Catholic. Social. Teaching.

Full disclosure: I'm thinking seriously about writing something (a book? not sure if I'm feeling bold enough to claim that quite yet) about Catholic social teaching specifically for young adults. The precise resource I've been searching for these many months doesn't seem to exist, and I can't tell you how many people I've talked to this summer who've said, "There's a book waiting to be written here" on the intersection between Catholic social teaching and young adult ministry. So I've been doing a lot of thinking on what such a book might look like.

I believe the very phrase "Catholic social teaching" can speak directly to young adults. First, so many 20- and 30-somethings in the church are searching to know precisely what it means to be "Catholic." What is our Catholic identity? What sets us apart? What does our tradition claim as truth? As one young adult in a faith-sharing group said to me, "what makes us not-Lutherans?" The post-Vatican II generations are hungry for solid catechesis, and their spiritual longings give voice to a deep desire for knowledge.

Second, young adults - and indeed all humans - are "social" beings. We are created for community, made in the image of the Trinity. We are not made to be alone. When we lack community or real connections to others who share our values, goals and hopes, we suffer from loneliness. Many young adults live this loneliness every day; in a world where geographic mobility is increasingly the norm, people feel rootless and connect on virtual social networks rather than meeting their next-door neighbors. But Catholic social teaching reminds us precisely what it means to live in community: to look to others' needs before our own, to see our neighbors as brothers and sisters in Christ, indeed to see Christ our Lord in the most unlikely faces in our society. The "social" aspect of Catholic social teaching keeps our faith communal, prevents us from seeking individually crafted truths that disregard the depths of our tradition, and challenges us to keep searching for what it means to live as the Body of Christ.

Third, "teaching" is a fantastic word - a gerund. The once-English major in me has always adored gerunds: both nouns and verbs (both/and - how Catholic!), gerunds convey ongoing action and dynamism. Looking back over past posts in this blog, I noticed that many of the titles use gerunds. I think I'm drawn to these lovely "-ing" words because I'm still in the process of working out many of my thoughts around these subjects. Catholic social teaching is no different - it is not ancient dogma, carved in stone. It is active and ongoing, as our popes, bishops, and theologians continue to think about the social call of the Gospel and apply ancient truths to contemporary concerns. If young adults want relevance from church, Catholic social teaching is it. I'm starting to think that more of us should tell them...

Leisure Time

I'm in New York City this week, on the final leg of my summer journey for the fellowship project. When I arrived this morning, I had the chance to wander around Central Park before my meetings began. Gazing out at all the New Yorkers sunning themselves in the July heat, I found myself thinking about young adults and leisure time. 

The way that we spend our "down time" says a lot about us. (The fact that many Americans barely know what "down time" is anymore, permanently glued to our email or Blackberries, says a lot about us as a culture!) But the choices we make in spending our weekends or vacation time reveal our priorities. Do we head for the hills and go camping in the great outdoors? Do we dream of lazy days by the beach? Do we visit family or friends? Do we ever do nothing at all?

Thinking about young adults and leisure time brings up many contradictions. Many 20- and 30-somethings aren't married and don't have children, so they seem to have less responsibilities and demands on their time - accordingly they should have lots of leisure time at their disposal. Yet our workaholic culture and the increasing hours of the workplace demand that those newest to the company put in long days to work their way up the ranks. Thus many young professionals feel the pressure to be available 24-7 and their vacation days go unused. Young families juggle two work schedules with day care and school schedules, and many can barely find the time or energy to make it to Mass on the weekends. 

What happens to us when we don't make time for leisure? Looking back to the first chapter of Genesis, we find God taking time for rest - a whole day! God works for six solid days, the work of creation that involves the total gift of God's self. Then God rests for a day and takes joy in the goodness of all that has been created. So God understands both work and rest, and models sabbath/leisure time for us as humans. Yet all-too-often, we think we are too busy, too overwhelmed, too needed, too financially constrained to take time for our own rest. 

The notion of reclaiming the Sabbath is utterly counter-cultural. Now it seems rare to find a shop that isn't open on Sunday, for shoppers' convenience! But I think our churches need to speak out about the importance of sabbath for our faith journeys. As humans created in God's image, we need time to rest, rejuvenate, and reconnect with the Spirit that is constantly inviting us into quiet, calm and peace. I wonder how many young adults even know how to rest and simply enjoy leisure time anymore, and what this could mean for their development as persons. The fact that many workers in our economy are not even able to take time off on the weekends or holidays brings up many questions of social justice: just wages, workers' rights, the common good. Efficiency and the financial bottom line are not always the greatest good when it comes to work serving the dignity of the human person.

