Part three of a series on various kinds of division in the Church.
Part one, on divisions between active, practicing Catholics is here.
Part two, on divisions between all those who identify as Catholics is here.
Once again, this is a post based on personal observation and is thus to a degree anecdotal. Constructive debate is very welcome.
The type of division I want to write about now is a division of age ranges or generations, although generations might be inaccurate since some of the ranges are on the narrow side.
I have noticed certain differences between various different age ranges vis-a-vis faith issues and I am going to try and tease them out.
Under Twelves
Children are usually very open to religious belief, but here in Ireland we have developed the practice of sending them to Catholic Schools, which are places where they are inoculated from the Catholic faith by being deprived of any knowledge of Jesus Christ or His Church beyond ‘God loves you, let’s sing ‘Circle of Friends’ together!’
I’m being glib, and to be fair there are a good number of genuinely Catholic primary school teachers who are doing a heroic job of trying to pass on the faith in a way that does not dumb it down. The problem here is that they are a minority and not concentrated enough, and many of their peers, probably a majority, do not share that faith and so children get the watered-down version that puts them off Catholicism for life unless exposed to the real thing.
Teens through Early Twenties
Teenagers are often quite open to the faith to a degree, but as they get older cultural pressure makes them more cynical. Still, I have noticed that there is something of a small renewal amongst this generation, helped by diocesan initiatives and especially groups like Youth 2000.
However, this generation above all is exercised about gay marriage and peer pressure can be particularly vicious when it comes to this topic. Only very strong-willed teenagers and young adults can resist this kind of pressure. University is particularly bad and there is a need for Catholic societies and chaplaincies in colleges that can reach out, although this is proving more difficult as time goes on and colleges grow more hostile.
This issue is a big stumbling block for reaching out here, although perhaps the key is to try and get them to have an experience of God and from experiencing His love move to moral teachings, showing how they are based in love in the first place.
Perhaps one solution is offering programs of learning the faith and volunteering where they can hopefully experience living in a young, committed Catholic setting whilst getting good formation in the faith, kind of a gap year before college. Catholic colleges have been suggested too but there are limitations to what these can do.
Mid Twenties through Early Thirties
There is something of a renewal in this age bracket as well, with many of the same causes as the bracket below it. Given the slightly more mature age range, I think it’s a bit stronger generally, although again not all involved in the Church at this age are completely orthodox.
Whilst there are many in this bracket who have embraced anti-Catholicism wholesale post-college years (Source: the comments section after any journal.ie article), and a fair number like those below them in age are into campaigning for gay marriage, I think that the dominant disposition in this group is apathy towards any kind of political involvement, at least in my experience.
The problem with this group I think is getting them interested in anything that is not material.
Mid Thirties Through Late Forties
I feel very, very sorry for practicing Catholics in this age range, as they are almost alone in a wilderness. I think that this range is the one that was most heavily hit by poor catechesis because they endured the worst of poor Catholic schooling but before there was any kind of revival. Post-Vatican II problems were at their height.
There are of course some fantastic dedicated Catholics in this age range, but my impression is that it’s thinner on the ground amongst these.
I’m not quite certain how to reach out to those who are lost here; I think that cultural Catholicism has become very ingrained.
Early Fifties through Late Sixties
This generation got the last of the decent catechesis in schools, and practice is still relatively high amongst them, although I imagine that a large proportion of those who are Practicing non-Active as described in the previous post fall into this category; the faith is cultural to a large degree but there are still many others who have been faithful all this time. I can only imagine it’s been difficult keeping the faith through those tough years of the late 80s/90s/00s as adults.
Seventy +
Similar to the previous group, although with higher again rates of practice, and even if it’s cultural to a degree I feel that it’s sometimes most genuine here. When I see some of this oldest bracket in church sometimes I’m struck by how much dedication they’ve shown coming all their lives through the difficult years.
Cooperation Between the Generations
One of my main points for bringing this up is that I think that one thing that can be lacking within the Church is cooperation between generations. Obviously, cooperation implies a sense of mission, which means I’m really talking about the Active Practicing here.
Now, it’s difficult sometimes to get younger people invested in something that’s dominated by older generations. It’s partly a modern phenomenon, I think, but it’s real and it has to be dealt with.
I know that as a young child I found it difficult to go to Catholic events where the next youngest people were a married couple in their late 30s, and the next youngest after that were in their fifties. It’s not very inspiring when you think that a particular thing has nothing whatsoever to say to people your age.
But I think that there’s a crucial difference between a group that is ALL from an older generation, which doesn’t attract teenagers/young adults on account of that generation’s need for company of their age, and a group that is of all ages, young and old, as one would imagine a parish or indeed any Church group should be.
We need to be able to work with all different age ranges and we can’t dismiss any of them. At the same time it takes a degree of formation to get out of a certain modern mindset that young people don’t speak to middle-aged or older people, which is why I think that groups like Youth 2000 are right to limit their age range, if only to cater for complete newcomers to the faith.
So I guess I’m talking more at those who are already committed and involved. We need to be willing to make the effort to bridge generation gaps. There can be a tendency to dismiss the elderly, which we see in a lot of younger, liberal campaigns where they dismiss ‘old, white males’ as though being old (or, indeed, white or male) is something intrinsically sinister.
Our age can often put youth on a pedestal but we forget that it is those who have been through life that have so much experience and still have much to offer, even if it is only their prayers when it comes to the Church. I sometimes feel a bit bad when young people are put to the front of things like pro-life demonstrations and so on. I understand that there’s a need to show that the movement has wide appeal, but I can’t help but feel that it’s treating our older members as though they’re already cold in the grave.
At the same time, many of the efforts local Church groups and authorities make to court ‘the youth’ are cringeworthy or plain stupid. (I heard of one parish which hired a militant atheist to be a parish youth coordinator on the basis that she was young and ergo would know how to get young people involved). People in their teens and twenties don’t want to be talked down to and a watered-down version of the faith does not attract them.
At the other extreme I have come across parishes that have resigned themselves to only ever having the elderly attend and everything advertised in the parish is for the over-65s as though the parish is a retirement club. One problem along these lines is that most parishes have stopped offering daily Masses apart from the 10am, which only those who are retired or on holidays can attend.
I have worked before in Church groups where every generation is working together. It’s a fantastic feeling of unity, for we are meant to be ONE Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, not a bunch of ministries targeting different age groups.
That said, as I pointed out in the beginning of the post, different approaches are needed for different age ranges, if only because of differences in the cultures surrounding those generations, as well as different needs.
(ADDENDUM: It occurs to me that I should probably try to tie this into the Four Camps post somehow, but I think that there’s a relatively even spread of ages in the different camps, except that the Liberal camp tends to be older, at least amongst those who are Active Practising)
By Grace and Banners Fallen 