The New Catholic
As the Roman Catholic Church's 20th World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, approaches, we asked young Catholics about their expectations for their church. Past World Youth Days have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to meet and share their faith. This year's festivities begin August 16, and Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a Mass to close the gathering on August 21. Among those who plan to be in Cologne are Alex Paiva, 20, of Fall River, a senior at Boston University, and Joe Tierney, 18, of Wellesley, a graduate of Boston College High School headed to Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, this fall. The Globe Magazine invited Paiva, Tierney, and three other young Catholics - Alison Bane, 21, of Manchester-by-the-Sea, a junior at Boston College; Shatica Chinn, 16, of Mattapan, a junior at Cathedral High School; and Diana Pelaez, 15, of Dorchester, a sophomore at the Academy of the Pacific Rim - to talk about their faith and the challenges facing their church. [Source]
And not surprisingly they are rather uninformed about their faith and a reminder that those attending World Youth Day are not all exactly all orthodox in their faith. Though World Youth Day has been a starting point for a deeper conversion for many Catholic youths once attended. Of course I am also not supervised that the magazine could not fully faithful Catholic to interview since that wouldn't fit in with agenda journalism.
BANE It is a difficult issue. I was the first altar girl in my church, but that was a baby step. I understand historically why ordination of women hasn't happened yet, but women are equally capable.
Exactly why female altar servers was not a prudent idea. It only encouraged the baby step idea of advancing towards the priesthood. If your are going to go with female altar servers than it should be made abundantly clear to them from the start that this has not a training program towards women's ordinations.
CHINN The way I see it, the church sees more in a man than a woman, and I disagree with that. If it was left up to me, and I wanted to be a priest, I would go for it.
So I guess a vocation to the priesthood would have nothing to do with it?
BANE Being in a college setting, the topic involving the church that most of my peers talk about is birth control. I know a lot of Catholics who take birth control and have trouble with the fact they are doing that, and I know a lot of Catholics who are having sex and won't take birth control, and they are troubled by the risks they're taking. I guess that the church does not want to condone birth control because that may be seen as endorsing sexual activity among teenagers, but it's one of the most immediate issues facing the church.
Well I see she is getting a fine Catholic education at Boston College as a junior. To guess that the church doesn't like birth control because it endorses sexual activity among teenagers is just to be totally ignorant about what the Church teaches and why the Church teaches that birth control is sinful. To be able to disagree with Church teaching you should at least find out what it is first.
PELAEZ Birth control should be allowed, because young people are having sex and there are diseases you don't want them to get.
Wow! Why didn't Pope Paul VI think of that instead of wasting his time writing Humanae Vitae.
TIERNEY On birth control, I don't think the church should be against it. But on abortion, I take a conservative stance. I'm prolife.
But abortafacients like the pill are okay I guess. Yep that is really being pro-life.
BANE My view on abortion has evolved since high school. In situations like rape, I am prochoice. I feel every woman should be entitled to that choice. That's something I have trouble reconciling with my faith, because I do understand the Catholic view on this and, personally, I could never have an abortion.
CHINN Birth control is needed. Nobody's ready at a young age to be a parent. But some kids I go to school with, they do things like that. But abortion? You lay up and have a baby, you should be able to take care of it.
So people at a young age aren't ready to become parents but they are ready for sexual relations and STDs such as HIV.
PELAEZ I get why the church doesn't want abortion, but what if a girl gets raped? You can give the baby up for adoption, but then she's still having to carry the child of someone she didn't want to have sex with. That's not right.
PAIVA I've been very prolife my entire life. Whether it be rape, incest, sexual abuse, or whatever, it's still a life.
Bravo Paiva. Unfortunately too many consider the death penalty for those conceived as the result of rape.
BANE One issue I wish that the Catholic faith were a little more open is being gay. I have a lot of friends who are gay, and a lot of them are also very strong in their Catholic faith. It makes me so sad at times that the church is so much more willing for me to engage in certain activities in a Mass than they can without the sense of alienation that they now feel. Their hearts are no different, their souls are no different.
PAIVA What's sinful is not the feeling or the tendency of the person to be homosexual. It's the act. Whether it's homosexual or heterosexual activity, both are against the church. Maybe I'm too conservative about it. Though it doesn't feel wrong, it's still sinful in the eyes of the church, and that's the definition I've been taught.
CHINN [Gay] people sometimes feel left out. It shouldn't be a sin just to feel something for someone.
