There is much talk of young people having abandoned the Church, but there is also a significant element of the Church having abandoned the young people.The young professionals of today want a Church in which committed and reflective believers can play an active and decisive role.
Today, the Church as a pillar of faith is largely absent in the lives of young people.
There is no doubt that it needs to progress.
It needs to find new ways of being relevant in the world, of speaking to young people, of challenging an increasingly materialistic view of the world and of influencing the debate on justice and peace.
One young man to whom I spoke gave up going to Mass a long time ago. He said, "I haven't been to Mass in years -- only for weddings, funerals
and the odd christening. I find the sermons boring and too passive. The Church needs to redefine itself, it needs to modernise. I've pretty much become an atheist. But I'm a hypocrite because I'll be looking to get married in a church and baptise my kids. I suppose you can say I'm a fair- weather Catholic."
Another young man who feels the Catholic Church needs to reform said, "The Church is an absolute joke. Yes, it does a lot of good, but it needs to be radically modernised. It needs to join the 21st century. It has become detached from the people, and the people are the essence of the Church."
One young woman shared his frustrations. She said, "I am deeply disillusioned with the Catholic Church; it's stuck in its ways. It hasn't moved with the times, and because of this it is losing out big-time.
"It refuses to change the mass to make it more interesting for young people, to allow women to become priests, or to change its stance on abortion and gay marriage. It doesn't listen to any argument other than what it has believed in for thousands of years. The Catholic Church is in a great position to get people back, but it doesn't seem to care. Times have moved on and the institution needs to move on too -- or face the prospect of being wiped out.
"I have stopped going to Mass because it offers me nothing. I see it as a waste of an hour on a Sunday morning. That said, if I felt that that one hour was spent as a celebration -- similar to that in the USA -- then I would certainly attend Mass. The ceremony at the moment is too boring, that's the bottom line."
To address these issues, I approached Fr Mattie O' Farrell, Rector Ecclesiae of Kinsealy Parish, who has a good relationship with the youth in the Malahide, Portmarnock and Kinsealy areas of north Dublin.
He said, "I honestly think there is an increase in hope and a positive coming back among the young towards the Church. We have rounded the bend. Of course there is some disillusionment with the institutional Church, but I feel young people still believe in God, want to know Jesus and want to live with his peace, love and hope in their lives.
"The more materialistic society becomes, the more people feel the need to search for the inner life and the spirit. There's a space in all our lives that only God can fill. We cannot call ourselves Christians if we are not trying to have some sort of a rel-ationship with Jesus, because this is the whole essence of Christianity."
Fr Mattie continued, "Young people don't really know Jesus. They have gone through primary and secondary schools and they never really got to know the person of Jesus. We are all searching for meaning in our lives; it's the basic desire in all of us."
Fr Mattie believes young people tend to recapture their faith when at their most vulnerable. "In their darkest moments, they reach out to anyone who can help. With all the counselling and psychology out there, I firmly believe a priest has something more to offer young people.
"Also, young people come back to the Church when they get married. They want their children to have the sacraments and all the opportunities and graces and blessings that they had themselves in their upbringing."
Fr Rory Halpin is director of Sli Eile, a Jesuit organisation that provides a wide range of faith and justice activities for young adults aged 18 to 35. He suspects that the majority of young people would use the words "irrelevant" and "out of touch" to describe the Church today. He believes that while the basic message of the Church won't change, the way in which the Church expresses itself is vital.
He said, "The number of young people attending Mass is falling because they feel it is expressed in a language that is alien to them.
"We have some experience in trying to do things a little differently. I've spent the last seven years working on the Gospel Mass in Gardiner Street on Sunday evenings, and it attracts a significant number of young adults. We have great, often contemporary, music. Secondly it has good, clear and well-prepared preaching.
"People feel welcome and often stay on for a cup of tea or coffee to meet and chat. There is a liturgy group consisting of young adults who creatively prepare the Mass beforehand with the priest. There is an input and a shaping of the Mass by the very age group we want to reach. This approach gives a sense of ownership, so the Mass is not just the priest's but theirs too.
"Finally, there is an informality about the Mass that suits young people, and a real joy, particularly in the music, that leaves people feeling uplifted. There is a challenge to go away and live what they have heard."
Seamus Lynch, author of Cast Out into the Deep: Attracting Young People to the Church (Liffey Press), explains how the Church needs to meet teenagers "where they're at".
He said, "What teenagers really want is a bit of humour, for their ideas to be listened to,
and for the Church to start embracing youth culture and technology.
"Young people need to be reminded that Catholicism is endorsed by many people and things they already love. Look at the best soccer player in the world, Kaka, a deeply religious man. The Church needs to start pointing out its relevance and popularity, because there are enough people keenly pointing out the opposite story. There is a big PR job to be done.
"Young people will give anything a chance. With the internet there's a brilliant sense of community, and the Church should be looking seriously at that. Unfortunately, the Church is operating on a time-lag with respect to technology."
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