This is the type of thing that gives youth ministry a bad name. This happens to be Life Teen, and I know many people swear by Life Teen as a way that brought them deeper into their faith. The particular program is irrelevant to my current point. It’s a general attitude in some youth ministry philosophies.
A friend sends along the following announcement in a parish bulletin. (I don’t know the original source):
01/21 - 08:30 AM
Seuss is Loose LIFE TEEN Retreat
Can’t Drive? Still Want to Get Out of Town? The Seuss is Loose LIFE TEEN Retreat is your ticket out! All Freshmen and Sophomores are invited to join us at Phantom Lake YMCA Camp in Mukwonago as we explore the moral and spiritual lessons of Dr. Seuss and apply them to our lives. We leave Cabrini at 8:30 AM on Saturday and will return to complete our Retreat with the 6:00 PM LIFE TEEN Mass on Sunday. Cost of $60.00 includes transportation, overnight lodging, meals and FUN! Hurry! Space is limited! Call the Christian Formation Office at 334-9511 for more information or to obtain a permission slip.
The problem I have with this is that it treats youths as children rather than as young adults. It sells them short, imagining that they couldn’t possibly be interested in a mature adult faith, perhaps a eucharistic or Marian retreat based on the writings of Pope John Paul or St. Therese or something of that sort. Instead we have to entertain them with children’s stories or gimmicks.
Let’s face it. We can’t compete with the prevailing culture for entertainment. The Church does not have beautiful, young, enticing pop stars, engrossing video games, escapist TV or film entertainment to match what the world offers, so why are we trying to be those things for teens? Pope John Paul didn’t try to act like one of the kids or pretend to be a hip-hop star or debase himself for their laughter or treat them like babies. Yet they flocked to him by the millions and they loved him and even cried in his presence. Why?
St Francis Cabrini Parish, West Bend, WI.
Ah, yes. Youth ministry.
Catholics are horrible at this and there are a whole lot of reasons.
1) It ain’t so much “youth ministry” as “youth group.” There’s a huge difference.
2) Which means you don’t need a huge program complete with every honking bureaucrat in sight to run it. You need a couple of frozen pizzas, some pop, some volunteers under 20 and a lot of patience. Don’t laugh, I”m an ex-protestant and they have the BEST youth groups.
3) It isn’t, isn’t, isn’t, some stuffy MINISTRY thingy meant to enable some layperson to get a hoity toity “ministry” job.
4) Praying is involved. Really.
5) And you can’t compete with the mall. So don’t even try. Honesty is the best policy. Go for the kids who want to get involved with God. They’re out there.
Not to sound abrasive, but have you even seen the contents of the retreat in question? I only ask because, having put on that exact retreat put out by LT, I can say it was an unqualified success, with far more depth that you’re even implying in posting that quick blurb.
Is it put in a somewhat goofy context? Sure…but so what? Part of the depth of the retreat is encouraging an honest, innocent, child-like faith (which last I checked we’re all called to). But let’s not leave it at that…the retreat also includes a number of intense prayer opportunities, not the least of which would be bringing the teens before the Eucharist in Adoration, opportunities for Reconciliation (which a number of kids took advantage of for the first time in years), and a number of other things that, at first glance at such a theme, wouldn’t even be considered.
I guess what I’m saying is this…don’t paint it all with such a broad stroke. Can this context be done poorly? Most definetely. Can a Marian retreat be done poorly? Most definetely. But don’t mock it until you’ve seen the fruit (or lack thereof) that it may produce.
In a previous incarnation, I was a diocesan seminarian. Then I was once asked to teach CCD to High School Seniors. I insisted that each senior be given a Catechism of the Catholic Church.
You would’ve thought I had asked for the moon.
Pastor: The Catechism of the Catholic Church is not for lay people. It’s a theologian’s document.
Me: Father, everyone has a right to the Catechism.
Pastor: Are you just going to read from the Catechism?
Me: Of course not. But it will be used as a reference text. At the very least, I would like the students to learn how to *use* it (for example, that the numbers in the index refer to paragraphs and not pages).
Pastor: Do you really think the Catechism is exciting enough for High School seniors?
Me: Do you really think the Bible is exciting enough for High School seniors? You know the 1 and 2 Chronicles are quite boring but John is rather exciting. So goes the Catechism.
Pastor: Fine. But do you think Seniors can handle the information? It already sounds to me like you’re going to be teaching above their head.
Me: Father, you know what these students are learning in High School? Physics. Calculus. Advanced Chemistry. Do you know how to solve multivariable equations and then graph them in a three-dimensional plane? Neither do I. So why do we insist on teaching down to them when it comes to the faith? Let me try it. If you get complaints, we’ll try something else.
—-
So I was allowed to give them all catechisms. By the third week, I was getting phone calls from parents that around a basic theme: “Thanks for showing our kids the Catechism, would you believe we didn’t have one in the house?” or “Thanks for giving our kids what we never recieved.”
