Connections

A most distinguished group of professionals met recently on Saturday, April 17 to begin the lovely, but tedious task of disseminating the ‘Catholic’ fruits of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Dr. Bob McCarty, an original member of the NSYR Board, asked for and received the raw data of the study regarding junior and senior high Catholic youth and their religious beliefs and practices.

With the help of Ministry Training Source, Dr. Charlotte McCorquodale divided the distinguished assembly into the nine small groups, corresponding to nine major objectives. Each group combed through their data which included such objectives as, frequency of church attendance among youth, relationship of Catholic youth with parents, and the moral beliefs/attitudes of Catholic youth.

Group nine included Mr. Tom East (CMD), Sr. Ondina Cortez, RMI, Ms. Alma Richard, and myself. We were given the objective that dealt with comparisons and differences between race/ethnicity and gender. With responses numbering close to 250, across dozens of categories and several hundred responses, I felt ill-prepared to make any reliable assessments. As one not familiar with the study of statistics it took awhile for me to get the hang of it, especially since my closest experience had been analyzing the percentages of parishes not in attendance at our annual Faithfest.

Reminding myself continually that these were responses from real young people and their parents implied a dignity in what we were about and caused us all to make sure that any conclusions drawn were accurate, reliable, and true indicators of what we believe.

The totality of the information before us was overwhelming and it will take some time to accurately assess and validate conclusions regarding Catholic youth, their parents, and their religious practices, but it was certainly an honor to have shared the same space with such professionals as: Dr. Carmen Cervantes, Dr. Mike Carotta, Dr. Thomas Walters, Mr. Len DiPaul, Mr. Jeff Kaster, Mr. John Vitek, Ms. Barbara Anderson, Mr. Peter Choe, Ms. Dee Hawthorne, Mrs. Maggie McCarty, the NFCYM staff as well as the current board of directors.

It is the hope of the NSYR Task Group and the national staff to gather the data, including good news, concerns, and implications for the field of youth ministry and to present this in some form at the fall meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in November. Some of the information to be shared might include findings on the following:

• Conclusions about parishes that have a coordinator of youth ministry, or youth who attend Catholic School, or youth that participate in youth group activities.
• Correlations between young people’s Mass attendance, religious activities, beliefs, and experiences.
• What factors—familial, denominational, and social—tend to keep youth involved in their Catholic faith and its practice?
• How do the religious interests, concerns, and practices of American youth vary between different races, ages, social classes, ecological settings (rural versus urban), and between boys and girls?
• In what ways does religion influence the extent and quality of family relationships, academic achievements, and community involvements of American youth?

The final form(s) of information gleaned will be disseminated to diocesan offices and parish coordinators via printed/published materials and electronic formats. Discussion is also underway as to how the NFCYM will work with organizations such as the Center for Ministry Development, Ministry Training Source, and publishers to effectively incorporate the findings into useable handouts and resources for the field of youth ministry. An update will be made available, in some form, at the NCCYM in Pittsburgh as well as a possible in-service at the next membership meeting in Savannah, Georgia, in January 2005.

It is a personal hope of mine that the sharing of conclusions drawn from this landmark study will continue to lend ‘professional credibility’ to the field of Catholic youth ministry and its goal of bringing young people into relationship with Jesus Christ and the church.