When older Catholics speak about the younger generation it is usually with an air of despondency. There is good reason for this: the statistics – in parts of the West, at least – are deflating. In the United States, for example, surveys suggest that just two thirds of baptised Catholics practise the faith as adults. Only 13 per cent of those who leave say they are ever likely to return. Thousands are disengaging from the faith each year.
But that is not the whole story. We are a global Church and in some countries – South Korea, for example, or the Democratic Republic of Congo – Catholicism is astonishingly youthful. And it’s easy to overlook our own successes. In Britain, we have the remarkably fruitful Youth 2000 movement, which has helped thousands to deepen their prayer lives and discover their vocations. The Syro-Malabar Church in this country has also been strikingly effective at retaining young people.
