May 17, 2008
Young adults share concerns about their
faith with Bishop Soto
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto listens to Annie Swanson, a member of the Newman Catholic Community, while parishioner Jesse Plant listens in. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
Why do so many young adults turn away from the church?
Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto wants to know why. So he recently convened some college students from the Newman Catholic Centers in Sacramento, Chico and Davis, as well as from the University of Sacramento, to listen to their opinions and probe their ideas about what draws young people to the church and what pushes them away.
At the informal gathering April 23 at the Newman Center that serves California State University, Sacramento, the bishop asked the students in attendance to consider not just college students involved or not involved with campus ministry but also “young people who aren’t in college, who are working, are married, are not married, are living together. How do we reach out to them?” he asked.
“Young people are hungry for the truth,” said one student. “We turn on the radio, we turn on the TV, and we are lied to across the board.”
A consumer-driven, media-dominated culture works against an encounter with Jesus Christ, many students said. They argued that understanding the theological reasons for church teaching are crucial, both for Catholic college students and for Catholic adults in parishes. They recommended Bible study groups and community outreach presentations with excellent speakers on church teachings.
Some students said events that draw large crowds are appealing, such as World Youth Day and the yearly Los Angeles Religious Education Conference. One student explained that it was a life-altering experience to be among “thousands of people saying the ‘Our Father’ at the same time in different languages.” Another student agreed, noting that in his experience “there were so many people around me, believing the same thing I believe, that I thought ‘maybe this isn’t so crazy!’”
The meeting began with a core group of nearly two dozen college students and Newman community leaders and expanded to include other members of the Sacramento Newman Catholic Community at an evening Mass and dinner. The gathering concluded with a freewheeling question-and-answer session with the bishop.
That discussion included questions about balancing church and state interests, the possibilities inherent in looking at the movement of people from place to place as the work of the Holy Spirit, the overall decrease in religious vocations, and the difficulty of getting the pro-life and social justice groups in parishes to work together.
Part of the discussion focused on how the church can expand its use of new technologies to reach out to young people. The bishop said he is very interested in the the answer to that question. “We are dealing with a technological revolution,” he said, noting that the Internet brings as radical a change in communication and culture as the printing press that revolutionized the church in the 16th century.
One student asked Bishop Soto pointedly about the clergy sex abuse crisis, saying that she was ashamed when non-Catholics brought up the subject. He answered her questions patiently and thoughtfully, and advised her that the best response when non-Catholics ask is to discuss the crisis openly.
Earlier in the evening, the bishop had reminded the students that when he became coadjutor bishop of the Sacramento Diocese, he joined Bishop William K. Weigand in being responsible all young people throughout the diocese. The disconnection between young people and the church concerns him very much, he said.
“You are important to me,” he told them.
As he listened to each student and answered each question, late into the evening, his actions said it again.