My response to each parent?
“Would you mind to write the pastor and the DRE a letter with your thoughts?”
I was on a LT core team. While not familiar with this exact retreat I’m familiar enough with their other programs. There is a difference between a childlike faith and childishness.
I have seen the fruit and lack thereof from such youth ministry.
Don’t many Jews make their kids learn some Hebrew and Talmudic argumentation?
I never understood the childrens sacramentary/lectionary thing.
We should be inculturating kids and young people into the Church, not dumbing it down.
If you go to a good lifeteen parish, what you find is that it’s a very orthodox Mass. The music is just geared towards teens and the lay roles are filled by teens. Now, there is nothing wrong with the second one, and seeing as the first one is done for even adults (Haas instead of Mozart) I see no issue with it. Some LifeTeen songs are better than Haas. And the kids it produces are typically orthodox, considering vocations, and very Eucharistic. That’s at a GOOD lifeteen parish.
I’m making this two posts as it treats two topics.
The problem with my youth experience in the Church was it started out at the right level. As a 1st grader I was taught at a first grade level. However, I continued to be taught at that level through fifth grade. Then sixth grade came, and they taught at the sixth grade level, but they did that for the next three years. Then high school came and they taught at the high school level, but the intellectual leap from 6th to 9th grade is huge. Why were 7th and 8th graders treated like 6th graders? Because the system is set up that they are learning the same thing! Instead of A being taught in 6th grade, B in 7th, and C in 8th, all middle schoolers are together learning A one year, B the next, and C the next, so that by the time they are in 9th, they learned ABC but not necessarily in that order. Most kids who intellectually leave the Church over unaswered doubts do so between 8th and 10th grade. This is when my friends stopped going.
First, we need to begin teaching the Catechism and Bible like a school would. 1st graders always learn a lesson for 1st graders. Classes should be more regular. The people teaching need to be orthodox. THE GOSPELS NEED TO ACTUALLY BE TAUGHT. THE MASS NEEDS TO ACTUALLY BE TAUGHT. PRAYERS NEED TO ACTUALLY BE TAUGHT. Then, we can begin by forming good youth ministry programs. That’s my next post.
Ask any Protestant how to get kids to youth ministry, and they’ll tell you FOOD. Youth ministry (really, a youth group) needs to meet often, and not on Sunday. (Otherwise, kids will use it to replace Mass.) A good, effective, youth group meets like this. 6:00 Arrive. Eucharistic adoration begins with a hymn and Scripture reading by priest.
6:00-6:30 Silent prayer before Blessed Sacrament. Confessions heard by priest nearby.
6:30-6:50: Group Rosary before Blessed Sacrament.
6:50: Benediction, Song, Eucharist place back in tabernacle.
7:00-8:00 Pizza (after grace, of course), drinks, and round table discussion. It can be very informal some weeks (kids just talk about faith in their lives) to a Q&A on a topic with a speaker/expert on it. For example, a convert telling her story, questions then on her life. A speaker on theology of the body, then questions.
Never let it run past the time it was supposed to end. That’s a complete turn off for kids. If it’s supposed to end at 8, end it at 8. If kids want to stick around and talk, let them, but make sure it is clear the official meeting is over.
“you know what these students are learning in High School? Physics. Calculus. Advanced Chemistry. Do you know how to solve multivariable equations and then graph them in a three-dimensional plane? Neither do I. So why do we insist on teaching down to them when it comes to the faith?”
Excellent point, Good Friar.
Reminds me of my Confirmation classes at BU’s Newman House in the early 1990s. We were all bright kids. Heck! We made it into BU!!! What were we taught? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Liberals are guilty of this and I think I know why. They know their goofy liberal views cannot be reconciled with the teaching of the Church…therefore they must skip that Teaching.
Secondly, liberals must engage in extremely complicated and deceptive mental/linguistic gymnastics if and when they do attempt to explain themselves and this is when the kids just tune out.
Thirdly, liberals may not have the Faith because they typically serve Mammon.
As if a literate teenager could not read a bit of St Augustine or Tomas A’ Kempis or St Jose Marie Escriva?
Infanted,
(First, please try to put it all in one post, instead of three separate ones. It makes it easier for me and others on several levels.)
Even if I grant that LifeTeen Masses are generally orthodox—which I think is debatable; even with the recent changes, there are still frequent violations of liturgical law—I think that if a good LifeTeen parish produces orthodox kids, it might be that it was the “good parish” not the “LifeTeen” that made them so.
There are plenty of examples of LifeTeen parishes where the program fizzles out and the graduates of the program disappear and so on. This may not be a fault of the program, so much as bad execution, but that’s the point: Life Teen is not a magic formula for youth ministry and we shouldn’t see the Life Teen label and assume the way it’s done at the parish is orthodox.