TIERNEY I know people who are gay, and I'm fine with it. I'm for gay rights and things of that nature. This is one area where I don't agree with the church 100 percent.
TIERNEY I say, "How can you judge something if you haven't tried it and haven't experienced it for yourself?" The church in my town doesn't have to reach out. The offer is on the table. It's whether people want to accept it.
It is amazing that anybody can actually say something so vapid as "How can you judge something if you haven't tried it and haven't experienced it for yourself?" Unfortunately this is an all too common argument. Morality by experience is not exactly wise. That you would have to murder someone first before you can judge whether murder is wrong. Serving on a jury would require you to do the same crime as the person being judged.
But then who am I to say anything. After all I have been judged by Fr. O'Leary to be one of the rising Neocaths and am part of "one of the most disturbing phenomena in Roman Catholicism today". [Via Against the Grain]
Known as 
The fruits of that grand American attempt at Catechism....
Heh heh heh... I am a very proud member of the JPII generation. We are not just a bunch of mindless sheep, rebelling against our liberal parents. Fr. O'Leary's column sounds like sour grapes. Oh well. We have more babies, so we'll win in the end!
JP2, WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!
Someone should take the Theology of the Body, write a high school level curriculum based on it, and it should be a mandatory unit taught in all religion classes, in every grade of high school.
At least some of the youth at WYD will have a good grasp of the Faith...
"We have more babies, so we'll win in the end!"
That is my new motto for my apologetic endeavors.
Isn't it a bit curious that "Fr" O'Leary's bio on his blog mentions nothing about his ordination? Just a bit about being born in Ireland and his theology credentials. Says something about what he values, I suppose.
I'm appalled ... at being left of his list. Not that I consider myself a "neo-Catholic," just plain orthodox Catholic, but still I'm offended at being ignored!
I need to be more "uncharitable" I guess.
"To be able to disagree with Church teaching you should at least find out what it is first."
As a college student, I find that this is really the only answer to so many "objections" I hear. These are people who will do massive amounts of research for a paper and thoroughly research any fraternity/sorority before pledging but when it comes to their religion it's the same old (and I do mean old) assumptions and stereotypes. It really does stop them in their tracks to SHOW them what the Church actually teaches. They are wholly unfamiliar with the word magisterium much less the contents of the catechism. Because it's always best to base your religion on hearsay and the path of least resistence.
Ironically these are the same folks who will tell you that you can't judge the Da Vinci Code unless you've read it...
Is Fr. O'Leary sick of sushi yet? He'd pass the St. Joan of Arc parish interview with flying colors,...,
Jules: Your post was right on spot. The O'Leary types have been able to pawn off all sorts of heresies and plain old liturgical silliness on us for the past 40 years by claiming it was in "the spirit of Vatican II." They knew that most laypeople weren't familiar with Vatican II and would simply take the clergy's word for it. Now that they're the ones being challenged, they turn around and yell "sheep!" at us.
Well at least you're famous, Jeff....
From Fr. O'Leary's "Rise of the Neocaths" :
"The Neocaths tend to sexual puritanism. Appalled by the consequences of the sexual revolution, AIDS, abortion, cohabitation, adultery, divorce, pornography, they retreat to the strictest Catholic doctrine as an ark of refuge. They are very vocal advocates and practitioners of a strictly-interpreted concept of sexual fidelity, with a strong emphasis on procreative sexuality. They insist that masturbation is mortally sinful, and have an especial enthusiasm for the teaching that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered and that homosexual acts can never be countenanced. They denounce as apostasy a massive rejection of Vatican teaching among Catholics and call for bishops and priests to stand up against the tide of laxism instead of floating along with it."
How dare we. How DARE we! We act as if God became a MAN, or something.
Let the NeoCaths rise and restore what is right then.
I am so sick of people trying to hi-jack the Church, and force this relativist hoopla down our throughts. It sure seems like an uphill battle.
Some priest...he looks more like a Buddhist monk.
I find his hysteria laughable. He bewails the sinking of a ship whose holes he himself had helped poke.
So these under-catechised dudes are off to World Youth Day. The key question is: will they return to Boston College with their relativism intact? Or will they be transformed into the dreaded Neocaths of O'Leary's worst nightmare?!
If they happen to run into Fr Stan Fortuna, or the Life on the Rock team, or one of my own kids over in Cologne then we've got a chance of the latter. Down on your knees bloggers!
