Yes, Virginia, we have youth in the Catholic Church…plenty of young, vibrant, folks, and they were at World Youth Day in Australia. Now, I am certainly not implying older people are bad. I am thankful the Catholic Church has a great mix of ages, races, classes, educational levels, and so forth. This is true diversity, not the buzzwordy type “diversity” I occasionally encounter. But, youth are important. What signals that an organization has a future? Youth. Sure, we can point out the drawbacks of large Catholic youth gatherings, but at least we are seeing thousands of faithful, young Catholic gathered together, worshiping together.
I can tell you from experience the importance of having people your age in a church, and as Jennifer and I contemplate starting a family, encountering other people at our stage of life is very encouraging. Wrong or right, after looking at a parish’s stated beliefs, I judge the vibrancy of a parish I visit based on two criteria: the number of families with young children, and the extent of the youth program. Often solid belief and these two go hand-and-hand, but not always.
Once again, I am glad we have youth. I say this as someone who turned 30 this year and doesn’t always understand the “younger generation,” but we need them in the Church!
David Bennett
Jennifer
asimplesinner
Fr. J.
Chad Toney
Jorge Flores
Jonathan B
carmelbennett
nicenehobbit
Jason S
jaybird68
papaz
July 22, 2008 at 2:22 pm
David,
Good post. I wholeheartedly agree. Youth are incredibly important. I think some churches (I’m Protestant), go too far in letting the youth be too involved in leadership, decision making, and trend setting, but the insights, abilities, and pure enthusiasm for Christ, service, and other people are wonderful. Thanks for this!
BJ
Stupid Scholar
July 22, 2008 at 2:34 pm
BJ,
I agree with your criticisms of letting youth have too much influence. I have been in churches where they say things like “well, we can’t do that because it won’t appeal to young people,” which usually means “it may be biblical, and it may be right, but if it isn’t cool, forget it.” That attitude is not good, and it drove me nuts (and usually it is a baby-boomer’s opinion of what they think youth want anyway)
August 5, 2008 at 11:01 am
Usually my sign that a parish is out of whack is when it’s dominated by the youth ministry.