On another point, I would dispute that gearing a specific Mass every week toward a particular demographic is good for the long-range health of the Church. We relate to the Church not as individuals or members of a demographic but as family (the situation of adult singles is different and I won’t get into it here). I don’t think it’s necessarily good to relate to teens apart from family (where possible; I know there are teens who can’t get their parents to Mass. Special cases make bad law.).
I think we sell teens short if we think they can’t appreciate Mozart (I don’t think Haugen/Haas is fit for any Mass, teen or not) or just plain chant. What happens when they graduate high school and go out in the wide world where Masses aren’t geared to them specifically and the music isn’t pop music and the homilies don’t entertain? Some kids will have acquired enough maturity in their faith to make the transition, but I daresay that many won’t and will drift away because they are no longer entertained. Church becomes boring.
And on one level it often is and that’s okay because the quality of the Mass does not depend on how much I enjoy myself or how good the music is or whether the homily scintillates, but on whether it is the sacrifice of the Mass properly celebrated.
The rest of your points, especially your sample youth group meeting, are right on. Ironically, it doesn’t look anything like any Life Teen program I’ve seen.
Well, attracting a “demographic group” should not mean Haugen/Haas, either. It’s interesting that educational psychology has taken such a hold that we now assume that Gregorian Chant is simply beyond children—an assertion which is gratuitous and not empirically valid, period.
Same with Latin, by the way. Any child can learn church Latin with a willing teacher…
And beginning with The Tradition (Latin, Chant) is a very good place to start.
Sure, in the future, I will do one post. I wouldn’t disagree that a heterodox parish will fail at LifeTeen. The parish must be orthodox to begin with.
In regards to having seperate Masses. I don’t really see the issue with having a Mass where the lector, Communion Minister, musicians, and altar servers as teens instead of adults/younger kids. The Mass is not closed to others. At my parish (that doesn’t use the LifeTeen label), the majority of people at the LifeTeen Mass are not teenagers alone. The whole family comes. Sometimes, it’s older adults whose kids have already moved out. Other times, it’s just convenient on holiday weekends to be able to go to a Sunday night Mass. (Wake up, get an early start on the road to go home, knowing full well that a Mass is waiting for me.)
I agree as well that it’s selling teens short if we say teens can’t apprecate Mozart. (Chant IS a special taste. Most teens will not like full chant Masses.) “What happens when they graduate high school and go out in the wide world where Masses aren’t geared to them specifically and the music isn’t pop music and the homilies don’t entertain?” 1) They can still go to a LifeTeen Mass. 2) Haas-Haugen “music” (using the term lightly) is pop. 3) Homilies at LifeTeen Masses aren’t entertaining. They are just said in a way teens relate to.
“Ironically, it doesn’t look anything like any Life Teen program I’ve seen.”
Well, I took it from two sources: LifeTeen and Boston College.
I don’t think LifeTeen is the answer to the Church crisis, but it sure isn’t in all cases our enemy.
I don’t think LifeTeen is the answer to the Church crisis, but it sure isn’t in all cases our enemy.
And my criticism of the Dr. Seuss retreat wasn’t a criticism of all Life Teen programs.
I’m glad we’re in agreement.
Mozart is rarely appropriate for the liturgy for the same reason that lots of Lifeteen music is rarely appropriate. It’s music for music’s sake, not for the glory of God. A liturgy must have music with a liturgical character, if it has music at all.
I think Mozart was being used as a synonym for classic music, but even so Mozart did write quite a few Masses. I think at least a few those might be appropriate for, you know, Masses.
Thanks, Kevin.
And Chant, by the way, has several levels of accessiblity. No reason that one cannot use the Kyrie, Sanctus/Benedictus and Agnus from short and simple Ordinaries.
Propers for Introit, Gradual, Offertory and Communion (all available for the NO) are certainly not necessary.
But they can sing the Ave Maria, the Ave Verum, the Adoro Te, and other seasonal short and easy Chant hymns.
It should be clear that they are NOT in television-land. The watchword is “Sacred,”—time, space, language, and music.
THAT is Mass.
“I think Mozart was being used as a synonym for classic music, but even so Mozart did write quite a few Masses. I think at least a few those might be appropriate for, you know, Masses.”
NewAdvent’s encyclopedia shares my low opinion of Mozart’s sacred works. One classical singer I’ve run into holds that only his Ave Verum Corpus is suitable for the liturgy.
Surely “Ave Verum” is one, but what is wrong with “Exsultate, Jubilate”, his “Requiem in d’, or any of his 19 Masses?
The most significant objection to Mozart Masses is their length-of-performance time. While it worked well with Pontifical Masses, (dozens of altarboys, priests, thurifers, candlebearers, etc.) it’s a little more difficult to fit into the Parking Lot Mass syndrome.
But anyone who flatly states that his Masses are “unsuitable” for the liturgy needs a serious education in Liturgy—of the NON-Parking-Lot style.
The Mass is not supposed to be something to do before the NFL game. It’s the morning’s glory. Then, after a couple hours for lunch, return for his Vespers.