Letters

Generation 'Y'

Kevin Cains

Contents - Nov 2006 - Buy a copy now Editorial: EWTN and the secular media: fighting fire with fire Education: The Spirit of Generation Y: the challenge for Catholic schools - Cardinal George Pell Living the Faith: What distinguishes a practising Catholic? - Bishop Luc Matthys News: The Church Around the World England: British Catholicism's dark night of the soul Books: Is the Catholic Church in Australia 'lost'? - Michael Gilchrist Brisbane Archdiocese: inclusive language in the liturgy continues - Michael Apthorp Liturgy: US bishop sets out clear guidelines on celebrations of the Mass - AD2000 REPORT Television: EWTN: now affordable and accessible in Australia - Moira Kirkwood Letters: Missal translation - Pat Hurley Letters: Translation hang-up - Fran Swindale Letters: Accuracy needed - Carol V. Phillips Letters: Faith and reason - Peter D. Howard Letters: Narrow - Norm Yodgee Letters: Infallible teaching - Don Ford Letters: Education needed - Judy O'Reilly Letters: Early baptism - John Schmid Letters: Declining practice - Gerard J. Keane Letters: Chavagnes College scholarship applications - Ferdi McDermott Letters: Conversion by violence - Gregory F.J. O'Regan Letters: Generation 'Y' - Kevin Cains Letters: Common sense and married clergy - Errol Duke Letters: Poem's author - Valerie J.Staunton Letters: Anonymity - Michael Apthorp Letters: EWTN by broadband - Bren Scheiner Poetry: Sometimes Gladness: Collected Poems 1954 to 2005, by Bruce Dawe - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: St John Bosco, St Dominic and the Rosary, St Thérèe of Lisieux - Siobhan B. Reeves (reviewer) DVD: A Family Retreat, by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen - Daniel Tobin (reviewer) Events: The teachings of the Catholic Church: an exploration Events: Second Annual Victorian Catholic Students Association Conference 25-26 Nov 2006 Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Catholic schools must proclaim the total love of Christ - Fr Sebastian Camilleri OFM

A three-year study of Generation 'Y' (those aged 13 to 29, including Catholics) identified three major categories of spirituality, one of them ‘Eclectic’. Eclectic represents ‘a collage of themes from disparate sources such as neo-paganism, goddess worship, astrology, various superstitions, or elements of Eastern or esoteric religious practices ’ (October AD2000).

This all sounds rather like some of the beliefs of Catholic Earthcare Australia (CEA), an ecological agency of the Bishops' Conference funded by ordinary Catholics. Senator Christine Milne of the neo-pagan Greens is an associate and advisor to CEA and attended CEA's two-day conference last year. Some CEA associates view her as the messiah on ecological matters.

CEA's Executive Director Col Brown advised the conference that ‘not surprisingly, many of Australia's conservation and environmental groups have invited Earthcare to join forces for particular projects and campaigns - our new found friends include the Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Greening Australia, Worldwide Fund for Nature, Greenpeace, Tasmanian Wilderness Society and the State nature conservation councils’. Not surprisingly?

Bishop Pat Power, Chairman of the Bishops' Education Committee, was advertised in parish notices in Canberra as a speaker with Senator Lyn Allison, Senate Leader of the neo- pagan Democrats, at a recent remembrance ceremony held by the group Family & Friends for Drug Law Reform. This group advocates a soft line on illicit drug use and Bishop Power regularly attends their public functions. The Democrats are on record as supporting the decriminalisation of illicit drugs.

No wonder so many of our 13 to 29-year-olds are turning to Eclectic spirituality.

KEVIN CAINS
Garran, ACT

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 19 No 10 (November 2006), p. 15