The New Catholic
With hundreds of thousands of Catholics expected to flock to Germany in August for World Youth Day, we brought together five young Catholics to talk about female priests, abortion, birth control, homosexuality, and what Pope Benedict XVI must do to inspire the next generation.
As the Roman Catholic Church's 20th World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, approaches, we asked young Catholics about their expectations for their church. Past World Youth Days have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to meet and share their faith. This year's festivities begin August 16, and Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a Mass to close the gathering on August 21. Among those who plan to be in Cologne are Alex Paiva, 20, of Fall River, a senior at Boston University, and Joe Tierney, 18, of Wellesley, a graduate of Boston College High School headed to Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, this fall. The Globe Magazine invited Paiva, Tierney, and three other young Catholics - Alison Bane, 21, of Manchester-by-the-Sea, a junior at Boston College; Shatica Chinn, 16, of Mattapan, a junior at Cathedral High School; and Diana Pelaez, 15, of Dorchester, a sophomore at the Academy of the Pacific Rim - to talk about their faith and the challenges facing their church.
PAIVA A lot of people in my generation have fallen away from the faith. Friends of mine who have been practicing Catholics go to college, and they just stop. If the church were to do more to appeal to us, revitalization would come from my generation. The church should not dumb down for the youth. A lot of them know more about the church and the faith than the church expects.
TIERNEY I run a lot of youth retreats at my parish, and a lot of the kids think a retreat is you kneel and pray the entire time. It's a lot more. It's about community building and understanding your faith, not being forced to pray all the time.
CHINN You see the old-timers coming to church, but you have to see new faces. The church needs to make going to church something you want to do, instead of something you have to do. The youth should be given a chance to stand out more in the church.
PELAEZ I love religion, I love going to church. I know if I had the chance, I'd become a priest. It's unfair that I can't. Women should be allowed to be priests and to have the same opportunities as men in the church. And priests should be allowed to marry.
BANE I agree with Diana. I would love women to be priests, and I would love priests to be able to marry and have children. The church has changed but not at the same pace as the rest of society. At the same time, it's hard to reconcile longstanding traditions. I understand and appreciate the values in the church - that's why I'm a Catholic - but the question becomes how the church modernizes and how it reaches out to our generation.
PAIVA Other Christian religions allow marriage [for clergy], and this is one issue I would like to see the church consider. When I was growing up, I served bishops and priests who'd say I'm so good in my faith, why don't I become a priest. And I would become a priest if I could get married at the same time. I know a lot of guys who wrestle with this issue. But as for the ordination of women, I've been brought up with Catholic education for 14 years, and I know that the doctrine says otherwise about that. But even though they may not be able to perform the sacraments, women could take a more active role in the church.
BANE It is a difficult issue. I was the first altar girl in my church, but that was a baby step. I understand historically why ordination of women hasn't happened yet, but women are equally capable.
CHINN The way I see it, the church sees more in a man than a woman, and I disagree with that. If it was left up to me, and I wanted to be a priest, I would go for it.
TIERNEY Ordination of women is a tough topic. I personally take a more conservative stance: This is the way things have been done for 2,000 years, so it might be worthwhile to stick with it. Jesus surrounded himself with women, and if he really thought women should be priests, it would mention it in the Bible somewhere. I agree with Alex that only men should be priests. If [marriage of priests] were to happen, you might gain a lot of progressive Catholics, but then you would lose the more conservative ones.
PELAEZ The way I see it, this issue of whether priests are allowed to marry gets to other problems, including the abuse issue. I guess some people lost faith in the church because of [the priest sexual abuse scandal]. At my school, some people made jokes about it. I'd get angry, but I wouldn't say anything.
PAIVA In my home diocese in Fall River, we had a problem with sexual abuse in the 1990s that was resolved. But then in recent years it became an issue again. It turned into a witch hunt, with everyone pointing fingers. It is harmful, but priests make mistakes. They're sinners, but they're also human. That's why God gave the gift of forgiveness.
BANE Being in a college setting, the topic involving the church that most of my peers talk about is birth control. I know a lot of Catholics who take birth control and have trouble with the fact they are doing that, and I know a lot of Catholics who are having sex and won't take birth control, and they are troubled by the risks they're taking. I guess that the church does not want to condone birth control because that may be seen as endorsing sexual activity among teenagers, but it's one of the most immediate issues facing the church.
PELAEZ Birth control should be allowed, because young people are having sex and there are diseases you don't want them to get.
PAIVA No teenager is ready to be a parent. If they're ready to engage in sexual activities, they should be ready to have a child. The church is not against all birth control - there is the natural family planning aspect of birth control. If it's properly taught and followed, it's perfectly functional for not risking pregnancy. And the numbers are on the rise of young people saying they want to wait until marriage to have intercourse.
TIERNEY On birth control, I don't think the church should be against it. But on abortion, I take a conservative stance. I'm prolife.
BANE My view on abortion has evolved since high school. In situations like rape, I am prochoice. I feel every woman should be entitled to that choice. That's something I have trouble reconciling with my faith, because I do understand the Catholic view on this and, personally, I could never have an abortion.
CHINN Birth control is needed. Nobody's ready at a young age to be a parent. But some kids I go to school with, they do things like that. But abortion? You lay up and have a baby, you should be able to take care of it.
PELAEZ I get why the church doesn't want abortion, but what if a girl gets raped? You can give the baby up for adoption, but then she's still having to carry the child of someone she didn't want to have sex with. That's not right.
PAIVA I've been very prolife my entire life. Whether it be rape, incest, sexual abuse, or whatever, it's still a life.
BANE One issue I wish that the Catholic faith were a little more open is being gay. I have a lot of friends who are gay, and a lot of them are also very strong in their Catholic faith. It makes me so sad at times that the church is so much more willing for me to engage in certain activities in a Mass than they can without the sense of alienation that they now feel. Their hearts are no different, their souls are no different.
PAIVA What's sinful is not the feeling or the tendency of the person to be homosexual. It's the act. Whether it's homosexual or heterosexual activity, both are against the church. Maybe I'm too conservative about it. Though it doesn't feel wrong, it's still sinful in the eyes of the church, and that's the definition I've been taught.
CHINN [Gay] people sometimes feel left out. It shouldn't be a sin just to feel something for someone.
TIERNEY I know people who are gay, and I'm fine with it. I'm for gay rights and things of that nature. This is one area where I don't agree with the church 100 percent.
BANE For whatever reason, attendance has been going down a lot in our parish. Has that been the experience in your parishes, too?
PAIVA At BU, we offer three Masses every Sunday. The contemporary one, which is later at night and reaches out more to youth, is far better attended.
CHINN Attendance had been going down at our church, too, but since we found out [in June] that our church is going to stay open, attendance and collections have gone back up.
BANE There needs to be more direct communication.
CHINN I have friends who wonder why I do as much as I do with the church. I tell them I want to help out my church. It's not about going out every week with your friends. You can do something religious in your life, too.
PAIVA I run into that, too. I know people who get into service projects just to build up their resume or because they have a community service requirement, not because it's driven by faith. But for others, they do service because it's a faithful thing.
TIERNEY I say, "How can you judge something if you haven't tried it and haven't experienced it for yourself?" The church in my town doesn't have to reach out. The offer is on the table. It's whether people want to accept it.
Phil Primack is a freelance writer in Medford. His last article for the magazine was about Haymarket. E-mail him at pnprimack@yahoo.com. 