Ideals
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
20 Jun 2004
Why is there such a rapport between Pope John Paul II and young Catholics? What is his message today to Generation Y, those coming of age in the third Christian millennium?
The Holy Father’s message to youth has always been the same. He has called them to greatness, spiritual and moral greatness; to follow Christ. Young people know this is a compliment.
According to conventional wisdom the Pope says all the wrong things. He has not campaigned for condom machines in secondary schools, does not support the legalization of soft drugs, strongly opposes soft and hard core pornography. He has not instructed his bishops and priests to turn a blind eye to pre-martial sex, to living together before marriage, does not urge young women always to have the contraceptive pill with them. Precisely because of this he has attracted the largest gatherings of youth in all history. Most young people know that they are capable of striving for the highest ideals of love and self-control, know that they are being sold out when weakness is presented as the norm.
Those born after 1979, (Generation Y) are the best educated generation in history and girls have opportunities never available earlier. No generation previously has ever been able to know their grandparents for so long.
But Generation Y also has unprecedented burdens because they suffer the consequences of the social revolution of the 1960s, a time of extraordinary change, especially in affluent countries like Australia, which continued until the 1980s.
The invention of the pill triggered a collapse in the birth rate and the marriage rate, an increase in divorce, the rate of births outside marriage and a huge increase in “de facto” couples living together.
The social landscape was transformed, ancient understandings of what was proper sexual behaviour were rejected. The adult quest for personal fulfilment, the legitimation of “doing your own thing” meant that this social experiment was conducted at the expense of the children. When adult behaviour changes, children are affected.
More children grew up in households affected by drugs, often without fathers, left in non-parental care at younger and younger ages. These parents continued to love their children, wanted them to be happy, but too many did not explain even the basic rules of sexual and family life, much less Christian living.
The young people were set adrift, encouraged to be tolerant above all else. Many became searchers, seeking more than value-free living, more than a society which exalts personal convenience and is ravaged by marriage breakdown.
The best are seeking a better way, looking for signs of hope, for secure markers in everyday life.
Martin Luther King wrote that you must love those you hope to change. The young know that Pope John Paul II meets this criterion, that he is a witness to hope, because he embodies Christian principles which bring meaning and personal peace.
