When I went to the National Youth Ministry Summit this summer one of my favorite papers was on the pendulum swings in youth ministry by Charlotte McCorquodale. I think the concept can be applied to many things including the expression of our Catholicism. It may be the result of the complexity of the Paschal Mystery. Our Catholic Mass is both the memorial of Jesus’ sacrifice and the celebration of God’s love. Those can be two different extremes.

Regardless of one’s personal taste I think we, youth ministry leaders, have a duty to share the full breadth of Catholicism with young people. Otherwise we are doing them a disservice, especially when it comes to our worship. That’s the beauty of Catholicism ~ we have something for everyone.

We are living in a particularly challenging time in our church – the sexual abuse scandal. The trust in hierarchical leadership is understandably damaged. At a time like this there is a tendency to revert to the past or to past practices ~ a pendulum swing. There is a sense of comfort in that. However we must be careful with this tendency. Comfort does not make something right.

Young people are disaffiliating from the church, and the median age is 13. We cannot neglect this fact. The recent Pew Research shows less people joining organized religion than ever before. The numbers are slapping us in the face. This is not the time for pendulum swinging and we cannot rest on our laurels (given the scandal our laurels are diminishing daily.) This IS the time to offer ALL people the full breadth of Catholicism and not our personal favorite version of it.

Peace,

Denise