25 and Catholic
A few weeks back, I went to an event with the Archdiocese of Chicago, where the guest speakers were Mark Wahlberg and Cardinal Blasé Cupich. I’ll admit that I left slightly disappointed, and found myself wondering in the days following what it is young adults need to see from the church.
So in the midst of my pondering, I put together a little survey and sent it to a couple dozen friends who expressed an interest in helping me out. At the time, my plan was to put together a single article—but plans have changed as I’ve realized just how many answers stem from this simple question of where young adults fit into a modern Catholic Church.
I expected responses that fell in line with some of my personal thoughts on the topic, because that would make sense—I am, after all, a young adult Catholic, so I didn’t find this especially surprising.
But what DID surprise me was how the answers I received—regardless of the age, sex, or background of each individual—seemed to all fall perfectly in line with one another across the board. It was almost incredible—rather, providential—how everyone was in complete agreement about what it is young adults want, need, and have to offer the Church today.
I personally worry that young adults are sort of a missed ministry. The majority of us have run our course with orgs like Lifeteen and FOCUS, but haven’t quite reached the spouse/parent demographic yet (although many of us would like to be there soon). As a result, we’re awkwardly floating in the middle, desiring to find where we fit but struggling to do so. We don’t fit with college students or spouses/parents because, quite simply, that isn’t who we are—young, single, Catholic adults are a group entirely our own.
As young adult Catholics, we need the Church—to guide our discernment, to facilitate fellowship, to foster community, and ultimately, to nourish our spiritual growth.
But just the same, the Church needs us—to serve in our singleness, to inject energy into our parishes, and to ignite the new evangelization with the beauty of our youth.
This call is so prevalent to young adult Catholics and now, more than ever, the world needs us to answer it. In this series, I’m going to delve deeper into everything I mentioned above, so I hope that you’ll join me. Subscribe! Like my Facebook page! Do whatever you need to do to ensure you won’t miss a post, because I promise, you guys—IT’S ABOUT TO BE LIT.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In