Sexuality, dissent high on agenda for Synod meeting on youth [News analysis]

June 19, 2018

Young Catholics are seeking “an authentic Church,” and “a Church that shares their situations of life in the light of Gospel rather than by preaching,” according to the working document for the October meeting of the Synod of Bishops.

The working document calls for candid discussion of themes that trouble young Catholics, and insists that Church leaders should “speak in practical terms about controversial subjects such as homosexuality and gender issues, which young people are already freely discussing without taboo.”

In a significant step to accept the language favored by homosexual activists, the Vatican document refers to “LGBT youth,” saying that these young people need “greater care from the Church” and hope for “a community open and welcoming to all.”

More generally, the document observes that “many young Catholics do not follow the indications of the Church’s sexual moral teachings,” and bishops agree that “questions about sexuality must be discussed more openly and without prejudice.” The Synod document says that young people who dissent from the Church’s teaching on controversial issues nevertheless “express the desire to remain part of the Church.”

The 67-page document, known as the Instrumentum Laboris, was released by the Vatican on June 19. The document—which was initially released only in an Italian translation—will form the basis for discussion at the Synod meeting, which will focus on the theme: “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.” The Instrumentum is the product of a lengthy preparatory process, in which the office of the Synod collected comments from the world’s episcopal conferences, from religious orders, and from thousands of young people who participated in conferences or responded to an online survey.

While issues of sexuality loom as crucial points for debate at the October Synod meeting, the Instrumentum covers a wide range of other topics, including challenges to young people such as drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, unemployment, bullying, and threats to the environment. The document notes a “mutual estrangement” between generations, and suggests that this “generation gap” might be overcome by “ecological conversion.” Introducing the document at a Vatican press conference, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the general secretary of the Synod, remarked that today’s young people—especially those who are poor—are keenly aware of the ills caused by a mentality of “buy, use, and discard.”

In its final section, the document explores the ways in which young people might live out the Beatitudes, suggesting that “youth is a time for holiness.” Cardinal Baldisseri told reporters:

The Synod’s primary aim is to make the whole Church aware of her important and not at all optional task of accompanying every young person, without exclusion, toward the joy of love; secondly, by taking this mission seriously, the Church herself will be able to reacquire a renewed youthful dynamism; thirdly, it is also important for the Church to take this opportunity to carry out vocational discernment, so as to rediscover how she can best respond today to the call to be the soul, light, salt and leaven of our world.

 

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Further information:

• Working document for Synod on youth presented (Vatican news)
• Press Conference for the presentation of the Instrumentum laboris of the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, 19.06.2018
• Young Catholics need church that listens to them (CNS)
• Questions on sexuality loom large ahead of youth synod (CNA)
• Vatican’s synod document takes inclusive tone towards youth who disagree with church (Vatican Insider)