It’s probably the area I live in. My parish has holy priests but cafeteria “Catholic” parishioners. I picked it because it’s the only one I could find with holy priests!
) are striving for orthodox and authentic teaching, if that is easier to find in the EF community, then so be it, there we shall be found.What are you saying? Remain single, or marry non-Catholics and not raise Catholic children?
Remain single. What kind of sense does the other option make?What are you saying? Remain single, or marry non-Catholics and not raise Catholic children?
Hi Skeptic,I’m 19, and I originally noticed that my age group was distinctly lacking (apart from those that came with families). I originally got involved with the Catholic Youth Service that does events especially for my age group, however then I got involved with the LMS, and began serving the EF Mass around the diocese, and to my shock (and delight) I noticed that the average attendence at the Low Mass being around 20-80 with the VAST majority being between the age of 16 and 35 (believe it or not, I met a group of 16 year olds who came just not out of choice, but who came EVERY week) who were good, faithful and orthodox Catholics.
I think believe it or not, us young folk (yes I go by the Vatican’s definition of young, and that is under 35
Then there’s the people whining about the corrected translation being too haughty for younger Catholics and it will drive them from the pews.
All I see is them being driven to the pews of the EF Mass.We need to sort out how the Mass is celebrated as well, many of the Latin-Rite Catholics at my university, either turn more Eastern(personally, I attend the Byzantine Rite Catholic Church near my University, as do many of the other Catholics, instead of attending the Latin Rite Church), Orthodox (I know a few Catholics who left the Church for the Orthodox Church) or convert to Anglicanism (the Anglican Chaplaincy at my university will insist there Catholic of the Anglican Rite, basically, there Anglo-Catholic).Then there’s the people whining about the corrected translation being too haughty for younger Catholics and it will drive them from the pews.
Try being like me, most of the Catholic Girls my age I meet, say they can see a Priest, not a Father when they see me lol.
Some Catholic congregations let visitors chat on their personal websites. You may check into whether one is in your local area, or for a Catholic church in another city or state. I have even seen sites from Italy, translated into English, so you could chat with young Catholic adults in that country. Email your diocese! Ask them to offer you some caht links that fit your needs.
My previous parish was large, 4,500 registered families, and lots of young adults, teens, kids, young families, as well as older adults. Really we had everyone. There was a big young adult group too that met for drinks, Masses, and other social events. This parish was established in 1997 I believe so it is relatively new.
Yesm everything you have said is true. The misapplication of Vatican II had many clergy misinterpreting what it meant in its 16 documents (how many of them actually read even one?) and many either gave up their nunhood/clergy positions, or they subscribed to a feely good, “sunshine Jesus” liberal theology that got passed down to your grandparents, who passed it down to your parents, and sadly our generation. Worse, libeal theology continues to spead its dark cloud in the current generation of older priests still around, and theology schools in USA and Canada even subscribe to other bad liberal theologies contrary to the Catechism and the Faith. Guess what this meant? Poor to no catechesis, and virtual helplessness when people honestly sought the faith, but because Protestants, Evangelicals, Baptists, Mormons, etc. get “Scriptural” training, they look like they know the answers and the Church (or at least the institutional Church) is bull and the Catholic faith is all lies and show.
Opus, This is also true. Sadly, our promiscuous/porn-raging culture (combined with feminism’s sexual liberation) has made our culture “pornoized” as it were. Our parents generation in the 60’s-70’s helped with that also (Love and Peace and drugs anyone, a.la hippies and Woodstock?) but our generation has it even worse. Daily advertisments and easy access to porn via the intranet and inserts of softcore/hardcore porn in our modern movies and television programs all point to the effect that the porn industry has infiltrated young people’s lives. We also can’t forget the influence of the pill on sexual attitudes coupled with an institutional church (a.k.a. clergy, lay theologians, religion teachers) that rejected by large Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae. This means in total => Today, men are still encouraged to do that old standby of “getting laid” but worse, women are also being encouraged and actually accepting that. Surely you university aged people have seen this in your 4 years of college/uni amongst your friends or your social scenes when going out. Combine that with poor catechesis of the majority of our “catholic” men and women and you are left with "c"atholics who don’t know the beliefs of their faith regarding sexuality and even they, will scoff at your pledges of sex b-4 marriage.
