Last week, I noted that Pope Francis has now announced a theme for the next synod of bishops. That gathering of selected bishops from all over the world and the Church regularly meets every three years to discuss and advise the Holy Father on a topic of his choosing.

For the next synod, Pope Francis has chosen the theme, “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.”

That topic is a clear acknowledge-ment of one of the profound challenges of our time. Many young people have difficulty integrating their Catholic faith into daily life.

As observed in this column last week, a recent study by Notre Dame University highlighted several practical challenges that surround young people in our culture.

One is the emphasis on pluralism. That reduces the understanding of truth as not being shared by all but as different to each person. In that context, young people (and older folks too, to be honest) become reticent about embracing and witnessing to the truth.

Acknowledging that each of us is made in God’s image and likeness, that we will be judged before Christ on whether eternity is in heaven or hell, that Jesus is the savior of the world are all universal truths that associate us with our faith.

To fall away from the faith and its practice damages our link to the truth, and to the path to eternal life.
Pope Francis, however, has been very far-sighted in his choice of the theme for the next synod. A discussion of the faith and the discernment of vocation, of the personal calling in life given by God, as it related to young people is a logical next step following the recent synod that discussed the family and its needs and strengths.

The Notre Dame study that highlighted the challenges to the faith of young people also highlighted the vital role of the family in helping young people to keep their faith and find their place in the Church and life. That study underscored several points.

First, the greater the “emotional closeness” between Catholic parents and their teenage children, the greater the chance that young people will keep to and practice their faith into their 20s. This finding also reveals that this is especially true when young people maintain an emotional closeness to their fathers.

That finding, in a very few words, highlights the importance of commitment in marriage and in family.

The marriage commitment is not just the ring ceremony at the wedding and the exchange of promises.

It is the lived commitment that each spouse fully gives of self to the other. And that commitment extends in family as the parents, for years, sacrifice their own interests to be with their children.

The ties of love, of emotion and of faith come together to keep spouses and children one in their faith even as the children grow older.

The study also finds, building from those emotional ties, that when the parents of young people regularly attend Mass and talk to their children about faith, those young people are likely to remain Catholic.

As the study notes, “The difference between having nominal and actively practicing parents is a significant one in the lives of Catholic versus former Catholic emerging adults.”

In the family, we should not overlook any of the small gestures that convey the faith.

We might express our fidelity to the Cubs or Bears with anything from coffee cups to refrigerator stickers. But do we have a crucifix present and honored? Is there a statue of the Blessed Mother in our garden outside as a witness of faith to ourselves, our children and our neighbors?

We bishops and priests know that the institutional Church can and must do better in approaching youth and conveying the faith. Still, an essential contribution to the faith of our youth is made at home.

The strength of marriages and of adult faith has a real effect on young people in the family. The challenges to the family in our modern world are part of the challenge to faith. Here too we need a searching of souls and a renewal so that as adults and as parents, we are doing all that we can for the next generation of Catholics.