Auckland Bishop Stephen Lowe has called on the diocesan Justice and Peace Commission to bring young people in to energise the commission’s social justice work.
Bishop Lowe spoke to members of the commission at their meeting on May 28, held at the Pompallier Diocesan Centre.
Bishop Lowe noted that, when he went to the Tu Kahikatea Awards in Ponsonby early this year, the church was packed with young people who are doing outreach programmes.
“Why aren’t they here? Why aren’t they part of the groups?,” Bishop Lowe asked. “Our young people are wanting to get involved in this. But what are we doing to actually pass the ball?”
Bishop Lowe suggested that they think about repackaging the idea of social justice work to encourage young people to join.
He said that young people at present are looking for things that are spiritual, which is why they are attracted to adoration.
“What they are missing is the sense of the transcendent Divine,” he said, adding that “they are also looking for surety in a world that is unsure”.
He said that there is a need to make clear that the social justice work we are doing as Catholics comes from our faith in Christ.
Using the metaphor of the kete, Bishop Lowe said that we should be “woven together in the love of Christ”, but “the kete is unravelling”.
“We have got to do the work, but we need to do it in Christ. I think this is what happens with justice and peace committees, we get really humanistic. We’re doing all these good works, but it’s not related to Christ. That’s how the unravelling happens,” he said.
“Young people, it seems to me, struggle with justice and peace issues because they don’t see it coming out of a relationship with Christ,” he added.
Bishop Lowe noted that some of the problems the commission had discussed included how difficult it was to get people in the parishes to form social justice groups.
He suggested that this could be an area where young people can help, because they know how social media works, and they are very creative.
“Look for people from the other generations. Keep them on board so they can bring in new life,“ the bishop encouraged commission members.
Bishop Lowe also said that another issue in the parishes is that pro-life issues take over the whole social justice agenda. But he said that Catholic social justice teaching also includes other issues, such as the environment and the situation of the poor.
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