I once confided in my priest because I was confused about my faith. Upon further exploration of the Catholic Church's teachings, I realized I disagreed, or strongly disagreed, with a considerable amount of them. Many of those teachings conflicted directly with beliefs I had developed because of how I had seen adults act in my life and in my friends' lives. He said that as long as you believe in the majority of the Church's teachings, then you are Catholic.
That principle is something I feel is not preached enough in the Church. Issues seem so polarizing and black and white as a young Catholic. It seems as though there is no gray. Oftentimes, the way Catholicism is preached and taught leads us to believe that unless we wholeheartedly agree with every single principle the Church presents to us, then we cannot be Catholic, let alone be a dutiful and faithful Catholic. But college has taught me that that is not the case.
In this day and age, it is imperative that we preach the roots of Christianity: love, acceptance, charity and kindness. The world we live in is filled with hate, greed and prejudice. As Christians, it is our job to combat these things. We also live in a world that is filled with anti-Christian and anti-Catholic rhetoric. It is our job to dismember these false stereotypes that exist of Christianity and Catholicism.
We need to remember that faith is not just present in Church on Sundays. It is not even just present throughout the day on Sundays. Our faith is a constant challenge, every second, of every day, of every week.
Many people say attending Church isn't the basis of their relationship with God. Although this is a staple of the Catholic faith, that needs to be catered to. Catholic communities need to do a much better job of creating opportunities to bond millennial Catholics together outside of weekly Mass. People my age prefer small faith groups over ritualistic ceremonies that don't always feel personal.
Of those who choose to have a relationship with Christ, I've noticed a familiar sentiment is that they are spiritual and not religious. Similarly, I think this stems from the emphasis the Catholic Church puts on its teachings. There is an absence of teaching how to have a personal relationship with God. Compared to my Protestant friends, it seemed God was found in Mass and in Mass only, and possibly through occasional prayer. My Protestant friends, however, somehow knew how to find God in the Bible (because they were taught how to read it and were taught TO read it outside weekly services), in nature, in other people and really just in everyday life.
As a millennial Catholic, many of us have come to the conclusion that the way many Catholic schools and dioceses teach and practice Catholicism is not sufficient for us. We crave a personal relationship with Christ. We crave small groups that help us build our faith.
