So We Are Catholic, So what?

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So we are Catholic, so what? Maybe we do not have the energy to defend the faith and so we allow our children, family and friends to just scatter away like leaves in the wind to these other churches. Do we really understand what a treasure we have as Catholics? I have noted that many Catholics have been moving on to fundamentalist churches and even to Jehovah Witness Kingdom Halls. A friend who comes to weekday morning Mass told me that her son, was thinking of becoming a Muslim. People are leaving the Church because they do not feel their needs are being met in our Church. Maybe we feel that the Catholic Church is so big and global that we do not need to be a part of the movement to defend the faith and to teach the faith. Maybe we do not even do so in our own families. How do we who know that we are in the True Church - help such people? Many of these people are the children of cradle-Catholics, but they and even cradle-Catholics seem oblivious to what we believe and even the history of our Church. . I told the mother of her young adult son who wishes to become a Muslim to pray, but we must also intervene wherever possible through apologetics. These other churches are meeting a need that these Catholics feel our Church is not giving them. Any points would help. I am praying… and thinking… and listening… Even yesterday a catechist told me that we need to find a way to keep the young people interested in the Church. She said that they found the Church boring. Only God can help us now! What do we do? If they are involved, will they find it boring? Why are they not involved? Why do so many of us feel content in knowing so little about our faith? My heart aches because the Church is now under our watch and we are not doing what we should do to protect it - to carry it to the next generation.
 
+JMJ+

Finally, the right question!

The only real answer to this is that we do not know the joy of being a Catholic.

A treasure is useless if it does not give us joy. Enjoy it!
 
I think you have identified the problem well. I think young people in general don’t find the church relevant to their lives. Poor teaching of what the Church really means is epidemic, young people see the church as a monolith of negativity, especially in how it relates to the phases they go through in the teens and young adulthood.
The Catholic Church has the greatest truth and the greatest story to tell, and does a pretty poor job. The problem is with the bishops, doing the same old things that have little relevance to the young over and over. And if they expect different results, well you know what that defines.
Shalom.

Edited to say that it isn’t always the fault of the bishops themselves. The bureaucracies surrounding them contribute to a malaise of inaction and a self serving, cover you a** mentality. There needs to be some fresh air blowing in the wind, but unfortunately, much of the hierarchy and its support likes to keep the windows closed.
 
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What I notice about young people is that they have too many distractions, busy with so many shallow things, yet have no peace, no true joy. So try to focus them more inwardly:
‘We are too occupied with our own whims and fancies, too taken up with passing things. Rarely
do we completely conquer even one vice, and we are not inflamed with the desire to improve
ourselves day by day; hence, we remain cold and indifferent. If we mortified our bodies perfectly
and allowed no distractions to enter our minds, we could appreciate divine things and experience
something of heavenly contemplation.’ - The Imitation of Christ
 
Young people it seems have always been troublesome - - - - - - - - -

“The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress.”
(From a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274)

‘The children now love luxury; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not servants of the households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize over their teachers.’ (attributed to Socrates)
 
A common misconception about religion, our modern society has made faith in God a “consumer product”.
 
I continue to believe firmly that prayer is the answer to all problems, especially that of young people leaving the Church. We have before us the shining example of St Monica, who prayed for her wayward son ceaselessly, day and night for years, until his conversion. I myself have a very good friend who at one time was the most judgmental and anti-Catholic of Pentecostalists, yet after I prayed for him for years to come to the light of the Catholic Church(and I never told him I was doing this), he converted and has been a devout Catholic for many years now. If we would each take a person we know personally who is either a non-believer or in danger of falling away from the Faith, and pray firmly and often for their conversion/re-conversion, I feel certain we would see near-miraculous results. I do not say apologetics and catechesis do not have a place in this issue, just that prayer is by far the strongest resource we have in this fight.
 
People will go where they get the medicine to flee sin and free them from sin. If someone is using contraception and they go to mass and become involved with the Church never to be instructed that contraception is intrinsically evil either by bishops, priests, or the laity(while the Catholic laity use contraception themselves) it’s no wonder they search elsewhere. There needs to be medicine, strong orthodox teaching to go alongside with sure belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Then to make matters worse, politics is brought into the Church. There are those with a leftist agenda and those conservatives that point the finger while rejecting key teachings of the Catholic faith themselves.
 
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Most things that are popular amongst youth on TV and music glorify worldly things. Here and now. In my opinion
 
If you stop and think about it, the answers are obvious. Once Vatican II introduced ecumenism and religious freedom (both condemned since the beginning of the Catholic Church), this opened the floodgates. Now we have Pope Francis saying, "… promote religious freedom for everyone, everyone! Every man and every woman must be free in his or her profession of religion, whatever it may be.” (L’ Osservatore Romano, May 22, 2013)

If we can choose any religion, why would anyone choose Catholicism which requires the most work? Better to become a Protestant because you don’t need to do anything… you are already saved! Or better yet, just scrap your religion altogether - so much easier.

