interview:
vietnamese americans sound off to the pope
lê đức, svd
T his year the
World Youth Day takes places in Australia, thousands of miles
from the United States. Many young people from America have been
doing fundraising and other activities in order to have the
funds to join in the festivities in Sydney. However, many are
sad that they will not be able to meet this Holy Father in
person this year.
Modern
Talkings asked three young people from California the following
questions and here’s what they had to say:
1) If you
could meet the Pope in person, what would you like to tell the
Pope about life as a young person nowadays?
Ben Tran:
These days and age, especially in capitalism societies such as
America. Young people are faced with many challenges. Stepping
into the world, we need to establish our own places in life.
With so many different forces influencing us from all
directions. It is very easy for us to go astray and set a
priority that leads us on a dangerous path away from God and
could potentially cost us our salvation. I have friends that are
formerly devout Catholics who are simply too busy to attend
Sunday masses or even go to confession once a year.
X.S.: I
would like to tell the Pope that believing God and living the
God's words have changed and continue to shape my life in a
positive way. I think with God’s power, I can help out many
other people who haven't had a chance to know about God.
X.S., Ảnh Lê
Đức
Minh-Kha
Michael: As I am only experienced in the life of American
Western society, I can only speak about the youth in this
society, even though most of the world is following in
these capitalist countries' footsteps. The youths are exposed to
so much of the "culture of death": drugs, sex, violenc, etc. A
lot of youth cannot even fathom life without the internet, cell
phone, cable TV, fast cars because life = technology.
Minh-Kha
Michael, Ảnh Lê Đức
As technology
advances, a lot of youths become dependent on it and are often
pulled away from what is serene. Lots of people cannot even sit
in silence for they are too accustomed to being busy. On a more
basic level, some youths are homeless and poor, and do not have
the luxury of even "touching" technology. On a deeper level,
youths are often confused about a lot of things. They struggle
with internal identity issues, whether it is vocational,
sexual/gender, religious, ethnic/cultural, or all combined
simultaneously. They are also influenced by social agents like
parents, religion, culture, and school. I'm sure the pope is
aware of a lot of these factors that shape and form the lives of
the youths today.
One important
trend I see happening, from both personal experience of friends
and acquaintances and from studying psychology, is that youths
are learning to differentiate between their religiosity and
spirituality. People claim that religiosity is defined by
religious rituals, practices, dogma, and doctrine of a specific
organized religion like Christianity and Buddhism, and
spirituality is defined as a relationship with a higher Supreme
being, whether that is God or nature or whatever. It is said
that you can be spiritual without being religious, but if
religious, you are most likely spiritual as well. Youths I see
are tending to move towards the un-theistic spirituality, which
I feel can be dangerous if they have no foundation and believe
that they will waver and fall. It's hard though with so much
busyness, temptations, and questioning of the faith, and I am no
exception to at least being exposed to this trend.
I hope the Pope
could address the needs of the youths. I know it most likely
starts at the diocesan level because that's where most youths
live and can be influenced at large. That means priests should
integrate their homilies to address the youths and relate
the readings to their issues at masses, and more religious
should be involved more with retreats and other youth supported
activities. I remember the late Pope John Paul II saying, "The
youth are the future of the Church and the world." We are the
true foundation of the Church.
2) If you
could meet the Pope in person, what questions would you like to
ask him?
Ben Tran:
Living in such a society, I would ask the pope what is the best
way to keep up with life and not losing your relationship with
God and your chance for salvation?
S.X.: I
would like to ask the Pope: What is the best way to approach
most elders of the way think about God? Even though they heard
some good things about God. Also, will God be listening to other
who is not Catholic when they pray in the name of God? I am a
newly converted Catholic baptized in March 2008.
Minh-Kha
Michael: How will the Church improve it's training and focus
on the youths needs? What will the Church do to keep the youth
from falling or leaving the Church, if that is one of the goals
of the Church? I know that the World Youth Day may be fun and
exciting, but the youths may come down after the "high" when
they go back home. How would the Church explain or help the
youth maintain their faith and "highs" even when they have dry
spells in their spiritual journey?
Given that the
more mature youths become early career professionals, how does
the Church and/or God expect/want/help us to reconcile the
difference between staying true to our faith and Church
teachings while also being morally and ethically bound to our
professional stances? For example, a Catholic doctor struggling
with giving an abortion, a pharmacist selling contraceptive
pills, a lawyer arguing for a death penalty or divorce case, or
a psychologist discussing with teens about sexual activity
(abstinence).
How can/will the
Church tell parents to be the primary educators and instillers
of the faith with their children? Because I see that most
parents nowadays drop their kids off at catechism class and
expect the religious education teachers to do that work. I don't
think it's fair to rely and depend only on these teachers to
teach about the faith. It must be lived out and encouraged by
the parents.
(Ben Tran,
S.X., and Minh Kha are Vietnamese Americans in their early and
mid twenties, from the cities of Rosemead, El Monte, and Rancho
Cucamonga in California. They are members of Thieu Nhi Fatima
Movement, which is based in the archdiocese of Los Angeles).
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