Last week I attended the National Conference on Catholic
Youth Ministry in Orlando, Florida along with thousands of other youth
ministers, priests, publishers, deacons, missionaries and religious educators. I spoke to many people, from Texas to
Alaska, Seattle to DC.
Invariably, I got two different reactions when I was
introduced as a representative of Young Life. One reaction involved a spontaneous smile, a flicker in the
eyes and some variation of, “Oh, I love Young Life!” I met Catholics who were Young Life kids, Young Life
leaders, even a few former Young Life staff. Those who had been on the “inside” of Young Life’s ministry
were deeply touched by the dynamic and palpable presence of Christ in the YL
community. Without exception, each
one of them carried the vision and passion of Young Life’s incarnational model
of evangelization into their current Catholic ministries.
The second type of reaction was quite different. I could see it in their eyes the moment
they heard the word, “Young Life.”
They were clearly caught off guard, trying to remain pleasant while
cautiously sharing their negative experiences of Young Life. I encouraged them to be honest and a
few shared with me that Young Life staff in their areas were particularly
unfriendly to Catholics. Some,
particularly in the South, noted a consistent anti-Catholic tone from Young
Life. None of the Catholics
working in youth ministry ever had a Young Life staff come to them and say,
“Hey, I’ve got a Catholic kid I’ve been working with and I wanted to try to
connect him/her with what you’re doing.”
This tells me two things:
1)
We need to open the doors of Young Life wide and
invite our Catholic brothers and sisters to experience what we’ve experienced
in this mission. Not to convert
them, not to show off our incredible camps, but to welcome them into the unique
Young Life spirituality that is neither Protestant or Catholic, but simply and
passionately Christian. We have an
enormous opportunity to bless our Catholic friends and encourage them in their
ministry.
2)
We must be exceedingly intentional about
building bridges with local Catholic parishes and youth ministers. If it is true that “we are not the
church,” if our ultimate goal is to set kids on fire for Christ and integrate
them into a local church community where they can continue to grow in their
faith, then we need to establish real relationships with Catholic churches and
let them know that we are serious about collaborating with them in the great
work of evangelization. It is not
enough to say, “Oh I don’t have anything against the Catholic Church.” We must, as St. Francis of Assisi is
believed to have said, “Preach the gospel to all people and if necessary, use
words.”[1]
Bridges, not bombs.
Our God is calling us together to lift up the name of Jesus, to bring
comfort to the afflicted and hope to the downtrodden. Start building today.
We are one body.
[1] As
a matter of intellectual integrity, there is no scholarly evidence to suggest
that Francis of Assisi ever said those words. Another exceedingly overlooked point is that St. Francis was
a man of many words and he
unabashedly proclaimed the gospel, both in word and deed, at every turn.
