Dear Father

Many people have been asking me why my generation just does not get the whole church thing. It seems as my generation does not follow the rules. We do not go to the church in our boundaries. We do not act professional when we do things. We do not do this, and we do not do that. I have to point out that my generation does have a lot of good in them. So I am writing a letter to Father. Below is the letter to Father.

Dear Father,

We are just as much Catholic as the older parishioners. We want to be included into the parish. We try to be part of the parish. Yet, sometimes, we do feel like we belong to the parish.

We want to be part of your parish. However, we do not want to jump through many hoops to be part of the church. We do not want to be part of the politics from the parish level to the higher authority of the church. We do not need to be talked down to or yelled at due to not following the politics of the church. We want to be part of the solution.

Being part of the solution does not mean just blowing us off. We have ideas. We are up to the challenges. We are not asking you to macro manage us. We just want to discuss our ideas with you. Please do not remove us from groups because we do not want to constantly meet with a group in a bar setting. Please know that some of us are affected by the alcohol and drugs. We do not want to deal with that trauma at every meeting.

We are a generation faced with much trauma. We are dealing with family issues, relationship issues, and a host of other issues. Please do not tell us that we do not know how parishes work. We are the future of the Church and we are struggling with a broken church. We see the mistakes that the “all boys club” has made. We do not want to be defined by the broken church.

We are having a difficult time listening to your sermons. We sometimes see men standing on the altar thinking they are God. (There are a some of your fellow brothers who do think they are God.) We do not want to hear you talk about sins when you do not acknowledge your own sins.

We just want to come and spend time with Christ. We just want you to give us the Eucharist. We truly want to believe that the Eucharist is Christ. However, we have valid questions.

Please do not dismiss our questions. Our questions are valid. We do not fully understand the Church’s teachings. We want to be part of a solution. Yet, we cannot be part of a solution if we do not understand why.

Please show us compassion when we come to you with different views. We do not want to be yelled at or talked down too. We are adults and we may have different views. We are not trying to sound like we know everything. We are just trying to understand the why.

Finally, please do not take it personal that we church hop or we belong to a church outside of our boundaries. We do it because we are looking to be fed. Sometimes, our emotions get the best of us. Sometimes, we can not sit in a pew knowing that the priest on the altar is the one that turned us away from Christ. We all have our moments including you. So, please just try to understand that it may not be personal. We need to have our needs met. If you are worried as to why, then call us, text us, or just ask us. Please do not assume that it is something wrong with the Church. We are looking for our own grounding. And we may not see it is right in front our faces, until we have experienced different parishes.

Father, we still believe in Christ. We just need more credit than what we are given. We will continue to pray for you, just like you continue to pray for us.

Prayers,

From your young adults in your parish.