You can encourage all you want, but if the parents don’t make practicing their faith a priority there is little a catechist is going to be able to do in CCD. I find that those kids whose families go to church, pray as a family, and put God as a priority in their life, want to learn about God, the others are just there to receive First Communion and Confirmation. If what we teach is not reinforced at home, then, except for a few rare cases, we are not going to get anywhere with them.
I’m ambivalent about this.
Yes, it would seem that if parents raise their children well, they will continue their involvement with the church of their childhood and in many cases, the children do continue to practice their faith.
But in many cases, the children do NOT continue to practice their faith, even if they’ve been raised well by good parents who did everything right.
I’m 56 years old, and I’ve seen many families, Catholic and Protestant, in which the parents did an excellent job of raising their children.
But the children still depart the church the instant they come of age and sometimes sooner, while they are still teenagers living at home.
Parents can force a young child or pre-teen to go church with them, but it’s easier said than done to force a fully-grown young man or young woman to go to church. Most parents admit defeat and allow the defiant teen to stay home. Others in the Church may disapprove and tell these long-suffering parents to “grow a spine and FORCE that young buck to get out of bed and go to church, dag nabbit!”, but these other folks aren’t the ones who have to deal with the teenager on a daily basis, and so IMO, would be well-advised to keep their mouths shut and pray instead of chastise other parents who are often at their wits’ end.
I think what we have to do is recognize that each human being is unique and must actualize their OWN faith, not their parents’ faith. This doesn’t always happen, and it’s
heartbreaking for parents. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to the OP’s question.
I think that the local parish should do everything they possibly can to attract and keep the youth, and to approach this with multiple strategies, not just a “one size fits all” approach.
I think that many young people will respond well to more contemporary music, social activities, and a youth pastor who wears jeans, and adults should not scoff at this approach and label it “Protestant.” There are a lot of Protestant churches using this approach who have a thousand young people attending church.
I think that other young people respond better to different approaches. Some young people crave a really really DEEEEEEP study group with a college-level approach, lots of homework, and a priest leading the study who treats the kids like young seminarians or disciples. I think this approach would be useful to attracting the kids who lean towards “traditionalist” Catholicism and are always unhappy with their parish and longing for St. John Cantius. Add a study of saints, a schola that studies chant, a course in Latin, and a movement towards personal holiness using various traditional prayers and chaplets, and I think a lot of these traditionalist teens would become very loyal in their attendance.
I think that many other teens would RUN away, not walk, if this “traditionalist” approach was the only approach used in their parish! A parish should not abandon Matt Maher music and facilitated discussion about movies and replace it entirely with Vierne and the Chaplet of the Wounds of Christ!
Like I said, multiple strategies, not a “one size fits all!” This is a war (see Ephesians 6:12), and we are battling for the souls of our children. We need to open ourselves up to many different strikes on many fronts and stop trying to prove that our approach is the “only approach that will work for Catholic parishes.” That’s the kind of thinking that is losing our young people to Protestantism and to churchlessness…
I think that other young people long for a mentor/friend/buddy and some one-on-one hanging out time. These young people may very well avoid being with all the other young people and instead, just hang out with their “guru”, whoever they happen to bond with in the parish. Why not?
I think many young people want to be involved with service to their community and world, and respond well when the parish offers plenty of opportunities to be involved and make a difference. Mission trips to countries outside of the U.S. as well as to other states are very appealing to a lot of teenagers. Also, attending events like the March for Life. These types of youth activities take a lot of planning and money, but can really hold onto teenagers.
And some teenagers will come to church because their boyfriend or girlfriend comes to church, so IMO, dating teens should be welcomed by a parish!
There’s just no one easy answer. The parishes should use multiple approaches and recruit more people than just one overworked underpaid youth minister and a few time-pressed youth sponsors. BTW, in the larger Protestant churches, youth pastors are paid extremely well, with good reason.
. If the adults don’t take it seriously why should the children?