Seriously?

Over the weekend I attended a youth ministry training day hosted by the diocese I work in. The new Director of YM is a very solid guy and the day was, for the most part, a great success.

However, there was one occurrence that literally kept me awake last night as I thought about it. Here's what happened:

One youth minister asked a panel of priests in the sweetest, softest and gentlest way she could, how to deal with her desire to teach what the magesterium teaches while having a seemingly liberal priest and parent council who may see her catechesis as too "religious" (whatever that means). She also stated that all her teaching comes straight from the Catechism. The priest responded with these main points (paraphrased):

1. Its not your job to teach what the magisterium teaches.
2. Its the job of the homily (i.e. the priest alone).
3. Its preferred that "experiential catechesis" be used anyway.

My issues with these three points are as follows (corresponding to those above):

1. Really? Because we've spent alot of the day reading the bishops documents that say we are vital to the catechesis and evangelization of youth. It we're not teaching what the magesterium teaches, then what are we teaching? Remember that its not as if the magesterium only speaks about NFP and abortion (which is what comes to mind for most people when you say "magesterium"). Isn't the Gospel contained within the teachings of the magesterium? Are we to spread the Gospel as laity or not? Look at Catechism paragraph 863...oh wait, thats a magesterial dosument... JP2 also pointed out the catechesis and evangelization are so closely tied that they can be one and the same. Yes, my reverend father, we are suppose to teach. And if we're worth our meager salary, we'll teach what the magesterium teaches.
2. If you think for one second that teens, who don't have a real relationship with the Lord, listen to homilies....I have bad news for you - they don't. And if you think that the younger generations are going to pick the Faith up from 10 minutes of blah blah (which is what they hear) in a homily once a week (if you're lucky), you're wrong. Its not as if they're going to pick it up from the boomers ahead of us who are probably some of the worst educated catholics you can find and then some how the homily will help to piece it all together. This is not to say that homilies are bad or that their parents are bad, its just the way it is at present. Homilies are for the faithful and are not necessarily the way most faithful catholics learn what the magesterium teaches. By the way, Sunday is for worship primarily. So, if someone is lost (whether in or out of the Church), the way they are going to be evangelized and catechized is not through homilies. So, again, as I said above: if we're worth our meager salary, we'll teach what the magesterium teaches. Do you want us to evangelize and catechize or not? If we're not, are you just paying us to have fun and games with the kids? They can have fun and games anywhere. What they want and what they need is solid catechesis. The truth is what will set them free not ultimate frisbee. Not to mention, if the homily is the only place people learn what the Church teaches, we're in bigger trouble that you can imagine. Not to mention that you should probably fire all DRE's, YM's, and other lay ministers as a waste of money. By the way, this also relates to the misunderstanding of the difference between ministry and apostolate, but thats for another post.
3. Experiential catechesis? This doesn't deserve to be discussed. Anyone who can take an objective look at the past few decades can see that experiential catechesis has not only failed as the primary mode of catechesis, but hearing it still discussed as if that's the direction the Church is moving is embarrassing.

That being said. The priest seemed like a very loving and holy man, but he was way wrong on this issue. Youth ministers are either in the trenches loving, evangelizing, and catechizing young people, or we're not. Get good people to do the job, make sure they are indeed in line with what the Church teaches, make sure they themselves have a living frienship with God, and let them do their job. Also, to you priests out there, please read Renewing the Vision....please.