Lent and the "Millenial Catholics"

This week began the season of Lent, a period of fasting and prayer and preparation for the Western Christian Church. It is considered a time of renewal for the Church in it's journey up to the Resurrection celebration of Easter.

Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholic Christians to rediscover this renewal by practicing the traditional "penitential weapons" of prayer, fasting and works of charity .

"Jesus indicates the useful instruments needed for authentic interior and community renewal: the works of charity or alms giving, prayer, and penitence or fasting," the pope said.

These practices should be performed to please God and not to gain people's approval, he said. He also pointed out that fasting should not be motivated by physical or aesthetic concerns, but by the need for "inner purification and detoxification from the contamination of sin and evil."

The needs of the Church are on the minds of many as it moves into it's most inward season. In recent Gallup polls there appeared to be some stark differences between certain Catholic groups regarding church teachings.

While young adult Catholics have a strong Catholic identity, they do not feel much of a commitment to the institutional church or its moral teachings. This assessment came from sociologists James D. Davidson of Purdue University and Dean R. Hoge of The Catholic University of America at a forum earlier this month at Georgetown University.

Davidson and Hoge are co-authors with William V. D'Antonio of Catholic University and Mary L. Gautier of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown of "American Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church" The book, which is to be published in late March by Rowman & Littlefield, analyzes Gallup surveys from 1987, 1993, 1999 and 2005, and finds that Catholics born after 1979, in what the authors call the "millennial generation," have significant differences from previous generations of Catholics. And they say these differences that are unlikely to change when they marry and have children.

"There's a disconnect between them and the institutional church," said Davidson. "And when they get older, they are not going to be like the Catholics of previous generations. They are going to be the Catholics they are now."

Hoge said this "disconnect" might be provoked by the fact that many of the young diocesan priests who will serve the millennial generation are moving toward a more strict application of some church teachings. And they are more likely to adhere to the "cultic" model of priesthood as "a man set apart" than to the "servant-leader model" favored by the majority of older priests.

The case in point is while 94 percent of priests 35 or younger said they believe ordination confers "a permanent character making (the priest) essentially different from the laity," only 70 percent of priests ages 56-65 said that. When asked whether the church "needs to move faster in empowering laypeople in ministry," 86 percent of the priests ages 56-65 and 54 percent of the youngest priests agreed.

Referring to the forum's theme, "Young Adult Catholics: Believing, Belonging and Serving," where the authors spoke recently, Davidson said, "Belonging is not a problem; they feel comfortable calling the church home. And I don't think serving is a problem. It's the believing that's the problem." Young adult Catholics see the church as having "no credibility, no plausibility, no authority," he added. "They practice their faith by caring for other people."

Catherine Heinhold, a campus minister and director of the Catholic retreat program at Georgetown, said many students believe "it is more important to serve the poor than to go to Mass" but they also feel "a very real, deep desire to grow in their faith and spirituality."

"They respond well to outreach and they are really hungry for God." said Sister Mary Carroll Kemp, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and a ninth-grade religion teacher at Gonzaga College High School in Washington. She added that although community service and retreat programs at the Jesuit-run school are not obligatory, "everyone wants to do them."

The most important element of the service programs and retreats is the time spent in faith-sharing and reflection each day, "talking the talk about Jesus, the Gospel and God.", she said.