Syndicated columnist Renée LaReau told a packed room of CTA conferees
that parishes miss young adults because they are too preoccupied with teens
and young parents. She outlined eight kinds of young adult Catholics:
1. Disconnected — the largest group.
2. Connected through mission. Polls show 73 to 90 percent care about justice
and want to do volunteer service.
3. Militant traditionalists.
4. Devotionals: traditional piety offers security and connection. Many Asian
and Hispanic immigrants fit here.
5. Seekers: they come, adrift and lonely, to find community with others who
share their “quarter-life crisis.”
6. The Church Busy: their lives are packed with career, then marriage and parenting.
7. The Church Youthful: recent grads who miss their Newman Centers, and have
progressive notions of church. So do those in
8. The Church Creative. They embrace liberal values, artistic expression, are
well read, and church-shop.
“Happy Catholic” myth
LaReau says the best way to attract young Catholics is vibrant liturgies. Another
key is to dispel the “happy Catholic” myth. Share your own struggle,
and your sense that you can wrestle with the Church without having to leave
it.
“Young adult Catholic categories adapted from the article “Refracting
the Light: The Spectrum of Young Adult Catholics,” by Mary Anne Reese,America,
(189:8),September 22, 2003. “
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