Spanish bishop says young people's religious interest is exploration, not a turn to Catholicism

Bishop Francisco Conesa of Solsona, in Catalonia, gave the opening lecture of the 11th Pastoral Update Conference held by the theology faculty of the University of Navarra on October 21 in Pamplona, Spain. He spoke about how young people are searching for God today and the pastoral responses the Church can offer.

Conesa said the growing religious interest among the young does not amount to "a Catholic turn, but rather an exploration, because most of them know nothing about Christianity." He added: "This is a challenge for us. It is an opportunity to connect with their desires, with their tastes, to support them, welcome them and offer them experiences of fullness of life that fill their hearts."

Forms of the religious search

Conesa said that despite the spread of secularization, "a deep thirst for God persists in man." He listed several ways that search surfaces today: a desire for spirituality, an interest in experiences of transcendence, a search for salvation, an attraction to beauty and the persistence of popular religiosity. He also said "young people have now lost all fear of speaking about God openly."

Conesa devoted part of his lecture to the wounds and difficulties many people carry. "Many people come to us and find peace and calm. We have this therapeutic challenge: to offer a word of mercy to wounded people," he said.

Risks in certain forms of spirituality

Conesa warned about risks tied to contemporary expressions of spirituality: emotivism, syncretism, aestheticism, traditionalism and individualism. On emotivism, he said religious experiences need to be supported by stable processes. "So that it does not all remain pure emotion, we have to consolidate paths of formation and integration into the community," he said.

Pastoral proposals

Conesa closed with several specific proposals. He pointed to welcoming, listening to and supporting those who are looking for meaning in their lives, and he called for the riches of Christian spirituality to be offered through prayer, silence, beauty, the liturgy, community and service.

"The Church cannot be seen only as a moral educator or a defender of certain truths, but above all as a teacher of spirituality," he said. He said people need help to uncover their deepest longings: "We have to let the desire for God surface amid that tangle of human desires."