Rocking the Vote

One of the biggest surprises of this election year for me has been the way that young people have turned out in droves to vote and get involved in the presidential campaigns. According to exit polls from the primary elections, voters aged 18-29 increased their turnout more than any other age group. Many analysts predict that young voters' participation in this fall's election will far surpass the increases set in 2004 and 2006.

Judging from what I hear from young adults and read in the news, it is Barack Obama's campaign that has particularly tapped into the young vote and motivated many young adults to political activism this year. But I also read an interesting commentary the other day noting that if one were to remove Obama's influence from the equation, young adults' use of the Internet would still play a significant role in their increased involvement in the political arena.

Facebook provides a perfect example. Politically-minded groups abound, from "1 million strong against Hillary" to "I endorse Barack Obama, and I'm telling my friends!" Young adults "friend" the politicians they support or proudly declare their party affiliation on their profile.  There are even religiously affiliated Facebook groups: "Catholics for McCain;" "Jews for Obama." 

Social networking sites provide a place for young adults to rally together (albeit virtually) with others who share their views or to argue with friends who disagree. As young adults' reading of newspapers continues to dwindle, the Internet has surged ahead as a source of information and forum for debate.

My concern is this: how are churches engaging young adults in questions of faith and politics? Many Christians struggle with how to vote from a standpoint of faith, but where do they get the information to make their choices? Our faith does call us to be involved in politics; in Catholic social teaching, popes and bishops have spoken out clearly about the need to work for justice through political systems. But churches need to help people understand how to form their consciences in faith in order to make sound political decisions. Churches certainly cannot support particular candidates or political parties, but neither can they sit back and let a new generation be formed by the kind of slanted information that seems to breed on the Internet.

So how can we reach out to young adults - on the Internet, where they are gathering and discussing and learning - and invite them to consider how their political involvement can be an expression of their faith?

Voices for Justice

All of you attentive readers may notice that I occasionally update the "Books I'm Reading" list (on the right side of the blog). I figure that if anyone else is interested in exploring the questions I'm raising, these books offer good places to start. But when I updated the list today, I suddenly realized, "Hmm. These are all written by men." Then I looked on my shelf of books for this fellowship project and thought, "Hmm. Almost all of these are written by men, too."

This is no shocking revelation for a woman studying theology or ministry. But it does make me think about the perspectives and voices we might be missing in this conversation. The majority of ministers I've met with this summer are women, yet most authors who are writing on these questions of young adults and/or Catholic social teaching are men. It's enough to make the gears start turning in a girl's head, that's for sure...

....

One of the exceptions to this trend is Carol Howard Merritt, author of Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation. Carol offers an interesting analysis of the economic situation facing today's young adults, and her perspective stands out among the many voices quick to criticize young people as entirely to blame for their financial woes:

"People in their 20s and 30s are in difficult situations. Knowing that they will never accumulate the wealth that their parents have, they wonder if they'll ever be able to pay off their school bills. They begin saving (or at least are told they should) for their children's college educations before they are even born, and they are aware that Social Security will probably not be around in the same way when they turn sixty-five, so they know they need to save more for retirement, if they ever have that luxury.

Young adults have taken to heart the advice to work harder. Now that this generation of 'slackers' has entered the workforce, people work longer hours than any other industrialized country. And while the productivity, or the amount that an average worker produces in an hour, has risen steadily, the median hourly wage for workers has declined [when adjusted for inflation]."

Merritt links this economic crisis to the spiritual crisis of many in "Generation Debt." She challenges churches to examine how they are guiding young adults through the stress and anxiety related to looming college loans, mortgages, and credit card debt:

"We can stop thinking of young people as purely materialistic and irresponsible, and begin understanding their larger financial situation. We can begin thinking about social justice for young adults, which includes requiring responsible lending by banks, increasing gutted government assistance for education, and pressuring corporations to boost wages and benefits."

I can honestly say that before I read Tribal Church, I was one of those quick to criticize many of my peers for what appeared to be living well beyond their means. But when I stopped to consider these facts - that people in my parents' generation could work during the summers and pay off their college tuition, that most rental markets are now so high that young adults must spend over 20% of their income on rent, that companies have cut back on health insurance benefits because of skyrocketing costs, leaving 30% of young adults uninsured - then I began to see that I hadn't appreciated the whole picture. 

