Young Adult Ministry, Chicago-Style

Yesterday I had the privilege to meet with Kate DeVries and Fr. John Cusick, the directors of Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Kate and Fr. John have been real leaders in the U.S. Catholic Church's ministry to young adults - they wrote The Basic Guide to Young Adult Ministry (pictured here) and helped to make Theology on Tap a successful model across the country of meeting young adults where they gather and engaging them in questions of faith. 

Both Kate and Fr. John have a great understanding of today's young adults and are committed to raising up young adults to leadership within the church. Kate and I talked at length about young adults' views of the Catholic Church and the widespread skepticism towards the institutional church. She said that in regards to many issues, "young adults are seeing the bigger picture where the Church isn't." This generation that was raised to view men and women as equals can't understand why the Church doesn't allow women to serve as ordained leaders. This generation that grew up with friends, family members, or they themselves "coming out of the closet" can't accept the attitude of "love the sinner, hate the sin" in regards to homosexuality. This generation that has never known a world without the Pill can't make sense of why the Church won't allow even married couples to plan their families in this way. Of course, many young Catholics have indeed reconciled their beliefs to the Church's stance on these issues and fully support such Catholic teachings. But for the numerous young adults who are not practicing Catholics, such issues can present serious obstacles in their coming to terms with Catholicism. How can we present the Church's teachings to young adults in loving, compassionate ways that invite dialogue and real engagement with such questions?

The Catholic social tradition presents another set of challenging teachings for young adults. Those who were raised in the 70s and 80s have in some ways known greater privilege than their parents or grandparents; they've been dubbed the "me generation" and criticized for their sense of entitlement. How can we teach a generation armed with cell phones, ipods, laptops and big-screen TVs what it means to opt for the poor? To live simply? To embrace an understanding of the common good in the way they spend their money?

Fr. John made a great point as we were talking about the option for the poor. He noted that what has happened in the U.S. Catholic Church is that we gave social justice over to politics, so people now assume it is only the domain of leftist, Democratic policies. This has done a disservice to conservatives - both political and religious - because the politicization of social justice means that it has become yet another issue to further polarize our church. However, the language of justice is now being used in debates surrounding issues like abortion and euthanasia (which people typically associate with religious conservatives), so this gives me some hope that social justice still can become a common ground where people on the right and left can meet. But there is much work to be done to teach Catholics that the call to opt for the poor and to work for justice within society's structures is not a political issue - it is the very heart of the Gospel itself.