During today’s session of Becoming Catholic (also know as RCIA or OCIA), I found myself leading a discussion was a table composed entirely of college men. The reports than men are leading the wave of converts is certainly true in my parish. I’d say about 55-60 percent are male.
Todays topic was the Catholic Church itself, and its claims to being the true Church of Jesus Christ (a common claim). It was a good discussion, and a few comments struck my emblematic of what is driving today’s youth to know more about Catholicism.
One young man talked about wanting to learn more about Christianity and God, and so he went to a very prominent Protestant church located just across the street from the North Campus, and very much sharing the same architecture that hearkened back to an Old World university. However, once inside, it was very different.
There were rainbow flags everywhere, and the minister was a woman, which did not sit well with him. The sermon wasn’t about God at all, but entirely focused on Trump. He could not leave fast enough.
Of course, social activism has always been tied to questions of faith, but faith has never been so alienated from Christian tradition. The Anglican Church embodies this, denigrating its role in outlawing the slave trade in order to signal its virtue. One wonders when it will apologize and pay reparations for all the churches and cathedrals it stole and continues to use. I won’t hold my breath.
Another topic that came up was the challenge of maintaining personal holiness in today’s social environment. I naturally quoted St. Augustine: “Lord, make me chaste, but not just yet!” to universal approval. Many already knew it.
I remarked that I was a convert and in college had behaved quite badly, very much using the non-denominational Christian “easy button.”
I then remarked that one of my friends back then was a cradle Catholic, and tried to be true to his faith. Years later, when I entered the Church, he sourly remarked that he had kept his nose clean while I had been a wild man and yet we were both equally as saved. Not fair at all.
I pointed out that while that may be true, I still behaved badly, and there are people who saw me do it, which is embarrassing and humbling. Better to keep one’s nose clean. Of course, that was also a time when cameras were much more scarce and used film, so as a last resort, one could chase down the miscreant shutterbug and expose the film.
Another overriding theme is that the Catholic Church, for all its flaws and failure, has stood the test of time. In an age where “to big to fail” brands are taking right and left, I think the endurance of the Church really stands out.
Young people today are adrift in moral relativism, and that need something to hold onto. They are watching as one Mainline Protestant denomination after another is collapsing into schism, which the Church placidly sails on, and that is very appealing.
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