Getting young people to Mass and keeping them coming

[CatholicZ09]

Parents are certainly the most important factor.

I’m 28 and recently returned to the Church. I actually think we need better catechesis. I don’t feel like my CCD program taught me much about our faith. There should be more Bible study, more tying things together between the old and new testament (types). There is so much information out there at people’s fingertips, it’s so easy for young Catholics to misunderstand their faith. They need a strong foundation of what we believe and why we believe it more than ever. They get hammered by protestant ideas, then they get hammered by secular culture. We need to give them better support.

You raise some good points. I never felt that an hour and a half a week for catechism was enough. Surely, if parents are supplementing and reinforcing what their children are learning, then it could be enough, but I don’t think that happens too often.

I always thought that I learned more when I sat in church and watched the Mass and listened to the priest. Catechists try their best, but I just didn’t learn much from those classes.

 

[ProVobis]

I always thought that I learned more when I sat in church and watched the Mass and listened to the priest.

Some people are like that. Some others like to crack the books right after they buy them and not wait to hear it from their instructors. I remember doing that with the Baltimore Catechism and the handmissal.

As a tutor I was always of the opinion you can’t teach someone if they’re not willing to learn.Otherwise you’re just throwing parts of the Bible at them and hoping some of it sticks.

 

[ccmcmg]

Parents are certainly the most important factor.

I’m 28 and recently returned to the Church. I actually think we need better catechesis. I don’t feel like my CCD program taught me much about our faith. There should be more Bible study, more tying things together between the old and new testament (types). There is so much information out there at people’s fingertips, it’s so easy for young Catholics to misunderstand their faith. They need a strong foundation of what we believe and why we believe it more than ever. They get hammered by protestant ideas, then they get hammered by secular culture. We need to give them better support.

But even devout parents can have children who fall away from the Church, if they don’t have good solid faith formation. My mom grew up in a very Catholic family and went to Catholic school. She took us to Mass every Sunday, and we took what religious formation that was offered (little to none), including having my dad teach me at home. My Protestant grandparents were even more devout. All of us kids still fell away from the Church.

The Good News is…that I’m back. Others will be too. My siblings, not so much, but we’re back. My husband was raised similarly, and we were gone most of our adult lives except for a few years, and then again over the last 3. Yes, it’s easier if we don’t leave, but don’t give up hope. He brought me back, and I pray that others return as well.

 

[MissRose73]

Parents are certainly the most important factor.

I’m 28 and recently returned to the Church. I actually think we need better catechesis. I don’t feel like my CCD program taught me much about our faith. There should be more Bible study, more tying things together between the old and new testament (types). There is so much information out there at people’s fingertips, it’s so easy for young Catholics to misunderstand their faith. They need a strong foundation of what we believe and why we believe it more than ever. They get hammered by protestant ideas, then they get hammered by secular culture. We need to give them better support.

I am a few years old, and feel similar. I came of age in the 1980’s, and I learned more from my mom’s old Baltimore Catechism book compared to the classes I attended. In the past 5 years or more, I’ve attended (and will do so as work schedules permit) a wide variety of scripture study/sharing classes in which I have learned a quite a lot. I highly encourage people to join such classes, and in my parish, the cost is minimal - you just need to have a study bible and/or catechism depending on the class with a book that may cost around $10 at most.

Some of the 6 to 8 week (1 day a week) classes I’ve attended include: the 8 week and the 24 week Bible timeline Jeff Cavins dvd presentations, Father Barron’s “Priest Prophet King” and “Catholicism”, social justice, the Holy Spirit, The Eucharist, The Joy of the Gospel, and various segments from both the Old & New Testaments.

 

[frustratedWA]

For me it was the following:

Parents - required me to go to Mass until I turned 18. After that I was an “adult” and could make my own decisions. Yet, I rarely missed Mass.
Encouraging peers - I actually had a group of friends practically beg me to join the church choir, which I did after two years of pestering.
Inviting atmosphere - This means many things to many people. Initially, it meant finding a Mass similar to the one I grew up with. Eventually, it grew to mean a community of people who welcomed me. I found this both in college, and in the year immediately following college, but this is tough one. Many Catholic churches are EXTREMELY COLD AND UNINVITING. Many young people live alone, and many are very far from home. My first job after graduating was 2,000 miles from home. Finding a Catholic Community that invited me to join the praise and worship band (after only attending Mass twice), that had an active young adult group that met regularly, that had both formal and informal activities and get-togethers made me feel like I belonged to a community. If you want young people to stay active in the church, making them feel like they belong is important. Most of the Catholic parishes in my area are very “family/child” centric and have very uninspired music programs. My current parish rejected suggestions that I’d made during music rehearsals, so I quit the choir, and now I just attend whatever Mass at whatever parish happens to be convenient. There are no single person, nor any married without kids activities. Nothing for a person not raising children. I don’t belong to a “community” anymore. I am afraid that if this had been my experience at age 23, I’d probably be a Protestant today.

