varghese Pallipuram Matthew

Augustine Toppo, Lijo Vadakken

Group discussion on youth spirituality in Europe, as understood from our reading and from our own experiences of living recently on this continent.

• Young people often seek for an immediate joy and happiness. “Here and now” is a kind of watchword for them. But the Church’s message always has an eschatological tone where this Joy and Happiness is seen as something that comes later on. So how can we build a better rapport between the Church and the young without at the same time sacrificing or diluting the Gospel values? 
• We also need to be very open to the positives aspects in the young. Our starting point could be exactly the good that we find in them. There is need for a serious examination of conscience to see what exactly the Church’s attitude towards the youth is. 
• Very often the youth are not culpable but victims. Many of them find themselves victims of discrimination, social injustice, the social set up etc.
• Often the Christian ethics places too much stress on Sexuality.  Good or bad is often decided upon basing one’s sexual conduct.  The youth find this attitude of the Church very frustrating.  
• The youngsters have also lost the sense of sacredness of the body. 
• The tendency of the Church at times is to bring the youth into its world of thinking without making any effort to enter into their world. If we have to be effective in our approach towards the young what is required would be to enter into their world and see the good in them and start from there. (Love what the young love, and they will begin to love what you love! Don Bosco)
• We also come across a group of youth that shows itself to be very active, full of initiatives, with regular meetings, sharing etc. But what exactly is the motivation behind this coming together? Is it that they are really interested in Gospel values and their Christian identity or is it because they want to satisfy some of their own basic personal needs like need to be together, social status, personal benefits from the Church etc.
• At times there is a tendency to make the youth involved in accomplishing so many activities (for example, during the summer the youth who make a trip to Lourdes to help the sick, or a group that takes up a project work to help missions etc. ) But then, it lasts for that summer and then comes to a standstill. Instead of creating a fragmented spirituality of this sort we need to educate the youth for an integrated spirituality.
• Great events like World Youth Day (WYD) try to give a clear message to the youth that the Church is really interested in them. But these events should also be used as an occasion to communicate the Gospel values in a deliberate manner.  
• The principal persons in the lives of the young are Parents, Teachers, Priests, Nuns etc. and so these persons should be well motivated to pass on the values to the young.

In the Indian context we have a very good example RSS or VHP people who have a clear cut strategy in brainwashing the young in spite of the differences of caste and creed and language. If not going to such an extreme of fundamentalism, we also see the need for a clear strategy even in our evangelization especially among the young.

Secretary: Lijo
Photography: Joe Boenzi, South Asian Discussion Group 10 November 2010