Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP has some quite worthwhile suggestions considering Kids These Days: What they don’t want from the Church. He takes his own experience working at the University of Dallas of what works for them. Judging by suggestions they are valid for pretty much everybody.
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What they need is one thing Humanae Vitae!
Good, now send this article to every ‘youth minister’ in every diocese and parish. maybe if they quit treating Catholicism like the Howdy-Doody show and kids like they are incapable of anything but water-downed pablum…we would all be better off.
Right on with this. I say that as a kid who was repeatedly disappointed with the water she kept getting at youth group and was so glad to finally sink her teath into some good, rich “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic” meat at college.
The only reason I attended my parish’s “Youth Group” (mind you, k-12, and the adults frequently outnumbered the youth, 2-to-1) was to get out of the house. I think once (literally) did the Pastor get invited to any event, and then only to say the opening prayer (the Our Father). If it hadn’t been for homeschooling, I probably would have quickly gone from a feed-me-more-convert to a cynical, non-responsive jerk in CCD classes (the few years I ever attended). I still have nightmares from my week with at a summer program with “I’m Father Bob, call me Bob” and “I shoulld have been a priest but I’m a womyn, Sue” who showed snipets of porn to a bunch of high schoolers in the interest of educating them about social justice.
I agree with Jeff Miller’s post. I was on the fence about converting for a long time. It was the Newman Center on our campus that really gave God a chance to work on me. There was Eucheristic Adoration daily from early morning to about 10PM and I soaked myself in it every day for 6 years. Now I’m working in Rochester, NY and I can’t find it anywhere in walking or biking distance and most churches have confession by appointment only!. Liturgical dancing and female priests seem to be much more acceptable. Amazing! Kudos to Fr. McGinness at Wichita State!
Humanae Vitae is OK… but CastiiConnubii REALLY rocks, and is much better at explaining marriage… the whole shebang, so to speak (as opposed to just the reasons against birth control).
Many good reminders there, even for those of us who teach the catechism to younger people. Thank you Fr P!!
Off topic a little but I wanted to share my chuckle that “The Spirit of Vatican II” site posted this about your blog…
“I bet you see that when your ‘blog gets banned, then almost no-one goes to your site. A while back I banned The Curt Jester and a friend of mine told me that now almost nobody every goes to his ‘blog.”
Yes, I’m aware of the nature of that blog. It still gave me a good belly laugh 🙂
Keep up the good work!
I must say Amen! to this article.
This is great. I’m of or close to the generation he’s talking about in that article and it’s like he’s reading my mind.
Having come to the Catholic faith from a Protestant background, I can tell you this stuff has been discovered elsewhere countless times. Good preachers with solid doctrine fill the pews. Wishy-washy liberal churches lose people. Religion without meat can’t feed anyone. Religion that looks modern in an attempt to be relevant only reduces interest. We’re already saturated in our pop culture, so why go to church for more of it?
And as for boiling down the progressive movement to sex, I think he’s dead-on. I would add, too, that the pop-culture style abstinence teaching that’s become popular in more conservative churches is almost as deadly. Coming from that to a full-fleshed Catholic teaching on chastity was like getting fresh air…or a shower.
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