QUESTION:
WHAT EXACTLY IS BRINGING MILLIONS OF MILLENNIALS AND GENERATION Z INDIVIDUALS TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?
COMMENTARY:
Young people throughout the world are coming to the Catholic Church in droves. They are between the ages thirteen and forty-four, give or take a year or two. Why is this?
After all, theirs is a secular world and missionaries, in many cases, are not on the scene. They come from secular backgrounds, from a multitude of other religions, and yes, “Catholic” households in name only with no parent passing on the Catholic faith to them. In many cases, “Catholic” parents even had these children Baptized after birth. At the child’s Baptismal font, they were asked by the presider:
“What do you parents ask of God’s Church for this child?”
They answered: “Baptism”.
Presider answers: “You have asked to have your child baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training this child in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring this child up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor.”
Presider asks: “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”
They answered: “Yes.”
Presider states: “The Christian community welcomes you with great joy. In the name of the Catholic Church, I claim [child’s name] for Christ our Savior by the sign of his cross. I now trace the cross on your forehead and invite your parents to do the same. We anoint you [child’s name] with the oil of salvation in the name of Christ our Savior; may He strengthen you with his power, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. We ask you, Father, with your Son to send the Holy Spirit upon the water of this font. May all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise also with him to newness of life. We ask this through Christ our Lord.”
“We ask you, Father, with your Son to send the Holy Spirit upon the water of this font. May all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise also with him to newness of life. We ask this through Christ our Lord.”
“God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you [child’s name] from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.”
“You have become a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.”
“You [child’s name] receive this lighted candle, the light of Christ. Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ. He (she) is to walk always as a child of the light. May he (she) keep the flame of faith alive in his (her) heart. When the Lord comes, may he (she) go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.”
These parents’ solemn promises to God were sadly breached: They raised their children without God in their lives. Their children are now coming to understand what “new life” of Baptism might mean and why, on their own, are drawn to the Catholic Church, despite it all.
Their children are coming to an understanding with their emerging views of this world of what Saint Catherine of Siena wrote: “It’s heaven – all the way to heaven – or it’s hell – all the way to hell, not later, but now.”
These parents’ children are now understanding that God did not need their consent to come into this world, but that clearly God must have their consent to pass through to the next – Heaven bound. This time they are deciding for themselves!
23-year-old, Generation Z, Nalin Haley, transparently and instructively explains why he decided to recently become a Catholic. He grew in a household in which his parents were Methodist, and his grandparents were Sikh. His mom is Nikki Haley, former UN Ambassador and Presidential candidate. He determined Catholicism was a religion not just to join, but one he could “live” through the Church Sacraments in all stages of his life, now and into his future years. Listen to his transparent testimony in his short interview:
For your spiritual health and well-being, Dan Steele
