October Notes from Father Dan OVERWHELMING! Science and religion, the place of gay people and same-sex marriage, abortion, the role of women in the Church today, the “hook – up culture”. Wow! These are only some of the things our young people are dealing with today in trying to find their way as Catholics in our contemporary world.
These issues were the core of our Faith Formation Advisory Committee discussion recently. We openly admitted our catechetical texts do not cover these issues well and many of the catechists feel unprepared to address them.
It’s clear that these are the challenges our young people face in their science courses in school, in interaction with their peers and in the overwhelming messages on social media, all of which very often condemn Catholics and what we uphold in belief and values.
We all came away from that meeting feeling enthusiastic and determined to address these concerns, especially with our young parishioners.
We will be reaching out to our young people, and adults, in the months ahead as another way of “thinking outside the box” to interact with our contemporary culture and proclaim the Good News of the Gospel.
We want to re-emphasize the positive and authentic message we hold precious as Catholics in a way that will help our young people better understand who we are and how they can respond to the many barriers to belief today.
Young people by nature are inquisitive and it is our role as adults to meet them in their questioning as best we can.
For that reason we will be offering the following.
We have added a special session in December on Science and Religion for grades 7-10 with Fr James Platania, our weekend assistant, who is a faculty member at the seminary at Seton Hall. Fr Platania has a strong interest in the field and will approach it with his youthful perspective.
We will welcome back our former parish seminarian, Fr. Paul Tomczyk, in November for a session for grades 7-11 on the “Theology of the Body” which will address in a very positive and contemporary way our views on the gift of human sexuality. As always Fr Paul will present his message with his youthful energy and sense of humor.
In addition to the Question & Answer Session that I do with our Year 2 (10th grade) Confirmation candidates, we will add an additional opportunity for our Year 1 (Grade 9) Confirmation candidates. I always find our young people bring forth very challenging and honest topics to discuss. I also hope to do the same for our Middle school classes as well, as our Faith Formation program moves on through the coming year.
Hopefully, these efforts will bear fruit for our young people on their faith journey.