Hats off to Amy Welborn. I could say that for a lot of reasons, but her straightforward-yet-penetrating insight into all the blather about the Catholic Church and its youth (e.g., youth are ignorant about their faith, youth don't care about their faith, etc.) is excellent. Check it out. Excerpts:
And when young adult Catholics leave the Church, where do they go? Most don't go anywhere, but those that do go somewhere, to another Christian body”¦where do they go? Repeat. Do they go to Christian denominations that are more liberal on these issues? . . .
In all of this academic posturing [a critic] neglects to mention the basic dynamics of young adulthood, which involve not only self-definition apart from family and parents but entrance into a busy world of work and social life that is unrelenting, busy and dedicated to creating the self as an adult in a secularist culture. It takes a lot for a young adult to see the Church as having anything to do with that. To a great extent the Church is responsible for young adults not seeing the Church as having much if anything to do with their real lives on this journey. But my point is that while some church bodies do prioritize this in their mission and do bring in young adults, all Christian church bodies are worrying about this now, because they all see essentially the same trends among young adults. . . .
I could go on, but I'll just finish by saying that articles like [this critic's] irritate me because they are either obtuse or disingenuous. What is his point? That the Catholic Church should, today, celebrate sex outside of marriage, abortion and start ordaining women, and that then young adults would start coming back to Church in droves?
No, I'm thinking they'd still be working ten hours a day and letting off steam with their friends afterwards, with Church as a faint memory and not a real object of desire or interest. But not because they're mad about the ordination of women. Rather because they don't see the connection between whatever spiritual yearnings they have and whatever church they came from. Their own liberal sexual practice (which is true of most of them) factors into that as a self-perceived obstacle, either out of guilt or conviction, but it's really only a symptom of something deeper.
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If this gets much worse, I'm going to give each of my kids their own special fast day. "Alex, you can't eat on Monday, Abbie on Tuesday, Jack Wednesday . . .". Good thing I have seven children to take up all the days of the week. I'd hate to go without food for a day: The U.S. is wrestling with the worst food inflation in 17 years, and analysts expect new data due on Wednesday to show it's getting worse.
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And his underwear was maladjusted, too: A Chinese martial arts expert pushed a truck full of adults 15 metres while wearing a pair of steel shoes twice his own weight.
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Dave Berryisms. Samples:
People who feel the need to tell you that they have an excellent sense of humor are telling you that they have no sense of humor.
If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.
