About the Youth Synod

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gracepoole

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Just read a piece over at Life Site in which the author claims that the synod is likely to drive youth further away from the Church. It’s obviously a divisive opinion piece. But what do others think is likely to come from this synod? I’ll be honest: I don’t really see what positives will grow from it. I worry that we’re turning to an incredibly uncatechized group and asking it to offer ideas about the Church. I do hope I’m wrong…

Here’s the piece from LS:


Any ideas about the synod?
 
🙂

Of course. But I had some serious doubts about the synod before reading the article. I can’t say that LS has ever persuaded me to believe anything.
 
My view on youth synods I that those attending do a sort of pilgrimage that’s bound to do them good. It’s also an expression of faith and living the faith in community.

Other than that?

What’s a youth synod and what’s suppose to come of it?

Edit: A quick glance shows the opinion column to be in poor taste and uncharitable in nature.

[By analogy: when did anything come from the World Economic Forum? I expect something positive from the youth synod. Whatever it may be…It’s a strange trend of recent making, to expect all problems be solved by a bunch of people getting on a plane and meeting somewhere - how globalization of a mindset. ]
 
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Are you asking what a synod in general is? Because that’s what this is. This one just happens to be focused on youth.
 
gracepoole said:
Are you asking what a synod in general is?
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Not quite. The present synod on the family is ongoing over several years and addressing serious problems regarding people’s lives and family.

Now, the youth synod…? I suppose it gathers a two-fold aspect of serious discussion and turning that into a festival with youngsters participating. And that is somewhat brilliant and an occasion. Will it affect people’s lives anytime soon - other than those getting on a plane? Probably not. But no one should expect that…I mean, I’m a catholic and I spent most of my youth participating in mass and little else catholic activities. During my teens I didn’t get to speak to a priest not even a single time - that’s how things are normally set up to be. I somehow recon everything was set up that way - and did they pay the price of that mistake? I recon I did…
 
That’s wonderful! May God bless your efforts!

My question isn’t what young attendees will gain from the experience but instead what the Church and its hierarchy will gain.
 
I never spoke to a bishop and for some reason I don’t expect to.

What they gain is theirs to gain.
 
What they gain can shape what the Church does and becomes. That impacts us all, I’d wager.
 
gracepoole said:
That impacts us all, I’d wager.
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My dioceses has 80% of the priests past the retirement age. Soon…All the chapels will close, and only 1 monthly mass will be celebrated at any one parish.

And I have to question: Why didn’t a single priest talk with me during my youth?

[Was I realistically supposed to get on a plane and fly somewhere to talk to a priest in my youth?]
 
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I might have been the exception in that respect. My parents made friends with loads of priests and we often had them over for dinner, family parties, Mass in the living room… My godfather is a priest. I’m sure it helped that my father’s sister was a Dominican.
 
This isn’t World Youth Day, it’s a synod of bishops. A few young people are there because the bishops need to hear from the people they’re supposed to be concerned about.

As far as what will come of it, who knows? I’m willing to wait until the bishops have had a chance to vote and the Pope has had a chance to follow up on that vote.

There is a part of me that says this is doing nothing to address the current crisis in the Church. At the same time, it is addressing the future. If today’s young people disappear, who will be around for the Church of the future?
 
Your concerns are valid.

I’ve been following the synod and a lot coming out of it, and to me the tone of everything just reminds me too much of the same failed approach that my peers and I were raised on. Almost everyone I grew up with as Catholic fell away by the time they were adults.

And as far as the voting process goes, the document is only going to be published in Italian. Synod Fathers who don’t know Italian will have an audio translation when it is being read out, before voting on the document a few hours later. So they’re not really going to be allowed to read or study this if they don’t read Italian, basically. And yet the final document once approved is supposed to be part of the Ordinary Magisterium. No procedural rules as far as my knowledge have been announced.

http://catholicherald.co.uk/comment...h-for-clarity-on-the-synods-procedural-rules/
Asked whether synod participants would be able to vote on individual provisions of the document as they have in prior meetings, Fabene said it would depend on what emerged from the synod, adding that “as we move along, we will decide.”
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How is any of this even remotely responsible for something that is supposed to become part of the Ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter?
 
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I don’t think either a shallow attempt at modernization and relevance or going old school with veils and Latin are going to be long term solutions for the youth.