Yes folks, pray for us all at WYD - that we may indeed go to worship Him, and that everything that happens there will flow from that impulse. Ta!
Ewwy.
But -- let us not forget that there is also a rising orthodoxy amoung young Catholics, and it is strong. I don't anticipate a major publication writing a story about that anytime soon, tho'...
Thanks to Jeff for calling attention to Fr. O'Leary's screed. I found the following line quite telling:
"The Neocaths are well organized, and have as yet no equivalent on the Catholic left."
I wonder why that is? Could it be that those of our generation who don't care for the Church or the teachings of Christ are honest enough to leave, rather than the wolves running around in sheep's clothing of previous generations!
He also characterizes this (JPII) generation as sexual puritans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Consider the Theology of the Body - nothing puritanical about it - it is a due recognition of the power and Sacred nature of sexuality, particularly the Sacrament of marriage. Puritans shunned sexuality as evil (and put up with intercourse between spouses as a necessary evil for procreation) this generation, and its greatest mentor, His Holiness JOhn Paul II, on the other hand, is intent on evangelizing - that is spreading this good news about sex! Sorry Fr. O'Leary, puritanism is not the only alternative to permissiveness (the M.O. of the "free love" generation. Consider the Gospel-based approach: it is an honest integrity about sexuality as created in the Divine Image!
furthermore, regarding his referencing Greeley's buzzword "young Fogeys" see George Weigel's column "'Young Fogeys' and disappointed liberals" you may access it at: www.thetidings.com/2004/0220/difference.htm
I was an orthodox teenager in the 80's. Remember the movies: "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Little Darlings" where a dim view of virginity was promulgated? This is just one example of what I was fed. I felt under attack by the culture and without skill to clearly and intelligently state my beliefs. If I had the added pressure of an adult journalist (who might even be biased towards heterodoxy) my likely answer to those questions would have been: "Ummmm... I dunno."
"Neocath"? After they sacked Rome in the 6th Century, didn't they become assimilated and vanish? Or was that the Goths? Or the Vandals?
Good to see Father O'Leary out there promoting his favorite brands of apostasy. Another chip off the stump of old rotting tree known as syncretism.
Now you've done it, Jeff. You're forcing me to blog on Fr. O'Leary's piece.
Young Mr. Paiva seems to know more or less what he's talking about. Good for him. The others appear to understand absolutely nothing about Church teaching. I wonder why they're bothering to go to WYD, the Church now being under the heel of a right-wing totalitarian.
I guess I'll tell my wife tonight, after we tuck in our four children (and one on the way?) that we are sexual purtians.
Christus vincit!
*puritans* oops
I was a World Youth Day participant back in the day. I saw many who were there just to be there but many many more who truly loved the Church and Pope John Paul II and he loved all of us. If we think about it, Jesus did not come for the healthy ones, he came for the sick. Scripture also says to allow the weeds to grow with the wheat. Perhaps through our prayers and good works the weeds will choose to die and the seed planted during WYD will grow into new wheat.
So let our prayers be for ALL the participants of WYD as well for Fr. Joseph O'Leary.
BTW, congratulations Jeff for being made famous as one of the formidable neocaths. At least it wasn't as a dissentingcaths! :)
What an ignorant pathetic whiner! No parody needed here, he provide his own.
i knew alex paiva back in high school. he's a good kid and i'm glad he defends the Church's teachings.
Here's what I posted on O'Leary's blog:
To compare John Paul with Mao is an insult to the Pope.
This sketch of the "Neocaths" is full of hasty generalizations and biased, loaded language, ending with a personal attack: "The Neocaths are joyfully uncharitable in their speech, trampling not only on political correctness but on the laws of libel." Who's being uncharitable here?
As I was reading Fr. O'Leary's description of the "Neocaths" (a category that I fit in quite nicely, I guess), I thought it must be a joke. There is no way that a priest, one of the alter Christi, could be that far off. Unfortunately, it's not a joke, and yes a priest can go that far off the deep end.
One disagreement that I would have with his list is that we "neocaths" are very concerned with social justice issues. We just don't agree on the method of answering those issues and which ones are more important than others (abortion vs. immigration rights).
Oh man, I gotta stop reading your blog right before bedtime. You link to things that always set my blood to boiling. I had to wait half an hour before posting a comment on "Fr." O'Leary's blog or else I might have said something "joyfully uncharitable".