Young Adult Catholics

As I attended the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, California this past weekend, I marveled at my confused sense of self throughout the entire conference.  The only large Catholic conferences that I have previously attended are CTA and the Ignatian Family Teach-in/SOA protest, and, well, quite frankly I knew I was in for something a little different this weekend.  I didn’t realize, though, that I would find myself feeling an intense longing for a more “traditional” Mass while at the same time cringing in my skin as other participants asked speakers about the role of women in the Church.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, RE Congress features elaborate liturgies, breakout sessions on any number of topics, a sort of marketplace of Catholic “things,” and opportunities for networking.  I felt a little out of place from the moment I walked into the room full of exhibitors–there weren’t nearly as many peace and justice booths as I am used to at these sorts of gatherings, and I stumbled upon a large pro-life booth almost immediately.  Of course I think that the pro-life people deserve a space in this sort of setting, but their blaring presence, especially with so many other groups unrepresented, left me wondering what pro-life actually stands for.  

Throughout much of the conference, I felt even more progressive or liberal than I usually recognize myself to be.  I could never find the space to ask questions about how the Catholic Church can take a better approach to our understanding and treatment of LGBT community.   I found no place to ask the questions about the role of women in the Church.  Liturgies did not use gender-inclusive language.

The Young Adult Mass that I attended basically summed up my feelings of confusion for the entire weekend.  Featuring a sort of praise-and-worship music style and a young Australian Jesuit priest, this Mass was geared for the younger crowd at the conference.  Before the Mass began, the worship aid in my hand made me nervous about whether I could actually enter into a sacred space in this setting.  With songs proclaiming that Jesus became sin (definitely not my understanding of the Incarnation) and that Jesus was ransom for heaven, I wasn’t thrilled to be there.  In fact, I wanted to leave.  With the band practicing and people raising their hands in praise, I became uncomfortable with the theology upheld in the music.  The God I worship is not one that thinks that humanity is comprised of sinful individuals (sinful being our only quality)–the God I worship challenges me to be in relationship with God and others, working for peaceful and just relations between human beings and our environment.

Thankfully, I did not leave the Mass (though I missed the traditional Catholic hymns!).  The priest gave an outstanding homily, one that I’m sure was cause for plenty of complaints afterwards.  He told us a beautiful story of when he was a young deacon preaching at Easter weekend Masses.  He explained that he wanted to challenge people’s conception of God, and chose to do so by preaching that God is not just Father, Son and Holy Spirit: God is Mother and so much else.  He made a strong point that if we truly believe God to be infinite, then we can’t cling to this sense of certainty.  Basically, we can’t keep God in a box.  Now, for the CTA crowd, this is pretty obvious.  Among this group of young adult Catholics in LA, this was not the news they’re used to hearing.  The priest reminded us that as Catholics we are striving for a confident faith, but confident does not mean certainty.  We have to be open, he said, and willing to imagine that God could be and is different from our limited conception of God.

As I reflect on it now, that Mass summed up my weekend in LA.  I longed for more traditional and theologically sound hymns (preferably gender-inclusive!) while feeling absolutely thrilled when a speaker challenged people to open their eyes and let go of certainty.  Although I doubt I’ll return to RE Congress next year, it was good for me to remember that upholding the importance of dialogue is a lot easier when you’re always conversing with people who hold similar positions–it’s much more challenging in a mixed crowd.