VIEWPOINTS

Catholic News Service

June 14, 2005

More and More Seek a Robust Orthodoxy
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

Conventional wisdom among America's chattering classes has long held that the Catholic Church's teachings are too tough and countercultural to appeal to the next generation. But two months ago young adults from around the world defied that conventional wisdom by pouring into Rome to bid farewell to Pope John Paul II. Gathering some 4 million strong for his funeral, an overwhelmingly young crowd packed every inch of St. Peter's Square to pray for the pope and celebrate the traditional Catholic faith that he had taught them to love.

Their reverence and enthusiasm for the church and its leader surprised many that day, but their impromptu gathering was not the anomaly that some might suppose. It was only the most recent and dramatic manifestation of a larger phenomenon, a grass-roots revival of faith among young adults that quietly is renewing the Catholic Church. Several years ago I chronicled the American face of this revival in my book, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola Press, 2002). In the course of interviewing some 500 young adults all across America, I found a growing number of them adopting the teachings and traditions of an orthodox Christian faith.

These "new faithful," as I call them, have not seen too little of a secular, hedonistic society to understand its allure. They have seen too much to believe its promises. And they have turned instead to an older promise, one rooted in the traditions that their parents' generation rejected: the promise of a life guided by a transcendent vision and ordered by absolute truth. 

The Catholics in this group have modeled their faith on the robust orthodoxy of Pope John Paul II. They are not "Sunday Christians" or "cafeteria Catholics." They are disciples of Jesus Christ who have had powerful conversion experiences that convinced them to live for God alone. These young men and women embrace church teachings in their entirety, including its prohibitions against premarital sex, contraception and abortion. They immerse themselves in studying Scripture and the catechism. They flock to daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration and the sacrament of reconciliation. They work tirelessly to evangelize secular culture with their Catholic faith.

Though they remain a minority in their generation, statistics suggest that their ranks are growing. The World Values Survey recently found that in 58 countries "millennial Catholics" – those born after 1981 – are more likely to attend Mass, pray every day, consider religion important and have a larger degree of confidence in the church than the previous generation. Those trends are evident on America's college campuses, where pro-life groups are booming, Catholic campus ministries that boldly proclaim church teachings are flourishing, and enrollment at conservative religious colleges is growing at a far faster rate than that of secular schools.

None of this would surprise Pope John Paul II. He knew that today's young adults are starving for God and moral guidance. He addressed that hunger by proclaiming church teaching without compromise and challenging young people to become the saints of the new millennium.

Not all accepted his invitation, but far more found God through his bold witness than the pundits ever would have predicted. And far more still are waiting for Catholics to finish his work and invite today's young adults to give themselves completely to Jesus Christ and his church. 

Colleen Carroll Campbell is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington and author of The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy.