Young Catholics in Scotland Talk About The Faith: Well… Sort of… Not Really…
Comment:
The young people in the above video (published in November, 2018) are just lovely. Each and every one of them is transparently pleasant and sincere. They are obviously proud to be Catholics, God bless their tartan socks 😀
Yet, there is no way to gauge the level of their knowledge and understanding of the Faith. Their assessment of what it’s like to be a young Catholic in Scotland today is generic; there’s no substance to any of their comments. There can’t be substance, really, because they’ve not been properly taught the Faith themselves. We know this is the case because the Faith hasn’t been taught faithfully in Catholic schools in Scotland for (literally) generations now.
Is it likely that these very pleasant and sincere youngsters would be qualified to discuss and debate key Catholic dogma and morals? And if not, how can they really know what it is like to be a young Catholic in Scotland today? Is it not more accurate to claim that they have experienced what it is like to be a religious young person in Scotland today, albeit from a Catholic background?
Comments (25)
I agree that the young people in the video are lovely, they really are, and obviously very well intentioned. There were some very honest moments from them, too, like the lad who says his school was Catholic in name only, east coast, but he thinks it’s different on the west coast. I doubt that, seriously,
What would be interesting to find out would be what young people like him do to make up for their poor Catholic education, where do they look for help?
Josephine,
I agree – the young man from the east coast seems unaware that Catholic schools, both east and west are all nondescript. There is little, if anything, that makes them deserving of the name “Catholic” – and Pope John Paul II actually instructed the Bishops to remove the title “Catholic” from any institution which were failing to teach the Faith and Catholic principles.
I thought the best answer – an actual Catholic answer – was given by “John” at about 1:40. In fairness to all the others, though, they were asked the wrong question – that is, if the interviewer wanted an answer about the Faith. The right question should have been “What does the Catholic Faith mean to you?” Asking about Scotland immediately threw the answers into a social context, which is what the young people focused on.
I also noticed that the producer of this video is the same organization that produced the video of the Deacon wearing a mask and explaining all the lock-down protocols as they applied to the Church – so I wouldn’t expect anything terribly deep from them. Or anything terribly resistant to the current psychological warfare being deployed against us.
As to whether these young Catholics are qualified to discuss dogma and morals, well, that depends on who is leading the discussion. If it’s the leftist, disgracefully dishonest clerical cardboard cutouts leading the discussion at the “Youth Synod,” then of course these people would be treasured as among those who need to be “listened to,” “accompanied,” and encouraged to lead the Church into the future because of their “wisdom.”
For a real discussion of dogma and morals, rather than a dog and pony show, one would hope that students understand that their place, and the goal of any discussion, is to learn, study, and be tested by their professors regarding their understanding of complex subjects in the Faith.
It would be interesting if Editor or one of our local blogger detectives could find out who these young people are and invite them to participate in this discussion….and to let them know that they wouldn’t have to wear masks….
RCA Victor,
I’m told that the young people who make these videos are also well meaning but they are recognised by the hierarchy (they have been invited to make videos, such as the one you mention about Covid-19) so if they were to veer off in the “wrong” direction by asking the “wrong” questions – questions that would reveal the paucity of the Catholic school system, they would be out of favour (and thus in the same category as Catholic Truth … the “bad guys”!)
I like your suggestion about contacting them to invite them here. I don’t know any of them, but FOOF does, so I’ve passed on your suggestion to him, below.
Oh, and Happy Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day! And since this thread is about education, I can’t resist adding…
https://juicyquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Fourth-of-July-joke-9.jpg
Editor,
Many thanks for your (and Patrick Healy’s) Independence Day wishes. For those who were suspecting that President Trump was keeping his powder dry, they were right. Here is his brilliant Mt. Rushmore speech, in which our enemies are clearly identified:
RCA Victor,
I’ve been away from my computer all day, but looking forward to watching that speech. Thank you for posting it.
RCA Victor,
I’ve just watched the entire address at Mt Rushmore – excellent.