People need to start realizing the underlying cause of all this, and it’s called Vatican II - no doubt an illegitimate Council given the bad fruits we’ve seen coming from it the last 50+ years.
 
Noted_Touch said:
we allow our children, family and friends to just scatter away like leaves in the wind to these other churches.
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If my family or friends decide they want to go somewhere else to church, I can’t do much except tell them I disagree and pray for them. I can’t very well lock them in a room or tie them to a chair.

I don’t have kids, but I was the child of a good Catholic and I spent quite a few years as a Chreaster or not even. I know Mom wasn’t happy with that and I know she prayed a lot for me. But she couldn’t do anything to make me go back to Mass or Confession.

Mom got her wish in the end, I came back to the Church in a big way…after she died.
Never underestimate the power of prayer
 
Noted_Touch said:
Even yesterday a catechist told me that we need to find a way to keep the young people interested in the Church.
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Recently, I had conversations with several of the confirmation students at our parish. The comment was made “I’m glad I’m finally getting confirmed, now I don’t have to go to those stupid classes anymore.”

That is a clear indications that we are not properly teaching our youth about the joy of Christianity…

So here is my take on it. We spend years teaching our children all of the many rules of the Church. What we’re supposed to do, when we’re supposed to do it and how. We seem to have lost sight of the actual goal: a joyful loving, personal relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

If that sounds a little Protestant, it’s because I used to be Protestant. But what I have found in the Catholic Church is that we need to stop teaching the “rules”. We need to focus on Jesus and cultivate a love for Him and then, instead of teaching the “Rules” we need to teach the “Gifts”. Our most important goal is to know Jesus. And if we study the history of the Church and the message of the Gospels we can find that instead of rules to govern our lives, Jesus gave us all of these beautiful gifts to help us be close to Him every day.

Baptism is a Gift to cleanse us of original sin. Reconciliation is a gift to cleanse us of our daily sin and make us worthy to approach Christ at the Altar of the Eucharist ant the Eucharist is the most precious gift of all to bring us physically into communion with our Lord. Mass on Sunday and every day is a gift to allow us to approach that Altar. Think of everything we do! They are not meant to suppress us or hold us back, they are meant to lift us up to the final glory of being with our maker in Heaven! They are fabulous beautiful gits to bring us closer to Christ. If we fail to teach our children about the Joy of Christ, those gifts are just dry grass. Dead, boring and oppressive. For if we do not first have the Joy of Christ in our lives, we don’t need the “rules”.
 
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We should always start by striving for our own personal sanctification. Put off vice, build virtue, and pray for ourselves and others. That way God is equipping us for the battle, and the Blessed Mother is tutoring us in sanctity. People are attracted to the real thing, so get if we get serious in our own spiritual journey, people will be attracted to the faith and inspired by us to take the next step in their journey. There may be nothing (except prayer) that we can do for certain people, but we can always strive to take the next step ourselves. This verse is not directly on point, but is illustrative:

1 Cor. 7:14 et seq “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife; and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband: otherwise your children should be unclean; but now they are holy. But if the unbeliever depart, let him depart. For a brother or sister is not under servitude in such cases. But God hath called us in peace. For how knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband ? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?”

When we are on the path to holiness, in a way we take the people in our lives with us on that journey.
 
michaelhager said:
Recently, I had conversations with several of the confirmation students at our parish. The comment was made “I’m glad I’m finally getting confirmed, now I don’t have to go to those stupid classes anymore.”
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I tend to think an average non-saintly kid that age would have the same reaction to any class s/he was forced to sit through for X number of weeks.
 
I am running a Summer Camp at our Catholic School. Teenagers from our Church are assisting the teachers as volunteers. What saddens me is that many of our teenagers seem not to know what is appropriate behaviors = in language, in choice of music, and even in their relationships. This year the boys are excellent but the girls are devious and somewhat inappropriate in all spheres. They seem lazy, too sexual minded in the total outlook and even sneaking around to have boyfriends visit. They also spend too much time on their cellphones. I am disappointed because I see them with their families at Mass and never imagined that these girls behave as they do. They are poor role models to younger family and charges. I am pleasantly surprised with all of the males. Girls seems to be affected negatively by the media - and they are Catholics. Because the boys in a world where boys are normally the naughtiest and these boys are so well-mannered and self-directed, I know this is due to family life. I do feel that many Catholic families are not living the faith at home and this is causing a big problem in our church. I told my principal and teachers yesterday that we cannot give up on these teenagers, but we have to find a way to properly catechize them. We must set good examples and give them relevant information - about church, and about life. Our children and our church are failing because Catholic families are failing in their responsibilities to know the faith and to live the faith. What are we going to do about this? What am I going to do about this? I will continue to do what I do and allow the Holy Spirit to show me others ways to help families live their faith. What do you feel about this? What does it really mean to be Catholic?
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I tend to think an average non-saintly kid that age would have the same reaction to any class s/he was forced to sit through for X number of weeks.
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Unless you could make the class interesting and inspiring enough to motivate them. And this, I believe is our general failure in Catechisis.
 
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