{"id":196,"date":"2007-09-23T11:14:21","date_gmt":"2007-09-23T11:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html"},"modified":"2007-09-23T11:14:21","modified_gmt":"2007-09-23T11:14:21","slug":"let-those-who-have-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html","title":{"rendered":"Let those who have ears.."},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr. Philip, OP, at the University of Dallas has wise words for all those who work in youth\/campus\/young adult ministry:<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what works for us:<\/span><\/p>\n

Teach the apostolic faith full on\u2026<\/span>no compromises on basic doctrine or dogma. <\/span>This generation of college students can smell an intellectual\/spiritual weasel a hundred miles away. <\/span>They would rather hear the bald-faced Truth and struggle with it than listen to a priest\/minister try to sugar-coat a difficult teaching in the vain search for popularity or \u201chipness.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Preach the gospel full on\u2026ditto.<\/span> <\/span>Tell it like it is and let the students grow in holiness. <\/span>Yes, they will fail. <\/span>Who doesn\u2019t? <\/span>But let them fail knowing what Christ and his Church expects of them. <\/span>Lowering the moral bar comes across as expecting too little from them. <\/span>What does that say about the Church\u2019s view of our future ecclesial leaders? <\/span>They can\u2019t cut it, so we have to shorten the race. <\/span><\/p>\n

Give them charitable work to do\u2026<\/span>present this work as a kind of \u201cchurchy social work\u201d and they will not stay away in droves. <\/span>I regularly cite Matthew 25 as my scriptural backing for asking them to do volunteer work in the community. <\/span>Frankly, They have been beaten with the Social Justice-Work stick all their lives and most of what they hear sounds like the socio-economic engineering agenda of a modernist, socialist political party. <\/span>This is attractive to some, but my experience is that students yearn for a chance to do something Truly Good for their community. <\/span>If their leaders loudly and proudly attach volunteer work to the Gospels as a an exercise in charity rather than an experiment in social engineering, they will come.<\/p>\n

Challenge them intellectually\u2026these are smarts kids.<\/span> <\/span>They want to know what the Church teaches and why. <\/span>They don\u2019t always agree with the Church. <\/span>Fine. <\/span>Coming to holiness through obedience is a long, long road for some (..even for Dominican friars who try really hard!). <\/span>They aren\u2019t afraid of tough texts or difficult arguments. <\/span>Just give them the documents, read along with them, answer questions honestly and clearly, and let them make the choices they will be responsible for. <\/span>You have no control over what they will come to believe or practice. <\/span>Fortunately, that\u2019s not our task. <\/span>Jesus said, \u201cPreach and teach the gospel.\u201d <\/span>He said nothing about punishing those who will not hear or see.<\/p>\n

Feed them\u2026they\u2019re poor and hungry.<\/span> <\/span>Yes, I mean feed them spiritually, but I also mean feed them literally\u2014food, drink, and fellowship do amazing things for students on budgets and for students who have endured slap-dash catechesis and dumbed-down, irreverent liturgy. <\/span><\/p>\n

For the ecclesial leaders over 45 y.o. (esp. campus ministers):<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

These students aren\u2019t you at 18.<\/span> <\/span>Apply your own standards of liberality and let them explore the fullness of the Church\u2019s ancient traditions. <\/span>You had a crappy childhood at St. Sixtus of the Perpetual Frown under the bruising discipline of Sr. Mary of the Five Wounds of Christ, so religious habits, rosaries, crucifixes, devotional booklets, Latin, incense, sanctus bells, etc. all remind you of stifling dogmatic lectures, knuckle-rappings, silly moral imperatives, triumphal-martial Catholicism, etc. <\/span>Guess what? <\/span>They aren\u2019t you<\/u>! <\/span>They didn\u2019t have these experiences, so they don\u2019t associate Eucharistic adoration and First Friday Masses with intellectual repression and physical pain. <\/span>Let them transform these traditions and make them their own. <\/span>This is what you did, right? <\/span>Well then, be consistent and apply your own principles. <\/span>If you don\u2019t, they will simply ignore you as a dinosaur and look for unofficial leadership elsewhere\u2026which is exactly what you did when your elders failed to allow you the room you needed to explore and grow!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Much more. Go read!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr. Philip, OP, at the University of Dallas has wise words for all those who work in youth\/campus\/young adult ministry: Here\u2019s what works for us: Teach the apostolic faith full on\u2026no compromises on basic doctrine or dogma. This generation of college students can smell an intellectual\/spiritual weasel a hundred miles away. They would rather hear…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nLet those who have ears.. - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let those who have ears.. - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fr. Philip, OP, at the University of Dallas has wise words for all those who work in youth\/campus\/young adult ministry: Here\u2019s what works for us: Teach the apostolic faith full on\u2026no compromises on basic doctrine or dogma. This generation of college students can smell an intellectual\/spiritual weasel a hundred miles away. They would rather hear…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-23T11:14:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Let those who have ears.. - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Let those who have ears.. - Via Media","og_description":"Fr. Philip, OP, at the University of Dallas has wise words for all those who work in youth\/campus\/young adult ministry: Here\u2019s what works for us: Teach the apostolic faith full on\u2026no compromises on basic doctrine or dogma. This generation of college students can smell an intellectual\/spiritual weasel a hundred miles away. They would rather hear…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2007-09-23T11:14:21+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html","name":"Let those who have ears.. - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-09-23T11:14:21+00:00","dateModified":"2007-09-23T11:14:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/let-those-who-have-ears.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Let those who have ears.."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}