La Salette and Youth – What’s happening today?

In ministering with youth today, we need to get initial information from those who are scientifically up-to-date in this area.

The professionals at Springtide Research Institute in Winona, Minnesota, a non-Denominational Research Institute with a solid reputation, concentrate their research on the inner and outer lives of young people. They seek to understand how these youth experience community, identity, and meaning. They exist at the intersection of religious and human experiences in the lives of young people. They listen well.

In 2021, they studied young people aged 13-25 and how they responded to the uncertainty that lay before them. They studied over 10,000 young people: There is good and bad news.

There is some good news and some bad news . . .

The bad news first: In the past, young people turned to their faith – a faith we’d recognize – in times of uncertainty, but the current batch is not doing this, at least not in the ways we usually understand. Most are not turning to traditional religious institutions to help them navigate. 40% of the Catholic youth surveyed have no connection to a Catholic religious institution.

Now the good news: Although they are not turning to religious institutions and practices, generally, 71% consider themselves somewhat religious and 78% somewhat spiritual. This is a considerable number who are at least open to it. With Catholic kids, 87% considered themselves religious (again, perhaps not by our terms), and 85% said they are spiritual. Only 26% said they use their faith to guide them when confused. Only 21% say they are part of a Catholic religious community.

Yet most do not look to religious institutions to help them navigate this period of uncertainty brought on by economic upheaval, the pandemic, racial discord, political upheaval, and bickering within all denominations.

What did the young people not want and want?

They aren’t looking to be “fixed” or, in religious terms, “saved.” Just 52% of young Catholics said they don’t want to be told the answers but want help finding them. And 48% of young Catholics said, “The church just tries to fix my problem rather than just being there for me.”

The report says: “Instead of people who decide for them, young people look for people with whom they can discuss big decisions and feel empowered to make the right one. Instead of solutions, they look for relationships with people who will see them through to the other side of uncertainty, whatever that other side looks like.”

More good news: When all young people are looked at as an aggregate, those with some sense of religious/spiritual identity are doing better emotionally as they face uncertainty. It’s important to remember that young people today feel and think that almost every institution with whom they interact has let them down. From their perspective, most believe institutions are about self-preservation and not about caring for them.

A lesson from the pandemic

Most kids reported that when things were most confusing, disorienting, and demanding for them, no one from the church community reached out with a simple “How are you doing?” or “Do you need anything?” Just when kids (and, of course, people in general) needed extra care, we were cutting back on youth ministry budgets because they didn’t meet during the height of the pandemic.

Perhaps we should have cut something else, expanded our youth ministry budget, and done more person-to-person outreach. This study found that only 6% of Catholic kids reported someone from the church had reached out to them during Covid. Understandably, friends and family are in the #1 spot to help them. School staff (including coaches) come in second at about 25%.

Why do they choose a school or sports activities over church connections?

Don’t be surprised when you hear that they have put together their own rituals, practices, and prayers from all sorts of sources that get them through.

Their study said that young people are ‘bundling’ their faith in very different ways, but here are four areas from which we can learn:

• first: curiosity (room for their exploration);
• second: wholeness (integrate all they are into one person);
• third: connection (with others and the divine) and ...
• fourth: flexibility (move beyond the rigid).

One last important point from the study: youth are looking for people to accompany them because they have value, but if they sense that you are trying to get them into a church or back to Mass, it will confirm the youth’s belief that church people are interested more in the institution than with them as persons.

Youth and the La Salette Apparition

The setting for the time of the apparition: It was a time of great uncertainty. Just after the French Revolution of 1789, everything was up for grabs. Few people were going to church. There was considerable distrust of religious institutions, and in France in 1846, secularism reigned supreme! (Sound familiar?)

The bright light of the globe of light surrounding Mary disorients the two children. This is much like our many technologies can be overwhelming and disorienting to the youth of our day. Recent studies have shown the damage Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok have on young people. Our starting point has to be that our young people start from a disorienting environment.

Honest and authentic personal invitation: Mary said: “Come nearer, my children.” Most youths join things because someone invites them to something outstanding. Whether it’s the soccer team, scout troop, band, or dance team, it comes through personal invitation. It is towards something good, worthwhile, filled with “great news.”

We have some great news: What is our great news? “We are here to minister to them.” We are here to guide them through uncertain times, offering support and direction. This is just how Jesus ministered. He took people as they were – preached to them, healed them, and was there for them. Most didn’t follow him.

Don’t be afraid: Do we dare to be like Mary, and just invite: “Do not be afraid” The invitation has to be to a very safe place. Of course, this place needs to be physically safe – and we all have sexual abuse in the front of our minds. But kids need to know they don’t have to be afraid while with us.

Creating a Safe Place

Mary speaks to the two
children at La SaletteDo we give our youth room to talk about their budding sexuality without being beaten down with doctrine? Is it safe to speak with us about their troubles at home, financial or emotional concerns? Creating a safe space for young people to explore their own lives is essential. Young people today want to be accompanied, not fixed. Once they felt safe and accepted as they are, one can draw from the wisdom of the church, based on 2000 years of dealing with humanity. It’s hard to let go of” “This is how it is” and move to “This is what we’ve learned,” but it has greater appeal than overly doctrinal.

Mary gave the kids a safe space. Shouldn’t we do the same? Let them explore and report, and you, as the caring adult, help them make sense of their lives. I have always found kids eventually come around to: “What do you think?” They'll take your words very seriously if you have made them feel important, respected, and safe.

Let me try (to say) it a different way:

Youth Culture is constantly changing. You all know that Facebook was the hot thing five years ago, and now the kids barely look at it. It’s where my grandparents go. It’s all Instagram and Tic Tok now. Several years ago, a student came up to me during an activity and said, “Father, this is really dope.” I had to ask, “Is that good or bad.” I was relieved when he said, it’s good, Father, it’s really dope.”

Mary starts her message in formal French; she soon notices that the kids don’t understand. She says, “Let me try it a different way.” We often speak the exact words but use them differently or have other imports. Right now, we all know Transgenderism  is in the news everywhere. We often want to talk about it from the point of view of Christian doctrine. Yet I have found the students want to talk about terms of relationship; for example, they know someone who is struggling with it, and what they hear is a non-understandable lecture (like formal French) about church teaching. Still, as one kid told me about her friend, “She is hurting right now. Why can’t the church hear her pain?”

The one constant in life is change . . .

Cultures change, and we need to change too. In 1945, my aunt was a student nurse at Worcester City Hospital. That winter was fierce. A young freshman from Holy Cross came down with pneumonia; he was from Jamaica. As she cared for him, she fell in love with this dark-skinned man. It was against the law for them to marry, so when they finished school, they picked up and returned to Jamaica. It took until the late 1960s before it was allowed, and many Catholic Clergy talked about how it was unnatural. Now today, we see interracial couples in ads on television. At La Salette, Mary tells us to be ready for change.

Mary announces to us that change (or conversion) is possible:

Kids often think they are stuck. Mary reminds us that conversion is possible and leads to good things. First, she paints the world as it is: not many at Sunday Mass: only older people; people run like dogs for meat during Lent. But she reminds us that if we convert to the way of Christ, there will be abundance.

Share her message:

There’s still hope for our future. We aren’t stuck in what looks like a dire situation. Kids need to know that the broken relationship, the flunked class, the crashed car, and the arguments with parents aren’t necessarily permanent. And we also need to spread her message, as she said: “Make my message known to all my people.”
Overview of La Salette Shrine on the Holy Mountain in France