If we can give young people deeper offers ,many respond to it

In an interview, Miguel Angel García Morcuende, the chief councilor for the youth ministry of the Salesian order, describes the differences between the youth in Central and Eastern Europe and the West. 

He talks about the fact that young people today live in great uncertainty and need to have someone with them who will listen to them.

According to the Spanish Salesian, the recipe for showing faith to young people is a personal testimony and a language that will be close to young people. He points out that even Jesus used parables that people of that time understood.

Miguel Angel García Morcuende (1967) comes from Madrid. He is an expert in spiritual guidance and vocation discernment. He is the author of several publications and courses aimed at teachers and education.

For six years he was the delegate for the youth ministry in the Salesian Province in Madrid. He was a member of the team of the Dicastery for Youth Service at the General Directorate of the Salesians in Rome as head of the school/vocational training department (2010-2017) and also taught in several Salesian schools.

Since 2020, he has been a councilor for the youth ministry of the Salesian order. His task is to revive and direct Salesian educational and apostolic activities. It helps the provinces in developing their pastoral plans and commitments so that they are faithful to the spirit of Don Bosco and adequately respond to the needs of the times and different places.

The Superior General of the Salesians, Angél Fernandéz Ártime, was recently appointed a cardinal. What does this mean for the Salesian family?

It was a big surprise for everyone. It is the first time in history that the chief superior is given such a high office in the church. His nomination as a cardinal was a decision made by the Holy Father himself without any prior consultation or involvement.

It means to us that the Pope has great respect for the work of the Salesians and values ​​it. We perceive this award primarily through the figure of Don Ángel, but it is also an award for all Salesians who work in 136 countries around the world. Don Ártime has a good overview of the church and young people in the world and knows the cultural contexts in all parts of the world.

Will the Salesian Congregation not miss such a personality, since Fr Ártime will work in the Roman Curia?

Yes, he will be missed. But we are convinced that if the Lord wants the congregation to continue, he will find another suitable superior. Within the Salesian order, you are in charge of youth ministry. What are young people like in Europe today?

Young people today live in uncertainty. It concerns work, the future, and society. This is a great challenge for us Salesians and educators. On the other hand, we see young people as open and communicative. Young people in Europe talk about what they live and feel. They need to always have someone next to them who listens to them.

The third thing, young people in Europe have a desire for spirituality. The society of sufficiency in which we live does not always respond to the deepest human needs. If we can give young people deeper offers, many respond to it. They have a great thirst for the meaning of life, and thus the religious question immediately comes to the surface.

Photo: John Smith

You say that young people have a desire for spirituality. But this generation is said to be losing faith in God. In many countries, we see empty churches. So how is it?

First of all, we need to rediscover the narrative language of faith. Young people need the essence of faith to be retold in a different way than we are used to. It is one of the great difficulties we face.

What attracts young people the most are testimonies and witnesses. If we cannot win the heart of a young person with our authenticity and naturalness, then it is very difficult to win him for something else. 

We also perceive the need for the liturgical celebration and celebration of faith to be rethought. This means that we need to strengthen participation more and help them better understand God’s word, which would be suitable for them, and it is also important to prepare the liturgical spaces well.

In some national conclusions from the Synod on synodality, young people said that they do not understand the church and the church language, which is too clerical. You also say that young people need to hear about faith in another language. How is that possible?

When we look at the Gospel, Jesus talks about the kingdom of God through parables. In the parables, he used the language of everyday gestures and everyday life that everyone could understand. In a country that was engaged in agriculture, he talked about fields, vines, and sheep. We need to work towards a language that would talk about the reality in which young people live.

We need to retell our experience of faith to young people.

Today we see that young people are sensitive to relationships and friendship. So the key to talking about Jesus must be that Jesus is someone who likes me and who wants me well. 

There is someone with whom I can put my trust because he shows me how I can be a more complete person. Jesus was a full-fledged human being, even in feelings and emotions, and in this way, we need to bring the character of Jesus closer to young people.

And does this model work?

Yes. In the Salesian congregation, among the brothers and also among the laity, we perceive as if they changed the register and started to play a different note. But it is also true that sometimes we simplify catechesis and reduce it to only some knowledge and an intellectual matter.

In which countries does this new model work?

In some Salesian provinces, they greatly improved the level of liturgical music. They have introduced songs that are adapted to the language of the young. In other places, they attach great importance to the preparation of the liturgical place. They create space for lighting, there are more colors, and they try to make the liturgy a matter of assembly, so they sit on the ground or in a circle.

It is primarily about the fact that Jesus presented himself as a person who had courage. The Virgin Mary is presented as a mother and a wife. Sometimes even the idea and image of our founder, Don Bosco, seem to be detached from reality. That’s why we also try to bring it closer to young people.

How to talk about God with young people today? Maybe they will come to the Salesian oratory or the parish to play and experience fellowship. But what if they don’t want to talk about God? How to reach them to think that there is something deeper?

It could be said that it is a pedagogy consisting of three steps. The first step is to be interested in the lives of young people. It is necessary to enter into their lives, desires, and experiences so that they understand that we are truly interested in them and their lives. 

Often it is the other way around and we want them to be interested in us and to be interested in the God we want to bring to them.

The second step is also very important. In it, we need to retell our experience of faith, because Jesus has become someone important in our lives. We do not sell any product or goods, but we talk about what we experience.

It is this second phase that is very significant because Christianity was born in this way and in this methodology. Christianity was born out of listening. People heard the testimony of the first Christians.

The third moment is to present Jesus as the one who gives meaning to my life. Sometimes we present Jesus as the God-man in both his human and divine nature and forget that young people also have desires and needs, or we don’t talk about who Jesus is for us.

Can wealth also influence the loss of faith among young people in Europe?

( Silence. ) Yes. I think so. If a young person fills his heart with many things, there will be no room left for God. We all have some desires and expectations in life, but if we feed our hearts primarily with material desires, then it will be very difficult to desire God.

Another problem is that today’s time is too sexualized. Pornography is readily available. The Salesians in Slovakia also have education for responsible love as the main theme in their pastoral and educational project. Is it a issue elsewhere in Europe?

The essential thing in the educational model we offer is that young people feel that they are loved and that we love them. We must not be afraid of any young person in any situation. Some young people are very wounded in their emotional and emotional lives. Some live emotionally as orphans, despite having a family.