It's a complicated economic situation. But it's a crisis that deserves to be acknowledged from the standpoint of both young adults and social justice. What do you think? How should our churches be involved to help young people navigate these waters?

Why Wait?

I'm in the middle of a fascinating read - After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion by Robert Wuthnow, a sociologist at Princeton. In contrast to many of the books I've been reading this summer that are explicitly about ministry to young adults, Wuthnow aims for a more unbiased, sociological analysis of how religious practices in America are changing as a result of Gen Xers and Millenials.

Wuthnow argues that one of the main reasons that fewer young people today attend religious services is because they are marrying later and having children later in life. Consider these statistics:

• Median age at which people married (for the first time): 1950 - 22.8 for men, 20.3 for women. 2002 - 26.9 for men, 25.3 for women. A difference of four/five years over a little more than a generation.
• Among men in their 20s in 1970, 59% were married; among men in their 20s in 2000, only 31 % were married. For women in their 20s, 69% were married in 1970 and 42% in 2000. Being married in your 20s used to be clearly the norm - not anymore.

Getting married and becoming a parent means that a young adult today is statistically much more likely to be a regular church-goer. Logically it makes sense that young adults who have made the commitment to marry and raise a family would be likely to seek the stability that a faith community provides and would want to pass along certain values to their children.

My question is this: why are most young adults delaying marriage? I think there may be a generational difference here between Gen Xers (roughly defined as those born between 1965 and 1979) and Millennials (born after 1980). Some social analysts note that Generation X was the first generation profoundly marked by divorce, and disillusion with the institution of marriage could be seen as a hallmark of many Xers. 

Millennials, on the other hand, might present another story. Anecdotally, most young couples I know in this age group are living together rather than getting married largely for economic reasons. They didn't want to continue paying two rents; it "made more sense" to live together; they are planning to get married in the future but want to save up for the wedding, as well as experience a "trial run" of what married life might be like. 

We can argue about the moral and religious dimensions of cohabitation all day long, but I think one aspect that is often overlooked in the debate is the economic factor. I'd be willing to argue that more young couples are living together for financial reasons than out of any outward rebellion against the institution of marriage. Many of the couples I've worked with on Engaged Encounter weekends are quick to offer finances as the reason they've delayed marriage - burdened by college loans or other debts, they decided to move into together to save on rent in the hopes of saving for their future together. 

What do you think? 

• Why are young people putting off marriage? 
• Is there a difference between Gen Xers and Millennials in regards to marriage? 
  
• What does this development mean for American society? 
• How could churches address the economic factors that drive young couples to choose living together over marriage?
  

Speaking the language of the young

In reading coverage from Sydney about Pope Benedict XVI's visit to World Youth Day, I learned that the Pope is sending daily inspirational text messages to pilgrims. His first text read: "Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI."

Benedict has been called the "techno Pope" by some, and apparently has an iPod with the papal coat of arms engraved on the back. You can see pictures of him projected onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge, grinning with iPhone in hand.

Hundreds of thousands of young people (at best estimates) have gathered in Sydney from all over the world, to celebrate their faith and their joy in being Catholic. The fact that Pope Benedict is reaching out to them on their own terms - on their cell phones! - speaks volumes about his desire to communicate with the young. Might this be an example for other leaders in the church to embrace technology as a way to reach out to young adults? 

Instead of blasting the new text-speak for being crude or dumbed-down, Benedict is learning from the young, speaking their language, and translating the Gospel into real life. His second text read: "the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles and gives u the power boldly 2 proclaim that Christ is risen! - BXVI." Talk about casting nets to draw young adults into the church! 

And young people have responded. (See above t-shirt.) When we received news of Pope Benedict's election, I wondered if he would be able to live up to the reputation of John Paul II who so dearly loved the young and whom young people responded to eagerly. I have been moved and surprised by the ways that Benedict has defined his own papacy, and the fact that his first address to the World Youth Day pilgrims touched on issues like consumerism, civil rights (of the Australian Aborigines), and climate change's devastating effects on the environment gives me much hope that he will continue to open up the social justice message of the Gospel for a new generation...

Stepping beyond our comfort zone

On June 20 I had the opportunity to attend the 2008 Eucharistic Congress in Atlanta, GA. I had never been to a Eucharistic Congress before and had only vague notions (perhaps prejudices, if I'm being honest!) about what it involved. The idea of gathering with 20,000+ Catholics in a huge convention center seemed to be "not my spirituality." But the women I met at the Archdiocesan Office of Young Adult Ministry were so excited about the event that their enthusiasm proved contagious. 