And I believe that he said earlier that the minute he signed his executive order dishing out 10 years minimum prison for anyone defacing or damaging monuments, the idiots stopped. Great. He pointed out that he left it to the local government authorities as long as possible before doing that, but then the vandalism stopped.
I loved his “we only kneel before Almighty God”! Brilliant! Judging by his massive audience at Rushmore, he’s set for another 4 years. Deo gratias!
RCAVictor
It was a great speech, very solemn and determined. Surely it will make even objective patriotic Democrats take stock. I loved the minimum of 10 years in prison for the monument destroyers.
Athanasius and Editor,
The defacing and pulling down stopped, but you know how the civilization-haters will get around that: they will try to intimidate weak/leftist Mayors and City Council members into doing their dirty work for them, by passing resolutions. The same worthless officials, in fact, who are already busy de-funding their police forces.
Have you heard the latest idiocy? There is a petition to rename the city of Columbus, Ohio (the state capitol). The name the polite Marxist terrorists have chosen?
Chef Boyardee.
I’m not making this up….
RCAVictor
It’s as though these Marxists want to make a laughing stock of our culture, which of course they do. What Trump should do is extend his Executive order to include 10 years in prison for any city offcial who gives the nod to remove a monument or rename a capital, doubling that sentence to 20 years if the suggested new name is idiotic!
I know the ones in the Video and can Vouch that they along with Young John attend our TLMASS.
Also Johns Father attends it with him I know him very well and he is a much Better Catholic and Christian than I . In saying that ,that ,of course wouldn’t be very hard .
FOOF,
That is great that those lovely young people attend the TLM – wonderful.
It doesn’t change the fact that there is no substance to what they are saying in the video about being a young Catholic in Scotland.
Before making such a video, I’d have expected the young people to be prepared to explain in what way they try to “change the culture” as young Catholics in Scotland. I’d have expected to hear some concrete examples. For example, what sort of reactions did they experience when they explained to non-Catholics that they were glad to be Catholics because God has given us the Catholic Church to save our souls from eternity in Hell, that outside the Church there is no salvation …. “I hope you will learn more about the Church and be received into it…” Gauging the reaction to that sort of concrete conversation would soon tell them what it is actually like being a young Catholic in Scotland today. ARE they able to express belief in and love for Catholic dogma and support for the natural moral order from conception to the grave without being criticised/discriminated against for their beliefs – or not?
Just repeating the mantra that it’s good, or difficult, or challenging etc to be a young Catholic in Scotland today isn’t telling us anything, really.
John, for example, rightly speaks of the duty to go out and evangelise. That’s true. But how can any of us evangelise without having a sound understanding of the Faith, ourselves? That video is a fantastic opportunity missed: it could have communicated, not only a sense of enthusiasm from the young (which it did) but also evidence of knowledgeable young Catholics who substantially know their Faith and love God and His Church.
There was no hint, for example, that any of these youngsters know that the Church is not as she should be at this time, no mention of the Church being in the worst ever crisis in her entire history. Indeed, mention is made of the suffering endured for the Faith by Catholics in previous generations, without acknowledging that, albeit in a different way, Catholics today are suffering due to the modernist stranglehold on the Church which means that we have unbelieving churchmen, even at the very top of the house. There was no awareness of any of this, and without that, any Catholic today, young or older, is handicapped because they are not on high alert to hear error and to recognise scandal.
Let’s hope that they make another video where these lovely young people fulfil the exhortation of St Peter to “Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you.”
Finally, since you know these young people and John’s father, why not take up RCA Victor’s suggestion, tell them about this thread and encourage them to sign up to comment. They will be made very welcome, indeed.
Editor,
It may well be, the state of the Church/poor catechesis notwithstanding, that young people are not the ones who should be going out and evangelizing – at least, not formally. I’m not sure about this, but I propose that the whole concept of youth evangelizing is defective from the start, although it is a logical consequence, as I said above, of those fraudulent “Youth Synods.” Informal evangelizing, though, is inevitable, given how youth so easily network. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty (as Patrick H. would say), would you agree that priests and theologians should take over?
