Why do you think there are so few twentysomethings in the Church today?

[haastiin]

As a 26 going on 27 year old young single male Catholic I feel the same things. My family think I am a wierdo for not lusting after women. I have even had people that think I am a homosexual for abstaining from immoral sexual encounters. Sometimes i wonder if the Lord meant for me to have a vocation, because i don’t fit in with my own generation. It is hard tring to be a good faithfull virtuous man in his twenties in todays society filled with debauchery.

                 It can be very discouraging sometimnes I wonder why I try to live a good life when no one else seems to think that being a faithfull person matters. I nned to turn to Jesus more, this know but it can be so demoralizing

Pax Chrsti
Hugh

Hugh, keep listening to His Voice. What a gift He has given you, to stand firm by Him as the world around you festers away in immorality! Thank you for this confession of Faith. It is heartwarming proof that God is at work despite all the moral pollution with which we must contend.

 

[Luna_de_Colores]

It depends on the parish. The parish I go to for daily mass is only down the street from a Community College, but me and one other guy are the only regular attendees under 30.

At the parish I go to for Sunday mass, it’s mostly people under the age of 20- especially young couples. It’s a pretty diverse parish with a lot of immigrants and minorities.

Whenever I get down about young people in the church, I like to look at the Dominican Sisters and other orders that are experiencing a huge increase in vocations.

http://bylovealone.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/sisters-of-mary-aspirants-2010.jpg?w=500&h=300



Yeah… the Church will pull through, no matter how bad it gets.

 

[mcrts]

The Dominican sisters are indeed inspiring!

 

[JenkkiMike]

I have noticed at my parish that nearly all of the people in their twenties attending Mass are married couples. There are some young women in their early twenties who attend Mass with their mothers and sisters. I am one of the rare unmarried twenty-something year old men.

I do not know any practicing Catholics in my circle of similarly aged friends and acquaintances outside of my parish. This is especially surprising because I live in Boston, a city with a large nominally Catholic population. I believe that our generation has largely left the Church because our parents did a poor job at raising us as Catholics. When I was a teenager, my mother would send me to Mass with my friend’s family while constantly making excuses for not attending herself. I can’t imagine that I am the only twenty something whose parents didn’t seem very concerned with matters of faith while raising them. I have a suspicion that our parents generation was also short changed in terms of their Catholic upbringing.

I stopped actively participating in the Church around the age of 15 or 16. I noticed that most of my peers from CCD class did as well. I was not at all properly catechized. I remember CCD being more about youth retreats and guitar playing/singing than theology and faith formation. It seemed to me that the program coordinator was trying to be “modern” and copy Protestant youth groups. There was also a lot of emphasis on interfaith cooperation with the Synagogues and Islamic center in town. I think it sent the wrong message to the youth. How could we take the Church seriously when we were being lead to believe (whether intentional or not), that other religions are equally valid? It’s fine to teach acceptance of our fellow man, but I think it was a mistake to confuse doubtful teenagers even further.

It took me ten years to return to the Church. I had felt drawn back more and more during my mid twenties but was reluctant for a variety of reasons: I was lazy, I was reluctant to give up my sinful lifestyle, I was embarrassed and nervous to confess ten years of mortal sins… I finally couldn’t resist when I turned 26 and went to Mass one day at a parish my my new town. It just so happened that this particular parish has a daily EF Mass. I had never experienced a Mass like that before! I can’t help but believe that if I had attended this parish as a teenager, I would never have strayed.