• Article Tools
• Print
• RSS

Reasons for Hope: Springtime in the Church

by Vicki Thorn 

In my travels and speaking engagements across the country in many different venues, I often hear people bemoaning that fact that the Church is in trouble – “it isn’t what it used to be.” I would agree with this; after all, remember Pope John Paul II’s vision of a renewed Church.

However, it has been a decade since the turn of Millennium, and indeed, it is a new time – and we are seeing signs of spring.

I was recently invited to speak at the FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) national conference. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had met individual FOCUS missionaries, but I’d never been exposed to the big gathering. The conference was in Orlando, and that made the invitation to this shivering Wisconsinite even more welcome. What I discovered was beyond my wildest imaginings.

FOCUS has 45 missionary teams on over 45 college and university campuses in 25 states. At this event, more than 4000 people gathered for several days to celebrate the end of 2009 and ring in 2010, the majority of them college age. 4000 people gathered for Mass on New Year’s Day! The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Chaput, who was also one of the speakers. There were a multitude of priests concelebrating, a visible presence of seminarians and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. 4000 people before the Blessed Sacrament! The lines were long and steady as the priests heard confessions. The aisles were lined with booths of men’s and women’s religious communities ready to answer questions. The young woman who was my hostess was bright, articulate and competent, a college graduate giving a year of her life to being a missionary on a college campus. I spoke in two small group venues but fielded large audiences in both. After the second talk, a group of 40 stayed for almost an hour, filled with questions and seeking answers.

A year ago I experienced something similar, when my husband and I were invited to speak at a gathering sponsored by the Emmanuel Community in Paray Le Monial, France – the town where the Sacred Heart appeared in a vision to St. Margaret Mary.

We were present at one of the community’s five-day retreat sessions. They are conducted over the course of several weeks every summer and gather 30,000 people per summer – couples with families, singles and religious. It resembles nothing so much as a Catholic tent revival, meeting in a park with the majority of those attending staying in tents on the property. Mass, large group presentations and prayer is conducted in the biggest tent I have ever seen, seating at least 3,000 people. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed in an outdoor setting, and there are always people praying or going to confession.

This was summer vacation for the people attending. Here were families with babies, toddlers and adolescents. There are sessions for everyone tailored to their age, and presentations to the entire group gave witness to God’s powerful presence in our lives and to His healing mercy.

These are only two of a multitude of movements in the Church. There are smaller ones everywhere, like Theology on Tap, Theology Uncorked or Lolek, a young adult group in my home archdiocese of Milwaukee that proudly takes as its name the boyhood nickname of Pope John Paul II. Big or small, they are all reaching out with the truth to those who are seeking. This is a reason for hope! Clearly the Spirit is moving through the world.

This is the vision of Pope John Paul II: evangelization in the trenches. Clearly, the harvest is ready. I often speak on college campuses, yet in 25 years of speaking I have never seen students like these. They are engaging life and pursuing truth. Those in touch with their faith are fervent. Those that are seeking are very serious seekers. They realize that the world is not as it should be, and they are willing to do something about it.

At the end of the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II wrote in his Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte:

Yet again, the young have shown themselves to be for Rome and for the Church a special gift of the Spirit of God. Sometimes when we look at the young, with the problems and weaknesses that characterize them in contemporary society, we tend to be pessimistic. The Jubilee of Young People however changed that, telling us that young people, whatever their possible ambiguities, have a profound longing for those genuine values which find their fullness in Christ. Is not Christ the secret of true freedom and profound joy of heart? Is not Christ the supreme friend and the teacher of all genuine friendship? If Christ is presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as an answer that is convincing and they can accept his message, even when it is demanding and bears the mark of the Cross. For this reason, in response to their enthusiasm, I did not hesitate to ask them to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become "morning watchmen" (cf. Is 21:11-12) at the dawn of the new millennium (9).

A decade later, this invitation lives on in so many young people who identify themselves as members of the “JPII Generation.” This is a time for all of us to search our own souls, especially older Catholics. How can we be leaven in this growing kingdom? These young people are very competent, but they need the benefit of our prayers and active encouragement. We need to share the wisdom of our experience with them and, more importantly, pray for them and for this “new springtime of the Church.”

Website for FOCUS 

Website for the Emmanuel Community 

 

---

(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)