So, I concur with all of the people who say “parents,” but there’s more to it than that. People continue to mature significantly after they leave home. Hopefully they’ve been raised right, but providing an atmosphere that invites them in can be very important for young Catholics who are still growing up, and who might need a second “family” away from home. Newman Centers tend to do this extremely well. Suburban parishes tend to do an abysmal job of this.

 

[Rosebud77]

Doesn’t rub me the wrong way, and does mirror at lot of what I see.

Unfortunately, those 10% you speak of have been affected rather dramatically by issues of scandal within the Catholic Church, or other Churches.

Our means of teaching clearly aren’t working, and do need to change with the times. Simply “building on the faith” as we do today was fine when ‘everyone’ was Christian, but now that tides have changed, using a tactic similar to those ‘in the trenches’ would not be inappropriate, I suppose.

Here in Ireland it is a lot more than 10% affected by the child abuse. And the sins of the fathers ( and sisters and brothers) are being visited down the generations. Watch any internet mass and the white and grey heads going up for communion are all. I dont think anything but seeing us live the faith every day in every way will avail. Not just going to mass etc. I meet so many who think being a good Catholic begins when you go in the church door and ends when you walk out and that saddens me…

 

[MissRose73]

I wished the parish I went to for a short time had young adult stuff where I lived for a few years after graduating from university before returning to my home town. I only went to an archdiocesan thing that brought in 18 to 35’s (both males and females) that had seminars and stuff plus Mass & dinner at the seminary. I did sing in a choir for a short time at another place that offered a young adults Mass & a few activities on Sunday afternoons as well in the same area.

When I moved back, young adult stuff was and is for the most part non existent. Since I’ve formally joined the parish I grew up in, I am now an EMHC at Mass and attend various adult faith formation classes/scripture study classes. Most things at my parish tend to have older adult participating in them, and I wish when they make appeals for activities, classes, & ministries to really encourage the under 50 crowd “to get out of the pew” and get involved as the majority of the Mass ministers are 50 & older in my parish (just my perspective on ages).

 

[CuriousMike]

Here in Ireland it is a lot more than 10% affected by the child abuse. And the sins of the fathers ( and sisters and brothers) are being visited down the generations. Watch any internet mass and the white and grey heads going up for communion are all. I dont think anything but seeing us live the faith every day in every way will avail. Not just going to mass etc. I meet so many who think being a good Catholic begins when you go in the church door and ends when you walk out and that saddens me…

I can’t comment on the statistics of abuse. In fact, I’m shocked there aren’t any solid statistics beyond phrases in news articles quoting ‘thousands upon thousands.’

It is very important in these times to be very firm in our faith, and also ready to defend the faith whenever necessary. This is partly where we have fallen over, as people are “lost” to other Christian factions simply because they don’t understand, due both to bad catechesis AND poor initiative to study.

The issue with “being Catholic at Church only” also falls down to parents and how they teach their kids to value education. Its probably more because of people who are “culturally Catholic” more than anything. People who do it for the attention.
To rectify this, is simple - MORE needs to be said on being “lukewarm,” and what it will result in. That does mean just a little “fire and brimstone,” which is necessary - because our faith is NOT completely all about “God’s Love for Us,” which while an important piece in salvation is NOT the complete story.

 

[victrolatim]

I’m 27 and here are some thoughts. Firstly, I don’t think youth who are looking to figure out God and the church are looking for middle aged people trying to be “hip” and playing “contemporary” music (which from my experience is more like being stuck in 70’s-80’s folk land). I stopped going to Mass between ages 18 and 20 because of a “hip” priest who was too in love with his guitar and doing all the tie-dye, hand holding, rock concert things. I felt like God wasn’t present and it was a circus.

My advice would be to listen to the young people and answer their questions about what the Church actually teaches. I didn’t learn half the things I know from my catechism, most of them I learned within the past seven years on my own and through Catholic radio. Young people stop coming to church because of confusion, misunderstanding of what the Church teaches, etc, not because it’s not a rock concert.