Reaching young people who no longer pray or attend church

Catholic Voices Comment

[Jack Valero] Look around any congregation at Mass in the UK and there’s one group that’s largely absent – young people. After Confirmation they simply disappear and may or may not return when they get married and have a family of their own.

This week 300 young people from across the world are in Rome to debate the issues and prepare a document that will be presented at the Synod of Bishops convoked by Pope Francis for next October on the topic of ‘Youth, faith and vocational discernment.’ On Monday 19^th March the Pope spent the morning with them.

Pope Francis sits among the young people during the pre-synod meeting on 19 March

“Too often we talk about young people without asking what they think,” Pope Francis stated, adding that “even the best analysis on the world of youth, although useful, are no substitute for the need…

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Christ the King

We discussed Christ the King in our Word reading on Tuesday. How Christ is the bridge between this material world of our sins and God's eternity. How he has power over death and to conquer sin. This feast was created to combat the negativity and growing secularity after the first world war, something which resonates …

We Are Not the Victims

" Vice is flaunted and celebrated in the streets, on the airwaves, and across the digital mediums. There is no secret, no shame, no apology. We have arrived."

From the synod (5): Despite reservations, the new machinery appears to be working

Thoughts from the Synod of the family so far (via Catholic Voices Comment).

Catholic Voices Comment

[From Austen Ivereigh in Rome] Being close to the synod has been like watching a very complex piece of new machinery sputter into life, with many standing around wondering how it is all going to work, a vocal minority complaining that its engineering is skewed, while most are pleased with it, regarding it as making progress despite early stumbles.

As delegates from across the world adjusted to an intense schedule and a radically new format, among some there was grumbling and bewilderment at the task ahead. In some cases there were also strong objections, expressed, for example, in a dubious letter from 13 cardinals revealed today (dubious because it has been disowned by its signatories) to the synod’s new format.

Cardinal Napier

It was after the receipt of this letter, or something similar — Cardinal Napier has confirmed to Crux that he signed a letter objecting to the 10-man writing commission — that Pope Francis last…

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Pope Francis: divorced & remarried are ‘by no means excommunicated’ and must be welcomed

An interesting decision by the Pope, following the Catholic view of welcoming everybody, no matter marital status.

Catholic Voices Comment

Pope Francis at today’s General Audience

[Austen Ivereigh] In his first General Audience for a month, Pope Francis today stressed the importance of including and welcoming Catholics who have divorced and entered a second union, making clear that they are “by no means excommunicated”.

Although such second unions “are contrary to the Sacrament of marriage”, he said that the Church “seeks the good and salvation of all her children”, adding that it was urgent “to foster a true welcome for these families in our communities”, not least because such situations “especially affect children”.

“If then we look at these new bonds also with the eyes of small children … with the eyes of children, we see again the urgency to grow in our communities a real welcoming towards people that live in such situations,” Francis said in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

In remarks added to the official text of his catechesis (see CNS

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John 15:15

A quote from the Gospel reading today. Our priest made the remark that if we go away with one thing from this Mass, we go away with 'John 15:15'. God is calling us all to be his friends, his children and not his servants, and it is a call that requires us to do nothing …

Guess what I’ve been reading about…

About discipleship…

1catholicsalmon

……Discipleship with a capital D. I know I’m stating the obvious, but I’ve never really understood the real teaching in the above quotes until very recently. I am burning to make a difference. For and in Christ. My sights are moving further than the parameters of Church. Yes, I needto be fed at Mass at least once a week, but how am I going to share with others the beauty of Christianity? How am I going to encourage them into the fold of the Shepherd? I don’t know. I do know that God will use my unique gifts to reach out to others. Perhaps the gifts I’m yet to grow into.

I have to ‘be church’, be a Disciple of the Lord God in all that I am and do. I need to be the change that others will respond to when it is the time for them to hear the Message. The Call…

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7 Quick Takes about the 80s, Blogging, and Reviewing

It’s Friday. Let’s wipe the sweat from our brows and settle into our weekend routines after sharing our days. Hosted by Thisain’ttheLyceum: Friday’s 7 Quick Takes. ~1~ Our host Kelly did some getting-to-know-you abouts today, but there's frankly not much I can actually add to my own factoid. I'm a Catholic convert and have been for …

Six ways to have a greener Christmas

Six great tips from the CAFOD agency blog about how to waste less at Christmas – useful regardless of faith. To make the planet a more efficient and healthy home, we must do as much as we can to look after it, especially at Christmas, when it seems that excessiveness is praised, sometimes even explicitly. Besides, being resourceful and creative can also be great fun!

CAFOD blog

Our Web Editor, Ffion Dean, has been thinking of ways to have a more eco friendly Christmas.

Ffion celebrating Christmas 2012

Christmas time is full of great joy and happiness, a time to relax and to spend time with our loved ones. But it’s also a time when we create a huge amount of waste – an estimated  736,571 tonnes each year in Britain alone! This year, CAFOD’s Advent calendar follows the story of Sinteyo, a woman living with the effects of a changing climate in rural Kenya, and offers some ideas about how we can all make changes in our lives to help our planet.

But what can we do to try and have a greener Christmas?

1. Wrapping paper

One year I challenged my family to cover their presents without using any newly purchased paper.

My mum bought a roll of fabric, cut it into different sizes and…

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Photo of the Week: Tolls

For whom does the bell toll? Ah, not so gruesome. The ladies and gentleman of Wantage Hall, Reading, with singing a bent journeyed to the top of our infamous clocktower ("Wantage? Isn't that the one that looks like a castle?" No, it looks nothing like a castle. Like an Oxbridge college, yes and like a …