Priest calls for new strategies to keep young adults in church

Gee, Officer Krupke,
We're down on our knees...
-Stephen Sondheim (1956)

This Catholic News Service ran in the May 8, 2008 issue of "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald.

Father John Cusick, director of young adult ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago and the father of the Theology on Tap program, said the church needs a savvy "new apologetics" and "satellite sites" away from the parish grounds where young adults can gather to form quality relationships without feeling pressure from the church.

He has a good form for the question.

"If Catholic youth ministry is so good, where are all the young adults?"

Father might not be completely up to speed on current conditions.

Although young adult Catholics hunger for the Gospel, they are cynical about the institutional church, Father Cusick said. Often, they drop their children off for religious education classes but act as if they themselves would get a social disease if they walked into the church, he said.

Judging by published statistics and common advertising, some of them probably do have what Father calls by that anachronistic euphemism.