Irish bishop says young Catholics yearn for ‘clarity’ and tradition, not synodality

(LifeSiteNews) — An Irish bishop said young Catholics today seek doctrinal “clarity” and tradition as a counter to the post-Christian world in which they are immersed.

At the recent launch of the book Transformative Renewal in the Catholic Church, Bishop Niall Coll of Raphoe, Ireland, highlighted the fact that what young people desire, and need, is not aimless “synodality,” but the solid, unchanging truths of the Church.

Speaking of young Catholics born from 1995 onward whom he dubbed “i-Gen,” Coll said, “Growing up (since 1995) entirely in a post-Christian, digital, morally fragmented culture, they have no inherited memory of Catholic Ireland. Paradoxically, this leads many of them to seek clarity, coherence and tradition.”

Indeed, young Irish Catholics have grown up in a country that has largely broken with its long tradition of fervent and faithful Catholic practice, as the political push of anti-Christian ideals, the decline of priestly formation, and the tainting of Catholic education in the country shows.

“Often converts (a)re drawn to doctrinal solidity, sacramental depth and continuity with the Church’s tradition. For them, the Church lies in truth that is intelligible in body and demanding, not adaptability,” Coll continued.

The bishop contrasted the spiritual need of the youth for firm teaching with the synodal focus on dialogue and “process” currently being pushed by the Vatican.

“Having grown up amid constant choice, information overload and moral ambiguity, they are less interested in conversation and more in formation that produces conviction and confidence,” he said.

The Catholics encountered by church leaders are not fired up by “progressive” ideas for the Church, he added.

“And this leads me to propose that synodality, if not anchored in scripture and doctrine, risks endless discussion without direction,” said Coll, highlighting problems of both the German Synodal Path and the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality, which have opened up for discussion heterodox takes on moral and Church issues.

“This highlights one of the most pressing challenges: catechesis and catechist formation. Renewal cannot be sustained without formation,” Coll stressed.

Rather than being catechized at Church or school, many young people now experience a version of catechesis online, he pointed out.

A truly synodal Church, he continued, requires not just participation in listening sessions but formation. “The People of God cannot discern together unless they can articulate what they believe and why.”

One of the proposals of Transformative Renewal in the Catholic Church is that the “listening” involved in synodality is integrated with Church tradition, and the preservation of Church authority.

Coll concluded that the book offers the Church in Ireland as well as Britain a “hopeful and realistic vision beyond institutional collapse.”

“Its reception must include serious attention to formation, catechesis and the theological instincts of i-Gen Catholics, while situating ecclesial failure within a wider societal crisis,” Coll said. 

The future of Irish Catholicism hinges upon whether the Church can both “teach clearly” and “liste(n) deeply” while bearing “warm witness in a wounded world,” he declared.

Amid the decades-long decline of Catholicism in Ireland, seeds of hope for renewal of the faith are being seen in the northern part of the country, where a Eucharistic revival is taking place.