By Joe Pisani
During the last two presidential elections, we learned one thing — you can’t trust the pollsters. How could they be so consistently wrong? However, there was one poll that gave me a reason to be hopeful about the future … and it had nothing to do with political views.
RealClear Opinion Research partnered with EWTN to survey almost 1500 Catholic voters. When they asked about their religious practices and beliefs, the pollsters discovered that the number of young adult Catholics who say “they believe everything the Catholic Church teaches” is increasing. That means they don’t believe some things, or a few things, or only things they agree with. They believe everything.
You’ve heard the term, “cafeteria Catholics”? Well, these young adults don’t pick and choose what to believe. They don’t leaf through the pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and highlight what suits their fancy and forget the rest. Instead, they take the Church’s teachings to heart.
That means they believe what the Church teaches about abortion and the Real Presence in the Eucharist and sin. It also means they’re more likely to go to confession, pray the rosary and attend Mass regularly.
According to the survey, 25 percent of the 18 to 34-year-old respondents said they “accept everything the Church teaches,” compared with 21 percent of those 35-54 and 16 percent of those 55 and older.
In recent years, I’ve met dozens of faithful young Catholics, whose personal witness has been an inspiration and whose fervor puts me to shame. Very often, they’re young adults who attend secular universities and aren’t afraid to confront their professors and peers in class when the Church is attacked. They’re not afraid to stand up and bear witness to the Truth. And they’re not afraid to evangelize and bring other young people to Christ.
They’re a power of example for those of us who suffer from a lukewarm faith or are afraid to profess it publicly because it might upset someone’s sensibilities and emotionally “trigger” them.
We live in an age when many people want to rewrite the Catechism of the Catholic Church so that it corresponds to their personal or political beliefs. But for this growing number of young people, being Catholic means being counter-cultural. It means resisting the crowd and ignoring what the media, politicians and celebrities claim is right. It means being willing to swim against the current.
Christina, who is enrolled in a state university, told me: “There are people constantly attacking Catholics. Even if you say you went to a Catholic school, people immediately shut you down….In high school it happens a lot. Students will give you a hard time for being Christian and make fun of you, especially if you don’t drink or stuff like that. It’s hard being a girl. I am pro-life, but they see pro-life as guys trying to control women, and you lose friends because of it.”
Steffany who graduated from the University of Connecticut, said, “My mom was a Sunday school teacher and the faith was instilled in me. Going to Mass was part of my life, and I believed God was always there to help. When I was growing up, I’d only go to Jesus when I needed something, but when I became older, I realized he was someone I could go to every day and have a personal relationship with him. To me, being a Catholic means that Jesus wants all of my life — past, present and future — and that he wants me to use it to help others. So I told him to take it all because as he said, ‘Without me, you can do nothing.’”
Henry was a FOCUS missionary — the Fellowship of Catholic University Students — who helped students find Christ at secular colleges in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. He led them on mission trips and in Bible study, prayer services and evangelization efforts. Today, he works in campus ministry, where his challenge is to bring students to the Church.
Unfortunately, many young people base their beliefs on what the media, their professors and friends say is right.
“The voices of the world are very strong and loud,” he says. “Young people think, ‘If everyone is saying it, I guess it’s true.’And if they disagree and actually speak up, they can lose their friends or be isolated from their group of friends.”
He said, “Our goal is to bring young people to Christ and to have them become lifelong Catholic disciples and not have it be something they experience just once.”
The work is hard and it is challenging, but they do it with one certainty — they are not alone because Christ is working right alongside them.