UCA News
Contribute

Young people and the synod

Modern youth are searching for authenticity
Young people and the synod
Published: November 16, 2015 04:41 AM GMT
Updated: November 15, 2015 06:19 PM GMT

October's Synod of Bishops on the family covered several matters that concern many families today. Although much of the reporting — mostly by Western journalists and commentators — dealt with the theological divide between liberals and conservatives, I think it is fair to say that the issues confronting the church today are not easy to begin with.

Theological lines will continue to be drawn in the years to come, especially insofar as same-sex unions are concerned, for example. Nevertheless, the document has in the end highlighted several issues that make family life difficult for many today.  

The document calls for special attention to cohabiting couples, divorced individuals, gay people, and even migrant families.

The future of the Catholic church is at stake and for this reason alone, the state of its young people needs to be carefully assessed in any discussion about the family. Although the church is clearly aging in the West, it is not in the "global south," which includes the Philippines.  

The average age of Christians around the world is 30 and we know that its centers, in terms of its activities and movements, have moved to key cities in the global south. Almost 60 percent of today's Catholics are in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In these places, young people are not just converting to Catholicism.  

Whether it's the Philippines, Singapore, Brazil or Nigeria, young Catholics are involved in humanitarian work, seminary training, youth organizations, or even mission trips abroad.

But the picture is not entirely rosy. It is in this light that the document thankfully recognizes the hardships of young people in finding jobs, for example, or their distrust of marriage and the family as traditional social institutions.  

But at the same time, the bishops recognize that many young people continue to view "marriage as the great yearning of their life" and having a family as "the realization of their aspirations".

What it means to pursue a family as a realization of their aspirations may not find a common denominator in what a family means in the first place. In other words, what does it mean for young people to be a family? And what does it mean for them to be in a family?  

 

Searching for authenticity

The Synod of Bishops on the family document makes the assessment that many young people may not have an adequate sense of commitment or that others may have been indoctrinated with ideologies inconsistent with the faith.

My view is that we in the wider ecclesial community must see the problem of young people today not just in terms of the inadequacy of their faith formation. My own research shows that young people are looking for authenticity, a concept that has become salient not just amongst philosophers and sociologists. It has become a virtue, in fact an ethic, as the philosopher Charles Taylor puts it, for contemporary life.

In other words, Catholic youth and the young adults ahead of them are continuously on the lookout for authentic expressions of their faith.

Giselle Vincett, with whom I have worked, discovers in her research that Catholic youth in England, highly secularized their environment might be, feel the need to perform and embody their Christianity in the context of their friendships and the wider community. But sometimes, the everyday theologies young people harbor are not consistent with the ideals of religious leaders.  

Why? Because everyday theologies — or beliefs and practices that matter to the laity — emerge out of their specific realities.

There are young people who have to confront their gender identities, for example, not as a curse but as a blessing. 

There are young people, not just because of ideologies but also because of their own experiences in the household, who question whether they themselves are called to form their own families. Others are willing to try relationships not for the long haul but as moments for them to find themselves. 

Others are still single not by choice but because they do not have a choice. 

And the life conditions of today's youth remain complex: out-of-school youth, young people trafficked into sex slavery, youth in indigenous communities.  

The point is that youth have issues to confront. And these issues matter insofar as their view of family life is concerned.

As the Philippines and other developing societies change and aspire for development, new generations will be caught in what many sociologists would describe as anomic or alienating conditions. In my own research, I characterize the contemporary Filipino generation in terms of their structural isolation. 

They are isolated because of economic vulnerability, disillusionment with leaders and changing family arrangements.  

To me, the call for the wider ecclesial community is not only for theological clarity. The call is for greater pastoral understanding and engagement.

Theological lines will continue to be drawn and not just among bishops or theologians, but among young people themselves. 

Everyday theologies, for young people and adults alike, emerge out of their respective issues and contexts. It is for this reason that it may not be proper to simply identify the problem as inadequacies in the faith formation of young people.  

Although the document understandably calls for a more relevant "transmission of the faith", perhaps it is the pastoral side of ecclesial life that matters most for today's youth. Many of them are looking for authenticity.

At the end of the day, it is not only whether they have solid families that matters. It is whether the church itself is their family. That, it seems, is the ultimate test for the people of God.

Dr. Jayeel Serrano Cornelio is a sociologist of religion and the director of the Development Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University. Follow him on Twitter. A preliminary version of this piece was delivered as a reaction to Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila's talk on the Synod of Bishops on the family at the Ateneo de Manila University on Nov. 11.

  

Help UCA News to be independent
Dear reader,
Lent is the season during which catechumens make their final preparations to be welcomed into the Church.
Each year during Lent, UCA News presents the stories of people who will join the Church in proclaiming that Jesus Christ is their Lord. The stories of how women and men who will be baptized came to believe in Christ are inspirations for all of us as we prepare to celebrate the Church's chief feast.
Help us with your donations to bring such stories of faith that make a difference in the Church and society.
A small contribution of US$5 will support us continue our mission…
William J. Grimm
Publisher
UCA News
Asian Bishops
Latest News
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia