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Young adults offer ideas about practicing the faith
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Continuing the work of the diocesan synod of 2004, nearly 400 participants from parishes across the diocese met at St. Isidore Parish in Yuba City Oct. 13 for a diocesan assembly with young adults to “stir into flame the gift of God.”
In the packed parish hall, some 200 young adults in their 20s and 30s, along with youth ministers, lay leaders, priests, deacons, religious, Catholic school principals and directors of religious education, as well as Bishop William K. Weigand and Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto, listened to presentations by Catholic young adults on their experiences in parishes. A series of discussions followed each presentation, in which young adults voiced their concerns about their place in diocesan parishes and offered suggestions on how to evangelize other young adults.
In his opening remarks, Bishop Weigand provided a brief history of the synod and the context for the assembly, which carried forward the synod’s pastoral initiative focusing on youth and young adult ministry.
The area of the concern under discussion at the gathering was the lack of young adults practicing their faith in parishes in the 20 counties of the diocese. Although some parishes have teen ministries, some participants said very little of what happens in a parish seemed to invite or sustain people in their 20s and 30s, unless they were rearing young families in the church — and perhaps not even then.
Raymond Vincent, a parishioner of St. Clare Parish in Roseville, was one of two young adults to speak to the assembly. Vincent is a former evangelical Protestant youth minister who had been baptized Catholic, but whose family stopped practicing their faith when he was a young child. Vincent recently returned to the Catholic Church, bringing with him his experience of creating thriving young adult evangelical groups.
To bring young adults back to the Catholic faith, Vincent recommended more demanding theological study, a stricter morality, and an emphasis on the sacred character of Mass. Above all, he suggested that the parishes create a “culture of encounter,” in which “the norm is for individuals to actively pursue an encounter with God in every aspect of their lives.”
Speaking in Spanish with an English-language interpreter, the second young adult presenter, St. Isidore parishioner Bertha Flores, described her alienation from Catholicism when her parents rejected her pregnant sister, turning the 18-year-old out of the house. Flores left her home to care for her pregnant sister, eventually leaving the Catholic faith as well, and stayed away for 12 years.
She returned to the church when she was invited to a prayer group at St. Isidore, she said. The women in the prayer group were welcoming and filled with joy, she said. They prayed for her with the Mary before bringing in the Blessed Sacrament for adoration.
Flores said that she felt a she felt a deep sense of being loved by Jesus and a realization that in Mary, she had a mother who was taking care of her. She felt that the church was her home.
In his bilingual keynote talk, Bishop Soto quoted Pope Benedict XVI on “the radical proposition that being Christian is not the result of an external choice or a lofty ideal, but of an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” People meet the Lord Jesus, Bishop Soto said, and that meeting changes their lives. It’s a radical proposition, Bishop Soto added, because Christians claim that “the Lord God comes to us, personally. He comes to us as a person.”
In a talk that encompassed the dignity of the human person, the sacramental nature of the world and of human beings, the justice of the cross and the charity of Christ, Bishop Soto emphasized the intimate nature of the Christian encounter with Jesus. As Jesus begins his public ministry after his baptism, Bishop Soto said, Jesus turns to two of John’s disciples and asks them, “What are you looking for?” They respond, “Master, where do you live?” In another Gospel story Jesus asks his disciples, “What were you arguing about?” When they tell him their concern, he sits down with them to talk. These Gospel stories provide an image of teaching and preaching, Bishop Soto said. Jesus is curious about his disciples’ conversations and asks them about their lives. His teaching is in direct response to their questions and concerns.
In a final reflection on the story of Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet, Bishop Soto noted that Jesus reveals his divinity in his service to his disciples, and that Christians can reveal the Lord to others through humble, personal encounters.
A Mass concluded the assembly, with Bishop Weigand presiding and Bishop Soto concelebrating, along with all of the priests present at the assembly. After the Mass, Carson Weber, diocesan director of evangelization, screened a short video tribute to Bishop Weigand, who will be retiring at the end of November, which ended in a standing ovation as the congregation rose to its feet.
