NEWS STORY: Young Catholics respect pope, but say their consciences rule

c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Teen-agers call him “the big guy,” the one who represents “like, the power of God,” the modern person who allows them to “live in the footsteps of Christ.” When Pope John Paul II visits St. Louis next week, American youths will greet him with respect and admiration far […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Teen-agers call him “the big guy,” the one who represents “like, the power of God,” the modern person who allows them to “live in the footsteps of Christ.”

When Pope John Paul II visits St. Louis next week, American youths will greet him with respect and admiration far greater than they bestow on any other cultural figure of their time.


Organizers expect to have 20,000 young people Kiel Center for a papal prayer service, but anticipate tens of thousands more will stand outside in the cold to watch the event on jumbo television screens.

“He’s the man,” said Jake Graessle, of St. Mary Church in Hudson, Ohio. Graessle is one of 46 teens from seven parishes in the Cleveland Diocese who planned to ride all night in buses and sleep on the floor of parish halls in St. Louis just to be in the same area, if not even the same building as the pope. “I want to hug the pope … simply just to give him a hug and say `Thank you’ for 78 years devoted to Christ,” Graessle said.

But listen beyond the stadium-sized roars of “John Paul II, we love you” that the aging pontiff can expect on what may be his last visit to the United States. You may hear many in the generation that eventually will accept the torch of Catholic leadership saying they do not make the leap from personal affection to acceptance of the pontiff’s agenda for the church.

If the pope views U.S. Catholics as a contentious lot, unwilling to toe Rome’s line, he may find their sons and daughters are even more comfortable following their conscience on certain church teachings, and demanding open discussion on issues such as the ban on female priests.

This is not a generation lacking faith. In a 1997 Gallup Poll of youths ages 13 to 17, nearly 80 percent said religion was a significant influence in their lives, with 35 percent calling it the most important influence.

In a major new study of Catholics ages 20 to 39, researchers from Catholic University of America, Emmanual College and California State University at Hayward found nine in 10 people who were confirmed as adolescents kept the faith of their youth.

But if young Catholics are keeping the faith, researchers also are finding that each new generation is increasingly keeping it on their own terms.


Sociologist James Davidson of Purdue University, who has done extensive studies of generational differences in the Catholic Church, said the findings “come up over and over again”: The generation of Catholics 55 and older are most likely to think of the church in terms of external authority, while the youngest groups are the most individualistic, relying on their personal religious experience.

“They follow their own religious conscience, however it is formed, shaped or molded,” Davidson said.

Greg Moser, board chairman of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry, said the days of “I will be an obedient Catholic and do it without thinking” are coming to an end.

“In the past, many adults have been socialized into the institution of the Catholic Church,” Moser said. “We have young people who are really searching and hungering for that relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Among the issues that spark interest among Catholic teens active in their churches are priestly celibacy and the ban on women clergy.

Graessle, who teaches religious education to eighth-graders, said the one thing that has kept him from wanting to enter the priesthood is, “I want to have kids. I really love children.”


This is a generation forged in the post-Vatican-II church. They are less familiar with the Latin Mass or with the days before parish councils and before laypeople were able to serve as church administrators or distribute communion.

Moser said if the church does not welcome and nurture young people, they will go somewhere else.

“What they are asking for is a growing, maturing relationship with the church, not a parent-child one,” Moser said.

Davidson said young people’s desire for fellowship is a big part of the secret of John Paul’s success with them. Their generation has seen a shift in divorce rates, two-career couples, single parents and latchkey kids. One reason they put so much faith in themselves and their own experiences is they are not sure they are loved or wanted, Davidson said.

“The pope can express to these kids that he loves them, and if they can relate to him as a father figure, as a loving, kind, compassionate man … it makes them feel secure and loved,’ Davidson said.

Davidson said the challenge to church officials is not to be authoritarian or dismiss the spiritual journeys of young people out of hand as examples of moral relativism.


Instead, Davidson said, the path to success in youth ministry is for adults to “be present for them, and be there and listen.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

For Maggie Hornack, defining moments in her faith life were the death of her father when she was just 7 years old and a retreat in which Catholic youth worked on the house of an elderly woman in Tennessee.

One fostered in her a sense of the eternal, and the motivation to live her faith daily and treat people well in the time she has here, and the other experience an appreciation of the joy of helping others, two Catholic ideals.

Still, when it comes down to making decisions on faith and practice, Hornack says she, not the pope, has the final say.

“I’m not into the government; I’m not into the rules of things,” she said. “When I think of religion, I don’t think of rules and things. I think of good people.

“But,” she said, “When I think of good people, I think of the pope.”

DEA END BRIGGS

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!