A Step In The Right Direction

In this article from NCR we are told that the Vatican has begun to recognize that youth are not responding to their medieval approach.  It was so much easier when no one was educated and more people relied on the church for their livelihood.  Though I jest, there is a sadness in me for a time when we were able to access that culture and flourish in it.  My husband I were talking about the CYO of our youth.  I spent most of my formative years in it and it allowed me to develop a deep spirituality and a sense of being at home in my church.  Then I moved to the Newman Center where I spent much of my college social time.  But at the time, we had someone who was engaged in who were were and who we were trying to become.  Some of my dearest friends are from those experiences.  It was a safe place for me…(unfortunately, the church wasn’t a safe place for everyone).  It was a different time, and in some ways I think we are at “apples and oranges” but at the time I did not notice the church as out of step because the adults around us were in-step with me.  I know that is happening now in so many places, lay people and religious making up for the Vatican’s inability to respond appropriately to the needs of the generation who will one day lead…(that day not being too far off.)  Our youth have so much to offer our church.  They, in some ways, are emblematic of our struggle to remember who we are at heart.  So many are selfless people who want to make the world better.  They understand the need for practical application of all of the rhetoric they hear because they live in the real world.  There isn’t a whole lot of hypothetical in the age of social media and hyper-communication.  They see alot, and at a very young age no matter how guarded you try to keep them.  The world comes in.  And why shouldn’t it?  God took his Son and sent him to the world…God did not hide…God does not hide.  He gave us what we need to help bring the kingdom but how can that happen when the leaders of one of the most influential religions  are bent on denial and hiding?  It is a hard sell for our savvy youth, and I don’t blame them.  I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict, I really don’t.  I do give this Pope credit for things like tweeting and climate change and speaking up for the poor in a way that is unpopular with people, I think it shows a desire to understand. And I do think that he is starting to see some light in what has been said for more than a decade, but the hierarchy has such an insistence on not seeing what is out there…even though it is OUT THERE, that I can only go so far.  He is an old man…in spirit as much as in body.  We can only expect so much.So here is the article, there is quote that involves Amy Winehouse that makes me chuckle.  It betrays as assumption that spirituality and depth are accessible only to the Vatican.  But it is a start.
http://ncronline.org/news/art-media/vatican-admits-it-doesnt-fully-understand-youth-culture