November 05, 2009 (Catholic education, Catholic schools)

Editor’s Note: The following is a small section from a larger conversation about Commonweal Magazine titled “Keeping the Faith: A Conversation with the Editors” which was published in the January 6, 2009 issue. This section of the article reflects on young Catholics. MOS is Margaret O’Brien Steinfelds, PS is Peter Steinfelds (both are former editor’s of the magazine) and yes they are husband and wife.

MOS: I don’t know. My impression is that Catholics are all over the place. They’re more conservative, they’re more liberal, they’re more radical, they’re more everything because they are no longer contained within the subculture’s definition of what it is to be a Catholic, both religiously and, if you will, sociologically. Many younger Catholics just try out things. They have different influences. If one of their parents isn’t Catholic, or their parents are only nominally practicing, obviously the kind of attachment you feel to the church through your upbringing is tenuous. But I don’t think that’s impossible to deal with. I just think a certain amount of imagination and creativity is needed.

PS: I think that the emergence of young, more conservative Catholics is a reality. Numerically, that group is a minority, and there is a much larger group that is still… Well, let me back up. I think there are basically four categories of Catholics middle-aged and younger. One consists of fundamentalist Catholics who want something, whether it’s the pope or particular texts or certain forms of ritual, that can be relied upon to provide their identity. For them, these things are not to be challenged; they’re to be taken literally. It may not be Scripture; it may be papal documents or other things. Then there is a neoconservative group that is much more questioning and intellectually adventurous, but whose identity is very much defined over against the secular liberal culture. And then there is a very large liberal group that has a Christian and Catholic commitment, but they are not willing to isolate themselves. They think that the secular liberal world-partly because of its Christian roots-has got a lot of good things in it. They want to be engaged with the culture and in conversation with it, not just in battle with it. They are not going to form their Catholic identity over against the secular culture. The fourth group is a more radical and political group that forms an identity largely around very personal, radical social-justice commitments.

I think that the third group is probably the Commonweal group of the future, merging into the fourth group. Will they read a whole magazine? Some will. Frankly, I’m not sure print magazines will continue. Tom Reese [former editor of America] thinks we’re all soon going to be reading magazines on an advanced version of the Kindle. No more worries about paper and printing and postage costs. People will continue to read journals of opinion that way. And then things from the magazine will get parceled out digitally. Commonweal may exist virtually in all sorts of little bits and pieces here and there.

The full article is available on line, however it requires a subscription to access LINK HERE

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