The young person selected by the bishops of England and Wales to go to Rome this month for a gathering in preparation for October’s youth synod has said the Church needs to harness the power of beauty, of social media and also of role models in order to engage young people more successfully.
Recent graduate, 21-year-old Isaac Withers, who is currently working as an intern at the bishops’ conference, told The Tablet it is necessary to use current cultural norms to show what the Church is about. “There are transcendental concepts around truth, beauty and goodness … Truth doesn’t change but the expression of truth has to change to fit the culture,” he said. Reflecting on his own recent experience of using social media as a promotional tool for Catholic events at Birmingham University, he said: “Lots of parish websites look as if they’re stuck in the nineties! Aesthetics and branding matter.”
Mr Withers will join 300 delegates from around the world this month ahead of October’s Synod of Bishops, which has been called to address “Young people, faith and vocational discernment”. Social media will enable online interaction with this month’s meeting, and Pope Francis in a recent Sunday Angelus address, called on young people to join Facebook groups in order to participate.
Bishops’ conferences have been conducting youth surveys to form the basis of reports being sent to the Vatican ahead of October’s synod. The results of the England and Wales survey were published this week and co-ordinator, Teresa Carvalho, told The Tablet: “The Church is being really challenged to listen and not to dismiss the voices of young people.” It states that “young people are asking the Church for a monumental change of attitude, orientation and practice.” Responses, it says, indicate two distinct groups: “a small but vocal group who want to draw the Church back into an era that they have been told was far better than it is today and a much larger, though less evident group, who adhere to the predominant narratives within society, wanting the Church to follow suit.”
The survey attracted responses from 3,286 young people aged 16 to 29. In light of their feedback, the report notes the popularity of large gatherings such as World Youth Day or Flame at Wembley Arena, but says there is a “quantum gap” between these experiences and “pastoral practice, or the lack of it, in parishes”. Mr Withers, speaking from personal experience, says such large events allow young people to meet “reasonable, normal people” as role models “at that critical point when you have to choose whether you inherit your parents’ faith and make it your own or reject it”.
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