What Young Catholics Truly Want

One advantage I suppose to the condition of never quite having grown up is I spend time with young adults. This is becoming more and more difficult as I am less and less young myself -- before my hair turned entirely grey I could fit in a little easier. Still, one thing I hear from time to time is a cry in the wilderness about what young Catholics truly want.  Maybe I get to hear it because I'm 1) not their parents, and 2) not a priest. But especially from the better educated or more sensitive, some variation on this is common

The problem is all these pastors, youth pastors and music directors keep telling us young folk what bores us, what we really like, what we find interesting. And guess what, THEY’RE WRONG!

There's a young woman with a blog who calls herself Rachel and wrote an essay What Young Catholics Truly Want. I recommend it. Some of the comments are evidently from priests who seem to know what Young Catholics Truly Want and want (evidently) to give it to them, but they're afraid of alienating Catholics my age on up. I don't quite know what to tell them about that particularly, but it sure looks to me like the concept of Youth Ministry should be revisited. Any Young Catholics reading this? What do you think?

HHS Mandate A Blessing in Disguise? 11 August 2013 6 PM

As of January 1, 2014 the HHS Mandate will take full effect for religious institutions. But the Mandate itself is only one of a series of issues that have challenged religious freedom in the United States in the last few years.

Did you hear about the photographer in New Mexico (Elane Photography) who was sued for refusing to photograph a gay wedding? How about the florist in Washington (Arlene’s Flowers) who was sued – by her own state’s Attorney General – for refusing to provide flowers for a gay wedding? Or the baker in Colorado (Masterpiece Cakeshop) who faces not only fines but even jail time for his refusal to provide cakes for gay weddings?

In many different kinds of cases we’re seeing that the fundamental push in our culture is not really to ‘promote diversity’ or even ‘tolerate’ everyone’s views, but to enforce a new set of cultural and legal norms – even at the cost of violating religious freedom. The evidence is mounting that – as Robbie George said – the days of comfortable Catholicism are over.

How should Catholics respond when our religious freedom is threatened? And how can these challenges actually be a blessing in disguise – an invitation to draw closer to Jesus?

Click here to register before Wednesday 7-August

Logistics

This Forum will be held at the Rigali Center, not at the Crowne Plaza hotel as usual. The address is 20 Archbishop May Dr; St Louis, MO 63119, but that doesn’t help very much. The Rigali Center is off of S. Laclede Station Road, about 8/10ths of a mile north of Watson Road. Click here for a map.

Our August Forum with Archbishop Carlson will include a delicious buffet dinner, catered by Genesis. You may recall that they served us in some of our past forums and received rave reviews of their food quality.

We’re going to get underway at 6 PM sharp, so please arrive early enough to get checked-in beforehand.

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Archbishop Carlson's Sermon

In case you missed it, here is a transcription of Archbishop Carlson's Sermon given at the closing Mass of the Fortnight For Freedom, July 3rd, 2013. For the time being at least, you can click here to hear and see the St. Louis Review's video made at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, with about 1,500 in attendance. It may go behind the paywall, we don't know. The transcript was made from the video by a Credo Board member, and he added some footnotes and hyperlinks. The opening greetings have been omitted. Without further ado, the Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis:

… As I welcome you to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, as we gather to pray this day for the protection of Religious Freedom, we do so on the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. St. Thomas is probably best remembered for the passage in today's Gospel that speaks about his doubt of the resurrection of our Lord. But through God's great mercy and love, he was able to encounter in a personal way as each of must Jesus Christ. And through God's good Grace, his heart was opened. And he said to the Lord as we read in today's Gospel making his great act of faith “my Lord and my God¹”.