Birds, Bees, Youth,
Youth Masses and Yutes
by Irenaeus
When I was in elementary school about ten years ago, sex
ed was taught throughout Grades 6 to 8 in the Catholic Ontario school system, during puberty, at precisely the time we needed it. When we weren’t watching
informative videos on the reproductive systems or labeling diagrams of said
reproductive systems, we were given relative freedom to ask our burning
questions about fertilization and the like. Never once did I ask – or hear
anyone else do the same – when women and men should have their first child.
Until now.
In preparation for the much-hyped 2018 Synod on the Youth, Faith and Vocational
Discernment, Il Vaticano has aggressively pushed for youth aged 16 to 29 to
complete a survey which promises to “provide [them] with the opportunity to
communicate, express and recount who you are and what you want to say about
yourself.” It’s being lauded on social media as the best thing to happen to
Catholic youth since sliced bread.
Newsflash: it’s not. And it’s time to stop treating
youth like they need special treatment.
In addition to the odd question I mentioned above, the
survey asks youth to rank characteristics they feel they consider themselves to
possess on a 1-5 rating. Or rank their satisfaction with certain institutions.
Indicate their sentiments about the working world. Explain why they live with
their parents. Why they are unable to have children. If they involve themselves
in society through “movements of some type.” If they are Catholic, and how
often they participate in “religious services.” Use certain words to describe
God. Describe their view of Jesus. Rank only three things (out of nine!) which
they consider to be “of particular urgency for the Catholic Church today.” Describe
their habits on “the social network” and view of its importance. You get the
picture.
I have a couple questions of my own for the people who
put this together, and make it look like it came out of Angus Reid. Who cares?
Why is there such a willing desire to dumb things down and appeal to more than
Catholic youth? Why do the youth deserve an entire synod devoted just to them?
I’ll tell you why: it’s because the youth have been
indoctrinated to think they are special in the Catholic Church and will somehow
become its saviours.
Hear me, fellow youth: You’re not. And we already have
a Savior. His name is Jesus Christ, Supreme Creator and King of the Universe.
Take it from me. I’m in my early twenties – fitting the
demographic range targeted for the survey – and I spend regular time with
people who are at least ten years my senior who aren’t my parents. On a weekly
basis. We talk about serious matters affecting the Church, and discussions are
passionate. I’m spoken to as though I am older than I actually am. Things
aren’t watered down for me because I’m younger. I’m given the straight up truth
and I regularly peruse other materials to bolster my knowledge. In short, I am
taken seriously.
Unlike the survey, which slathers on a veneer of
respect in order to coerce youth to agree with its modernist, progressive,
Novus Ordo-based ideology.
What deceit. What duplicity. Like those youth Masses
which are all the rage. With its guitars. Pop-based music. Priests who step out
of the sanctuary in order to connect more with the youth, with horrible,
simpering sermons to boot. Along with a host of other abuses I’m not going to
mention. The youth may come out, but how many actually stick with Catholicism
past high school? Regularly attend Mass once they move away from home? Not
become apostates? Or otherwise succumb to destructive ideologies currently
running rampant on post-secondary campuses? Though there are some, it’s not as
many as the droves of youth who come to your Saturday youth Masses, pastors and
youth ministers.
As a youth, I stopped attending those Masses long ago.
They are disrespectful to our Lord. They are also disrespectful to the youth,
who come there looking for something solid and immutable when their lives are
in a swirl of change. They don’t get that in Masses that blatantly ignore the
reason we have a Mass in the first place. They don’t get that by being taught
watered-down, Protestantized Catholic tenets, which ill-equips them for the
real world, which is so anti-Catholic. They don’t get that in youth groups,
where they are basically forced to agree with what everyone else is saying,
even if they personally don’t. Quite simply, they don’t carry on the faith as
they should when they receive “primacy of place” in a place where they
shouldn’t. Back when I was a Novus Ordo Catholic, I was involved in these
things, and it sickens me I used to think youth were the saviours of the Church.
Pastors and youth ministers, are you willing to take
me up on a challenge?
Abolish youth ministry. Get rid of Lifeteen. EDGE. The
horrible Alpha program. Pluck the youth Masses out of the Mass schedules.
Disband the youth bands. Trash all the terrible, modernist music. Like a
particular Jesuit who appears on this blog, you’re losing more souls than
you’re saving. In the vacuum that results, have the Mass of the Ages – the
Tridentine Latin Mass – and nothing else. Restore Gregorian Chant. Polyphony.
Institute a rigid catechesis program. Teach yourself the many abuses of the
Mass – anything that diminishes the sacred – and eradicate them.
It won’t be immediate. Or easy. But the return will be
more than you’re getting now. Believe me. I’ve seen more return after almost a
year of attending the TLM than almost four years of attending the Novus Ordo.
If we simply stopped putting youth on a pedestal, we
wouldn’t need to deal with simpering surveys like the one put out by the
Vatican. Or deal with priests that give lip service while ill-equipping their
charges to face an anti-Catholic world. We need youth to become true Catholics
who will carry on the faith after they stop being children. We need adults firm
in their faith.
In the meantime, let’s stop using the word youth and
replace it with the word ‘yutes.’ It’s what the survey wants us to do, anyway.
