Where are the young people?

Monday, July 4th, 2022

Where do young Catholics stand? To the right, very right, or very left?

It’s a fascinating question.

A couple of recent articles in France have contemplated the so-called resurgence of left-wing Catholics, who are identified as young, ecologically sensitive, and – some of them – even very left-wing. They are also distant from their rather conservative Church.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are those who say we must pay more attention to young Catholics who go to church, those who are more sensitive than their elders to rituals, sacraments, prayer, and who are nostalgic for tradition.

This weekend, this second group will be the main participants in the Pentecost Chartres Pilgrimage, known as the “Pilgrimage of Christendom”, organized by traditionalist movements.

Once again, people will boast about how many people attended this pilgrimage, arguing that this is the kind of conservative Catholics young people long for.

They pray, but differently

In a recent article published in La Croix, Father Pierre Amar underlines this divide between “young” and “old Catholics”, a divide that also emerges in all parishes from the debates on the synod.

The “old” are more attached to involvement in society, the young more to prayer and liturgy, without abandoning charity work.

By the way, imposing opposition by explaining that the “old people” are not concerned about prayer and liturgy is silly.

The graying generations are the ones that fill the pews at Sunday Mass. And as far as I know, they are going there to knit! So they pray, but differently.

Basically, these questions reveal two things.

On the one hand, young people are very diverse; which we already knew. On the other hand, and above all, there is the anxiety – and even panic – that Catholics feel in the face of the strong and brutal reduction in the religious practice of young people.

Wondering for hours if young Catholics are more to the right or more to the left is like trying to find out if the handful of Trotskyites are more Lambertist or Frankist!

The truth is cruder: there are almost no young people left in the Church. And we can endlessly argue about their political and liturgical choices…

Our concern should not be about the political views and liturgical preferences of the few young people who actually come to Mass on Sunday. Rather, we should ask where all the others of their generation – the majority – are.

Do young people feel at home in a Church with so many moral norms?

For a long time, the finger has been pointed at parents, guilty of not having passed on the faith. This is a bit reductive.

Such a massive trend cannot be explained by the inability of parents to transmit their values and what gives them life.

After all, in other areas, they manage to do so quite well.

We must have the courage to ask ourselves certain questions: do these young generations, who are concerned with a great deal of tolerance towards all life choices, feel at home in a Church with so many moral norms?

Can young women, who have grown up in a feminist culture, feel part of the liturgy as it is currently celebrated?

Then again, is the language of the institution and of churchgoers accessible, understandable, and, above all, relevant to the young people?

The Gospel message is anything but bland. Yet it elicits, at best, only polite indifference among the youth.

Instead of endlessly arguing about the young people we already find in our churches, perhaps it’s time to take a greater interest in all those who don’t come.

Isabelle de Gaulmyn is a senior editor at La Croix and a former Vatican correspondent.
First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.