In fact, I don’t know too many lay adults who could successfully evangelize either! I do, however, know quite a number of priests who are successful at it, through missions, retreats, articles and sermons. And certain apostolates as well.
RCA Victor,
In these times, you are right to be cautious about young people “evangelizing”. We didn’t call it that when I was young but young people who joined the Legion of Mary, for example, were prepared to do apostolic work, which lay people are called to do as part of our Baptismal and Confirmation duty.
I was a member of the Legion of Mary from around 11 or 12 years of age (Junior Legion, obviously) and it had a very important part to play in my own formation. You’ll find that many priestly and religious vocations grew out of Legion membership. Happily, I was one of the last groups through Catholic secondary school before the modernist stranglehold took root, so we were blessed to have solid teaching in lessons and from pulpits. Those were the days, as the song goes.
I’d need to know what it is that causes you specific concern(s), because, properly understood, the lay apostolate is very beneficial, both for those engaged in the various works of groups such as the Legion of Mary, and those who are approached in the various lay enterprises.
Of course, it’s different now, with Legionaries being part of the problem – acting as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and the rest, but prior to the deepening crisis in which we are now immersed, it was an excellent way of learning about the Faith and living it.
I’m not sure of any other organizations – my experience is limited to the LOM, but whether or not a lay person is a member of an organization, we are obliged to be a leaven in the community, in our society, spreading the Faith as best we can.
I’m interested to read your argument, though…In fact, allow me to help…
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/a5/8b/fd/a58bfd49af9d69789e2bfff5ef3c8023–random-stuff-fun-stuff.jpg
Editor,
I didn’t have the blessing of growing up Catholic, so I’ve never been familiar with Legion of Mary-type apostolates. In fact, since my upbringing was Protestant, you might say I belonged to the Legion of Doom….
Since returning to the Church, I’ve only been aware of a tiny handful of lay apostolates doing purely traditional evangelical work, to wit, yourself and Catholic Family News . Actually, that doesn’t even qualify as a handful! I wouldn’t even classify Taylor Marshall as such, since he apparently has a Fatima problem. Even Rorate Caeli is occasionally tainted with Novus Ordo content. And as for Catholic Family News, I don’t sense any urgency from them, since the death of John Vennari, RIP. In fact, their energy level is downright moribund.
It would help me to understand this if you could specify precisely what sort of evangelical work was done – in the good old days – by the Legion of Mary and similar apostolates. Maybe it would help to clarify my question by saying that my understanding of lay evangelical work is to teach non-Catholics (or lapsed Catholics) about the Faith and sow the seeds of conversion.
Or do you have a better definition up your sleeve?
RCA Victor,
I keep forgetting that you weren’t raised as a Catholic. You keep that well disguised 😀
In the “good old days” of Legion of Mary membership, we would undertake the following: I’ll write in the present sense, since hope springs eternal!
1) members are “juniors” until 18 years, when they will join the senior Legionaries.
2) Legionaries attend a weekly meeting, called a praesidium meeting (the Legion is designed to mimic the Roman army, an army under Our Lady’s command.) The meeting is allowed to last no more then an hour and a half.
3) meeting organised by 4 officers: a president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary. Meeting begins with the rosary, includes spiritual reading from the Legion handbook, a short homily from priest Spiritual Director (if no priest, no homily) and during the meeting “work tasks” are allocated – Legionaries work in pairs. At the following week’s meeting, each pair will report back on the task undertaken since the last meeting.
4) tasks are, typically, visiting a sick person(s), working their way round the parish, inviting/arranging to bring a small statue of Our Lady to homes and praying the rosary with the family (to promote the family rosary), visiting all homes, not just Catholics, to ask if we could speak briefly about the Faith, perhaps invite people to an event in the parish, that sort of thing. Perhaps distribute literature and miraculous medals. I recall doing that task in Glasgow city centre, using a bookstand with lots of pamphlets to offer passers-by, and it’s hard to exaggerate the positive response we received from people, literally queuing up to take pamphlets to read, speak briefly etc.