Also in aggrement! Activity wise, the institutional Church is picking up that we lose many "c"atholics after Confirmation at 13 years old, even sooner in their beliefs, and therefore the Church has amped up the latest “initiative” to try and keep them: Youth Ministry. I see a lot more junior high groups (Gr. 6-8) and teen groups, but as a whole there are less Young Adult groups where they are sorely needed. If these groups do exist, there will be people of the opposite sex who at the very least had the courage to do something
churchy and will hopefully find people of the opposite sex who like those things too, and not feel ashamed to be Catholic. Also, Once University hits, the “catholic” bubble of your closed world is pooped and youth with/without youth ministries on campus or in their area must contend with people of all religions and ideaologies, even anti-Church ones. Furthermore, stripped away from their community, single people will likely gravitate to any young woman who shows love and if that takes them from the “non-caring” Church, so be it. Furthermore, for your case Opus, In fuller agreement!!! The church has to realize that the 18-60 year old age group must be attended to with regard to their singlehood status as well as to help them be with good traditional partners. They have to wake up and realize that there will be no families or bodies soon to keep the churches open (and hence their collection plates filled) if there are no good true families passing on the faith or the current ones treat the Church as that “nice little tradition” at Xmas and Easter that tops off the dinners, presents, shopping, and special family activities. Us traditional singles will be constantly rejected by the liberals of opposite sex and we`re just going to either suffer in silence, run away to traddie parishes, or leave altogether and either stop practicing, or go to another Christian sect (like the SSPX) to find a loving and Catholic wifr becuase the instituional parish or Church thought green energy initiatives or the almighty champion Social Justice and schmoozing with the bishop at fancy dinners, was more important than promiting the Sacrament of Marriage, well, I mean getting Good faithful involved Catholics to that point!Indeed, this! I go to a parish that offers the Latin Mass as well as the Novus Ordo, and there’s a LOT of young families that attend the Latin Mass. I was up the back of the church today, since I wasn’t feeling well and I’d arrived late, and I counted at least twenty small children under five, to say nothing of their school-aged and high school-aged siblings.
Deo Gratias 42! Yes! Finally a smart intelligent woman who sees the wrath feminism has done to both sexes! These kind of women, when I meet them, are the cream of the crop! Total, 200% aggrement. Feminism (and possibly the homosexual movement too, like look at how they get flaunted over in television shows and movies, they are like bff’s with girls with their attachment to beauty and fashion and such, making regular joe males look like chumps), especially the 2nd wave of misandry (man-hating) based feminism had made many women anti-male. Worse, female-empowered education (e.g. words and sentences and sitting at desks all day vs. action driven activities and math via examples and just “doing it”) had made men now the sex that is falling behind, yet no one is crying poor Johnny. However, think of it this way. Many men are becoming effeminate because their parents are encouraging it, and well that’s what the post-feminist movement women want right? Spiritually, I also blame the institutional Church that has accepted feminism via its “inclusive” language texts in its translations of the Bible and its dumming down of theology, even during “manly” feast days like Christ the King. I think the recent NRSV-CE 2nd Edition translation doesn’t do this as much.
Skeptic, Yes and … No. I do agree as a whole that young people are in fact gravitating towards traditional practices and the TLM/EF. The server corps at the latin masses I attend on occasion, has a contingent that is mostly under 35. I will be saying though that from my experience serving one Mass, attending about 1/2 a dozen TLMs, and being part of my local Una Voce chapter and going to their AGM, The TLM is woefully absent of young men and women of the 18-35 age group. You will find more families with young children and late adults there. Only once I think I saw one young woman there possibly around my age, and maybe it is a stretch (as women`s makeup fools visual approximations of age). Eventually, the EF/TLMs will be filled with SOME young people, but unfortunately in this age of novelty and feel-goodness, I feel that what is left of the majority of young people in the Church (perhaps 95% of that 10% some poster mentioned) will stay with the Novus Ordo, regardless of their exposure to the EF. Worse this “reform of the reform” is taking time, a lot of time according to Benedict XVI’s plan, and will involve the last generation of “spirit of Vatican II” clergy and bishops dying off, and being replaced by JPII/B16 generation trained priests, of whom will be smaller in number to begin with. By the time my generation will get there, we will be 40+ years and we will likely still be single, and worse, struggling to care for ourselves, our ailing parents and possibly mentally/physically ill siblings, with no time to devote ourselves to dating in our crumbling lives, both personally and the way the world is going. So I’d say the EF/TLM as a saving grace for traditional catholic men who will stay true to the Magisterium and the Holy Father and not criticise them, is going to be “too little to late.”I’m 19, and I originally noticed that my age group was distinctly lacking (apart from those that came with families). I originally got involved with the Catholic Youth Service that does events especially for my age group, however then I got involved with the LMS, and began serving the EF Mass around the diocese, and to my shock (and delight) I noticed that the average attendence at the Low Mass being around 20-80 with the VAST majority being between the age of 16 and 35 (believe it or not, I met a group of 16 year olds who came just not out of choice, but who came EVERY week) who were good, faithful and orthodox Catholics.
I think believe it or not, us young folk (yes I go by the Vatican’s definition of young, and that is under 35
I believe I am one of those old people…it seems the CC changes constantly and I see no reason to change what has been a huge part of one’s belief…with all the dogmas, bishops doctrines, schisms within Catholic (Eastern, Western, Oriental Catholic), peoples and populations…all have been spread thin and confusion reigns…is it a wonder young people and their parents are finding it difficult to raise and structure their childrens lives around the CC?Then there’s the people whining about the corrected translation being too haughty for younger Catholics and it will drive them from the pews.
What Schisms within the Catholic Church are you on about? You just listed 3 categories of the Rites of the Catholic Church, not those in schism, the only formal Schism within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is between the West and East (and other Orthodox communities), but not within the Catholic Church as many people think of her.