Los adultos jóvenes desafían la tendencia al secularismo en la Iglesia canadiense

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Vancouver, Canadá, 22 de julio de 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Un estudio reciente de Cardus afirma que los jóvenes católicos tienen el doble de probabilidades que sus homólogos mayores de asistir a servicios religiosos al menos una vez al mes.

Los informes sobre la disminución de la práctica religiosa entre los católicos en Canadá pueden ser más frecuentes cada año, pero una tendencia diferente que muestra un mayor interés por parte de los adultos jóvenes está dando esperanza para un posible resurgimiento de la Iglesia en un futuro próximo.

A 2022 research report from Cardus titled “The Shifting Landscape of Faith in Canada,” revealed religious indicators among those who identify as Roman Catholic have overall declined since 2017. Those indicators included believing in God, reading Scripture regularly, having an experience of God in one’s life, praying regularly, and attending religious services (apart from weddings and funerals) regularly.

Sin embargo, el informe encontró una excepción en los católicos canadienses más jóvenes.

“We are seeing what seems to be a bit of a revival within the Church and that goes against the old secularism thesis that as a society becomes more secularized, it becomes less religious,” said Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, director of the Faith Communities Program at Cardus.

“We live in probably one of the most secularist countries in the world and we see that a lot of young men and women are far from leaving the Church; they are actually entering into it instead.”

Bennett es firme en que cuanto más aumenta Canadá su sociedad secular, más se convierte el catolicismo en una opción atractiva para los adultos jóvenes (aproximadamente de 18 a 34 años) como una forma de rechazo en lugar de un escape.

“Increasingly we have seen a number of young people, whether it is in high schools, universities, or workplaces, not buying into society’s highly subjective idea of truth. They are seeking integrity, authenticity, and something with real staying power,” he continued.

“This sees them come to or return back to the Church they were raised in where they see that the Catholic faith holds an objective and universal truth, one that is not a philosophy that changes with the wind but rather the person of Jesus Christ.”

El informe de Cardus muestra que los canadienses que se identifican como católicos romanos menores de 40 años tenían casi el doble de probabilidades que los católicos romanos mayores de asistir a servicios religiosos al menos una vez al mes. Además, el 81% de los jóvenes católicos romanos mostraron creer en la vida después de la muerte, con el 91% de las mujeres menores de 35 años teniendo esta creencia, en comparación con el 60% de sus homólogos mayores.

Si bien analizar datos demográficos específicos puede ser complicado (y en la Arquidiócesis de Vancouver estos registros son responsabilidad de las parroquias individuales), el informe destaca que ciertos indicadores de creencias pueden dar una visión realista de quién se identifica como católico.

Cardus conducted another survey in 2024 called “Still Christian(?)” to look at the relationship between the personal beliefs of Canadian Christians and the teachings of various church denominations.

“In the ‘Still Christian’ survey that we just did recently, the questions were essentially ‘mere Christianity,’ meaning that either you agree with these or you do not, and if you do not agree with them, you become incoherent in terms of the Christian faith if you yourself profess to be Christian or Catholic,” Bennett said.

The 2024 report also stated that “younger Christians appear to be more intentional or committed to the teachings and practices of the faith than Christians of their parents’ or grandparents’ generations.”

The younger generation “is beginning to desire a more traditionally Catholic life,” Bennett said. “If you look at any church where the Traditional Latin Mass is being offered, they are not only growing, they are bursting at the seams.”

Una parroquia que no es ajena a los adultos jóvenes es la Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia en Vancouver, cuya Misa en latín se ha convertido en la fuente y cumbre de su creciente comunidad.

El padre Kent Grealy, vicario parroquial de la Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia, señala que el aumento de jóvenes y familias ha sumado aproximadamente un nuevo feligrés cada domingo durante cerca de los últimos seis meses. Estos nuevos miembros también comentan sobre la cantidad de otros jóvenes y familias presentes.

Se ha discutido una multitud de razones, pero Grealy conjetura que, aparte de un escape de los ideales de la cultura moderna, hay algo intrínseco en descubrir un propósito superior que lleva a las personas en ese rango de edad directamente al Evangelio.

“Young adults are at that point of their lives where they possibly look towards marriage or to more substantial relationships. Through that they often discover the romance of faith which begins to take shape around that age,” he said.

“That draws them into discovering the Gospel, which is this story that is a great epic, and it shows them that the nihilistic and materialistic bent of modernity makes life not worth living.”

Es una teoría que también ha sido observada por Eric Chow, director asociado de ministerios y alcance de la Arquidiócesis de Vancouver. Para él, una causa significativa del aumento se reduce al hambre de los adultos jóvenes por encontrar su papel dentro de la Iglesia y un lugar en su vida cotidiana.

“The word that comes to mind for me is identity,” he said. “The young adult stage is really about seeking identity and moving into adulthood in such a way that is true to who they are and who God has made them to be.”

Durante los últimos cinco años, Chow ha supervisado un equipo de formación laica que apoya el Rito de Iniciación Cristiana para Adultos de la arquidiócesis, varios ministerios de adultos jóvenes y la formación catequética de líderes laicos. Incluso antes de su mandato, había notado un cambio en la demografía.

“Prior to working for the archdiocese, I worked for an evangelization movement called Catholic Christian Outreach, which is a university student movement dedicated to evangelization and works on campuses all across Canada. There, we had seen an increase in the number of young adults that have not only engaged within the life of the Church but also engaged within the life of their local parish communities.”

También citó la sed de formación en liderazgo como una de las razones por las que las audiencias más jóvenes buscan el catolicismo.

“They are hungry for more than even just a young adult community, something that is not limited to a prayer group once a week. There has been a shift in the way in which Catholicism is being expressed within communities, and part of what I am seeing with young adults is a desire to want to have real, authentic, and relevant expressions of Catholicism that help animate their everyday lives in things like decision making.”

Los efectos en el mundo real que tiene una afluencia de atención de adultos jóvenes en la Iglesia reflejan la sinergia beneficiosa entre los adultos jóvenes y la religión.

“I think [increased young adult involvement] invites every parish to consider how they might provide support beyond just giving them a room and a couple of bucks to buy some pizza. It is thinking about how can [parishes] form these young adults in such a way that they can have their questions answered around their identity, vocations, their relationship with God and at the same time, offer them tangible on-the-ground leadership opportunities to serve the Church in a greater way,” Chow said.

“These people can still dream a lot about what tomorrow might bring but at the same time be old enough to do something about it and that is a really neat dynamic of being engaged at that age.”

Este artículo fue publicado originalmente por The B.C. Catholic el 12 de julio de 2024, y ha sido reimpreso aquí con permiso.

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