5) arranging follow-up visits from a priest; often people will be very pleased to receive a visit from the LOM in their homes, and will talk about their own situation, especially if lapsed or an interested non-Catholic, so the Legionaries will offer to tell the priest and he will visit. In some cases, people who had been cohabiting (in the days before it was fashionable) would admit their situation – ashamed – and were delighted to discover that the Legionaries could get the priest to visit and arrange for their situation to be regularized in the sacristy – nobody would ever know they hadn’t been married. I’ve heard from friends involved in such situations.
6) in the meetings we could give examples of experiences/encounters we’d had apart from our Legion work task, to demonstrate that we are aware of our duty to be living the Faith all the time.
7) even before the LOM came into being (1921 in Dublin, Ireland), though, Catholics were always taught that being a Catholic was not a matter of attending Sunday Mass or even daily Mass. It was about duty of state, first, but also spreading the Faith to others, in whatever way we could manage, in our homes, at leisure, at work, wherever there were people, souls were in need of God’s grace and it was our duty to bring souls to Christ in whatever way possible (short of coercion!)
8) It makes me sad that the LOM has gone the way of the world now, because it was hugely important in my own childhood and young adulthood, grounding me in my Faith – and I enjoyed the blessing of making great friends along the way.
Finally…
Hope this helps clarify the role of the lay apostolate in the days immediately before Vatican II and for some years after.
Others, of course, may have a different view – if so, let’s hear it.
Editor,
Thank you for that explanation: what wonderful work! No wonder it was “disappeared” after Vatican II: much too Catholic! And it answers my questions completely, except for one minor one:
For the Junior Legionaries, were the elected officers Junior, or Senior Legionaries? Or a mixture?
Oh, and one more question: why doesn’t the SSPX re-boot the Legionaries, they way they’ve rebooted the Militia Immaculata?
Al most certainly get in touch with them . Am also sure that You must know young Johns Father as he has been a TLM attender for many years . As a Hint he was also in the same line of work as yourself . Personally I think al leave it at that Literally .
Faith of our Fathers,
I do hope you get in touch with those young people and tell them about this thread – and my question! I asked at the top of the page where they look for help, since they know their schooling was inadequate. I’m really interested in the answer to that.
I also think the posts on here towards these Devout Young Men are very condescending to say the least.
Of course whether this will be posted or not . Well ?????
FOOF,
There were only two posts on here at the time of your writing and neither of them is in the least condescending. So please quote precisely what you interpret (wrongly) as “condescending”.
The young people in the video are definitely lovely and enthusiastic, as others have said. I would add “honest”. They were all very honest.
By that I mean more than one of them is actually admitting that their Catholic schools left a lot to be desired. They are thankful for their university chaplaincy, but that is by way of making up for what their schools lacked. That’s very interesting.
I agree more concrete examples could have been given. Grace spoke about helping people who came to her but without actually giving examples of the sort of things she spoke about with them. That would have been good to know.
Saying that, each and every one of those young people impressed me. I pray that they remain faithful when they go out into the world.
Lily,
I agree. It would be good if they could come on give us some concrete examples of what they were saying in the video.
Also, I would worry about the university chaplaincies. I’ve heard stories of them being pro-Medjugorje and other unorthodoxies. Unless you go to uni with a strong Catholic base, you can be easily misled.
The young folk in the video are very good souls. It’s clear that they love the faith.
I suggest that they get themselves copies of the excellent Baltimore Catechism, to learn more about the teachings of the Church. A lot of home-schoolers use it, it’s really first class, because it contains pictures to illustrate the teachings.
I’d love to know what our “young Catholics” think of this:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/coronavirus-donations-to-catholic-church-down-80-1.4295880
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