The veils and Latin could be a good short term solution looking at these thriving parishes and this may help bring more people to mass. The youth are going to be attracted to the new and dynamic but a few decades down the line it’s just going to be the youths parents lame thing and there will need to be a new movement to attract the next generation of youth.
 
Our city must be an anomaly.

We have had the Latin Mass parish in the city for at least two decades, and it is definitely NOT thriving and growing. Yes, there are young people, but many more young people attend the parishes that feature a youth-oriented Mass, and many of these young people have grown up to be leaders in the local Catholic parishes.

I think this article was very badly written. Assumptions are presented as facts. No proof, no statistics are given to prove that parishes that practice “traditions” are “thriving.” Terms are not defined" e.g., what does “thriving” or “growing” mean? What are the actual numbers? If a parish has ten people and ten more people join (could be relatives of the first ten), that means that the parish has doubled in numbers–but a parish of 20 is hardly thriving.

I think that the tone of the piece was mean-spirited towards modern hymns and practices. I feel like I have been denigrated because I enjoy these hymns and practices, yet I would hardly call myself a lukewarm Catholic Christian. Same for many of my friends. Again, there are no definitions given for “fallen away Catholics.” What does this mean? Certainly Catholics who haven’t attended Mass in 20 years have fallen away, but the author doesn’t state this–they simply throw out the terms. Define them!

I also see the usual glowing admiration for Latin and Gregorian chant, but again, NO stats are given. Do parishes that utilize the more ancient music and language really produce Catholic men and women who are leaders in their community and making a difference for the Lord and for good in our country and our world?

In my part of the world, it is the Catholics who are part of the large, modern parishes who are visibly involved in the pro-life campaigns and outreaches in our city (e.g., the head of the local pregnancy life care center is a Catholic not from the Latin Mass parish). They are also the ones running for political office with pro-life and pro-family stands on the issues. They are involved in many of the charitable outreaches in our city (food pantries, children’s charities, family-strengthening outreaches, etc.). And although both the Latin mass parish and the OF parishes both have schools, including a high school–it is the OF parish schools that are attracting the majority of the students, even though the Latin Mass parish school is much cheaper.

But again, these are my anecdotal observations. I don’t have stats. So I would never present my observations as truth. I may be missing lots of things.

Stats, stats, stats! The article is just an opinion piece without the stats, and a rather mean-spirited, haughty piece, IMO.
 
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Ardent_Fire said:
And as far as the voting process goes, the document is only going to be published in Italian. Synod Fathers who don’t know Italian will have an audio translation when it is being read out, before voting on the document a few hours later. So they’re not really going to be allowed to read or study this if they don’t read Italian, basically. And yet the final document once approved is supposed to be part of the Ordinary Magisterium. No procedural rules as far as my knowledge have been announced.
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If that’s true -and it’s not at least in a dozen languages- they do have to stretch themselves thin to justify such a choice.

[On matter of principle I’d avoid mainstream UK media on catholic issues -a truckload of salt taking the place of the pinch- because they’re majority Anglican, and the recent failure of that church to return to communion with Rome, favoring instead homosexual woman becoming bishops - says everything that needs to be said, regarding credibility and politics.]
 
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adgloriam said:
[On matter of principle I’d avoid mainstream UK media on catholic issues -a truckload of salt taking the place of the pinch- because they’re majority Anglican, and the recent failure of that church to return to communion with Rome, favoring instead homosexual woman becoming bishops - says everything that needs to be said, regarding credibility and politics.]
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The article I cited is from a Catholic publication in the UK, so I’m not sure what that has to do with the link I posted.
 
I have my preference as far as liturgy goes but even if we set that issue aside for a minute – I think it’s the watering down, and the lack of authenticity and conviction that’s a huge problem – it’s hard to expect a youth being raised Catholic to take any of it seriously or believe in an objective truth when the Church teaches one thing but your local parish priest, religious education teachers, RCIA instructors all disagree and they more or less are ashamed of the Church’s most uncomfortable teachings and in the big picture, you’re left with the larger picture filled with a lot of fluff and that very little of this stuff matters – and your Confirmation is pretty much your graduation from ever having to hear about this ever again.

Like I said, almost none of my Catholic classmates stayed Catholic. Other classmates, such as the Mormons and Evangelicals I knew – while I certainly didn’t agree with their respective religions (and back in the day I didn’t think it mattered a great deal), many of them were raised with a stronger conviction from their churches and their families that I just didn’t see in my own parish.
 
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