I attended the Friday night Healing Mass and the Revive! Young Adult track - two very different events. At the Healing Mass, I was surrounded by Catholics of every race and ethnicity, all joyfully praying in their own language for the physical or spiritual healing they came seeking from the Eucharist. At the Revive! Young Adult Track, I saw hundreds of young adults - again, of every background and walk of life - flood into a giant hall in the convention center. They sang and swayed to the band's praise & worship music like they were at a rock concert. They listened intently and laughed with Matthew Kelly's engaging talk on the crazy, stressful state of modern life and the need to seek silence to hear God's voice. And they prayed on their knees during a lengthy time of Eucharistic Adoration that filled the hall with incense and the pulsing beats of bass guitars and drums as the band rocked on.

No, it wasn't my spirituality in the least. But I had forgotten the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone within my own faith, to appreciate what other people believe it means to be Catholic. And I was surprised and encouraged by what it taught me - especially in the numbers of young adults who flocked to this Friday night event. 

So many of the young people I talked to that night told me passionately about how much Revive! has meant to them each year and how young adult ministry in the Archdiocese has given them a true home and community in Atlanta. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory (pictured above in a cool blurry photo) kicked off the Revive! event by reminding the crowd that "young adults are the engine that drives the train in the Archdiocese." What I witnessed at the Eucharistic Congress showed me just how much steam the Catholic young adults in Atlanta have behind them...

All who work for social justice, whether in a ministry setting or outside the church, are constantly involved in rubbing some people the wrong way. It's not easy to address unjust systems in society or to ask people to examine their own lives, habits, or presumptions. We read the books of the prophets and see that God's message of justice has never been easily accepted. But what is true and important is rarely easy. 

If I am asking people to step out of their comfort zones into the work of social justice, then I have to be equally willing to step out of my own places of comfort. What a gift it is for the Catholic Church to be made up of a People of God so diverse in culture, thought, and spirituality that we can challenge each other to be more open to the mystery of God's Spirit in our lives and world! Young adults are as diverse as the rest of the church, and if I hope to find ways to bring them into the church through social justice, then I must be equally ready to explore the paths that might not be my own instinct.

Bridging the Gap

When I was in Atlanta, I had the opportunity to meet with Martha Gaynoe from Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Martha spoke with me about the 2097 Concert Tour, a new effort between popular Catholic recording artists (including Matt Maher), Adore Ministries, and CRS. This is one of the best examples I've seen of how to bridge the gap between so-called "evangelical Catholics" and "social justice Catholics" - those who tend towards Eucharistic adoration and those who tend towards activism. 

The 2097 Tour combines an evening of praise & worship music, Eucharistic adoration, and teaching about solidarity through the sharing of stories about Catholic Relief Services' work worldwide. Martha said that the tour has been very successful across the U.S., and young people are responding particularly well to the presentation of fair trade as a concrete action for justice. Buying fair trade coffee, chocolates or clothing is a tangible way to "hook" young adults into Catholic social teaching. Martha noted that the global nature of fair trade also connects with young people's global outlook. 

Presenting the Church's teaching on solidarity as a natural and necessary outcome of devotion to Christ through adoration - which is becomingly an increasingly popular prayer form for young Catholics - shows young people who are passionate about their faith that social justice is indeed a central message of the Gospel. 

Martha said that her effort to bridge the worlds of evangelical Catholics and social justice Catholics is often a work of translation. People on both sides are unfortunately quick to dismiss the others - "that's not my spirituality." But the fact remains that both expressions of spirituality exist within our Church as faith-filled interpretations of the Gospel. So how can we stop tearing each other down, in the increasingly divisive state of the Catholic Church today, and begin to see that we need each other to form a complete expression of faith?

Our work for justice must be grounded in prayer, and our devotions must lead us to work for justice. In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI sums up this Christian truth perfectly - and in no uncertain language:

"Worship itself, Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn. A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented."

It's so encouraging to hear about efforts to bring together young Catholics of all perspectives and persuasions to work for justice as an expression of their faith. We may at times feel like drastically different parts of the same whole, but the Catholic Church has always been a big tent under which we all gather. My prayer is for more interpreters and translators like Martha who can continue to show us how we need each other in order to be the Body of Christ.