RBWords - Volume 30 - Number 4: April 2017
Something to Think About
RBWORDS - VOL. 30 - NO. 4 - APRIL 2018
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT -
The ministry of preaching parish missions allows me the opportunity to visit parishes from one coast to the other. This calendar year so far I have preached in California, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Florida and Texas. The different cultural settings and parish styles are ever interesting. However, some themes show up in places that transcend the settings. A major one is the sorrow experienced by parents and grandparents that their children and grandchildren no longer practice the Catholic faith. Either they have stopped religious practice altogether or have joined a "megachurch" in their city, etc. etc.
Surveys are showing that one of the fastest growing categories in religious self-identification is "None." Surveys also show that the majority of people who leave the Catholic church do so before their 23rd birthday! This certainly underscores the importance of campus ministry, but goes back further to the question of how faith is to be handed on if the younger generation is abandoning it so easily? In my pastoral experience as a campus minister (and even as novice master), I have encountered students who attended Catholic schools for many years and yet were very ignorant of the content of Catholic tradition beyond a kind of vague "be nice, go to church" belief. The "blame game" is not going to help us. It's clear that church leaders like St. John Paul II and Francis have been attractive and inspiring figures to a younger generation, but this does not necessarily translate into greater church participation.
I cannot claim to know the answer to this challenge. I meet wonderful Catholic students here at Texas Tech. I worry that when they leave here and go into the work of professions that they will not find a parish community that welcomes and treasures what they have to offer. There is the additional challenge of multi-cultural worship and activity to complicate matters. I know a priest who was pastor of what he called a "three-language parish." How can the faith be handed on in such a situation and compete with the secular offerings of shallow pleasure and short term accomplishment? IT'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID - "Look at Jesus. His deep compassion reached out to others. It did not make him hesitant, timid or self-conscious as often happens with us. Quite the opposite. His compassion made him go out actively to preach and to send others on a mission of healing and liberation. Let us acknowledge our weakness but allow Jesus to lay hold of it and send us too on mission. We are weak, yet we hold a treasure that can enlarge us and make those who receive it better and happier. Boldness and apostolic courage are an essential part of mission."
from GAUDETE ET EXULTATE (Rejoice and be glad) Apostolic Exhoration by Pope Francis.
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