VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican’s culture ministry warned on Thursday (Jan. 31) that the Catholic Church risks losing future generations if it doesn’t learn how to understand young people, their language and their culture.
The Pontifical Council for Culture invited sociologists, web experts and theologians to a three-day, closed-door event on Feb. 6-9 aimed at studying “emerging youth cultures.”
According to a working paper released ahead of the meeting, the church risks “offering answers to questions that are not there” if it doesn’t learn “the cultural reality of young people.”
A study released last October by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life showed that young people are increasingly disconnected from religion, with one in three Americans aged 18-29 describing themselves as religiously unaffiliated.
The Rev. Melchor Sanchez de Toca, undersecretary of the Vatican’s culture department, said in an interview that the church’s youth problem is not just “quantitative” — evidenced by a decline in key indicators, such as baptisms and church attendance — but also “qualitative.”
The youth world, he said, has changed “radically,” but the church “is still offering what it has been offering for the past 500 years.”
“We keep on giving the same answers but the way questions are posed is now totally different.”
Even if youth culture is often marked by individualism, superficiality and hedonism, the council’s president, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, said during a Thursday press conference that its “diversity” is “not only negative” but “contains surprising seeds of fruitfulness and authenticity.”
In his effort to understand young people’s language and feelings, Ravasi confessed to listening to a CD by the late British pop singer Amy Winehouse, noting that “a quest for meaning emerges even from her distraught music and lyrics.”
In a first for a Vatican meeting, the event will be opened by a rock concert by Italian Christian rock band The Sun.
Participants, mostly bishops and Catholic lay leaders, will also hear from young Catholic activists from countries such as Indonesia and Madagascar, while American blogger Pia de Solenni will speak on the “emotional alphabet” of young generations.
17 Comments
Daniel
I read the article. I work with youth all the time. They are hungry for God as all of us are. I just wanted to say studies help, but most importantly they just need someone to reach out to them. Youth are open minded, usually hiding behind a shell of insecurity and uncertainty. They need someone who isn’t there to scold but to lead, someone to listen, someone to care. Young people need young people to be around, “to hang out” as it were. That means helping them find good friends of the same mindset with whom they can do that with, and having someone there to help them find out that they don’t just need to hang out but that they can do something big for God.
aldewacs
It’s clear you’re trying to ‘match-make’ between youth and the gods, but perhaps the fact that ‘The Vatican doesn’t understand youth’ really means ‘youth does not need the Vatican to explain life’s mysteries any more’.
Our youth (at least in the Western world, with the rest following at their own pace) is more educated and informed that ever, with access to information that is not tainted by religious overtones. I’m not suggesting that all religious influence is necessarily bad, but some of it clearly is, and certainly it’s not ‘necessary’ to live a full and good life.
To say “They are hungry for God as all of us are” betrays your perspective as being too heavily influenced already. There are many other avenues to a productive and happy existence and education is highlighting those options, bypassing religions that are still stuck in the ‘saving souls’ mode.
Throughout history, youth has been looking for answers, and religion is no longer the only source for satisfying that natural and necessary curiosity.
Lynne Newington
Daniel, and they need their fathers.
These day’s many don’t even know they’re roots.
In Melbourne Victoria, a past archbishop had a facility in place for many years [still being utilized into the early 1980's], for clergy unable to maintain their vows.
With a nationwide inquiry into forced [and illegal ] adoptions a couple of years ago, it became clear, many of these now adult children, had no idea who their fathers were even if able to trace their Catholic mothers.
Not the Onion: “Vatican admits it doesn’t fully understand youth culture” | God is Sometimes Great
[...] Quotes from RNS article. [...]
Belief Blog's Morning Speed Read for Friday, February 01, 2013 – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs
[...] Religion News Service: Vatican admits it doesn’t fully understand youth culture The Vatican’s culture ministry warned on Thursday (Jan. 31) that the Catholic Church risks losing future generations if it doesn’t learn how to understand young people, their language and their culture. The Pontifical Council for Culture invited sociologists, web experts and theologians to a three-day, closed-door event on Feb. 6-9 aimed at studying “emerging youth cultures.” [...]
Morning Catholic must-reads: 01/02/13 | CatInfor.com
[...] Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, has announced that he is listening to Amy Winehouse CDs in an effort to understand youth [...]
Dave C.
So, theese are all good purposes and finally the clergy is probably understanding that something is going wrong in the relationship between church and youth generations. I hope they won’t stop here their inquiry because catholic principles can give a lot to young generations and viceversa. I also think that trying to explain such changements with the help of the sociologists isn’t a good way to approach to the problem. The church should become more ”human” and walk down from the pedestal on which has been for a lot of time. Priests should go down in the street and listen, only listen the young generations. They don’t need to talk, cause ofc almost everybody in the occidental side of the world knows about catholic teachings. Listen.
Obviously clergy should also understand that the 18-29 years old generation has changed, and more now than before, some inconsistencies of the catholic and clerical world are now more known to youngs. And it’s probably this fact that has more often taken a girl/boy out from catholic environment.
Lynne Newington
Remember Dave, they’re answerable to their bishops, I’d say they’re the ones that need educating don’t you think?
Aldewacs
Translation:
“ALERT! Now hear this, now hear this!
The old proven indoctrination tricks are no longer working. We need new tricks to keep the myth going.”
Arnetta
Did they ever think to invite young people to the meeting, because asking adults about what young people think or want is a bit counter productive
Midday open thread | Hotspyer – Breaking News from around the web
[...] if it occurred to them to invite any “youths” to their closed-door session—but maybe that’s only for [...]
Lee Rousseau
It would appear that today’s youth grew up and are reality-based and pedophile-wary. Good for them!
Midday open thread - Online Political Blog
[...] if it occurred to them to invite any “youths” to their closed-door session—but maybe that’s only for [...]
Fr. Murphy
Kids today still like Madonna, right? And Fonzie.
“No Plans” « Catholic Sensibility
[...] otherwise) will kick start. And where the institution hopes to make inroads among the youth to whom it admits it struggles to connect. This is a near-catastrophe for evangelization. Year of Faith? This is the Year of Losing [...]
Lynne Newington
A good start would be to grant rescripts or laicization for clergy father’s who request it.
Children have the right to have their father seen in good standing within society and before God, an example of the importance of the family.
These day’s refused due to the “element of scandal” and inheritance rights.
Weekly Meanderings, February 9, 2013
[...] Alessandro Speciale: “VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican’s culture ministry warned on Thursday (Jan. 31) that the Catholic Church risks losing future generations if it doesn’t learn how to understand young people, their language and their culture. The Pontifical Council for Culture invited sociologists, web experts and theologians to a three-day, closed-door event on Feb. 6-9 aimed at studying “emerging youth cultures.” According to a working paper released ahead of the meeting, the church risks “offering answers to questions that are not there” if it doesn’t learn “the cultural reality of young people.” [...]