Teens who were isolated by the COVID-19 years and continue to be inundated with political division, smart technology and screens that fill one’s time but not one’s soul are increasingly looking for hope and meaning – with an increasing number turning to the catechetical wisdom and sacramental life of the Catholic Church.
Witness Malvern resident Tai Deignan who celebrated two life milestones this spring. He graduated from high school and entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, culminating several years of discernment.
“I think in a post-COVID world, people had a lot of spiritual isolation, and I think in such a divisive world, they’re looking for ways to come back and find God and call themselves back to a life in accordance with the will of God,” he said. “One of the things that I found most interesting about the Catholic faith was just learning about how much everything is rooted in love.”
Grief and a Bible: The Beginning
Deignan was lukewarm in his faith as a youngster but when he was 10 years old, his mother died of breast cancer, and he felt a tug to find out more about religion.
“After my mother passed away, I saved up my money that year for my birthday, and I bought a Bible. “I think that was my first real introduction to Christianity as a whole,” he said, adding that while he was baptized, the family would only go to church for major events.
“So being able to expose myself to that after her death was important. I think it definitely helped reconcile myself a little bit more. Being able to read the Bible and focus more on my religion was infinitely more helpful than any therapy session or anything I ever went to.”
It was also to build community that so many young people want.
Eamon Welsh, a fellow high school student, met Deignan when the latter started going to St. Patrick Church in Malvern during his discernment process. The parish’s pastor, Msgr. Joseph Duncan, introduced the two and asked them to help lead a new youth group that has grown steadily in numbers.
“Growing up, all I’ve ever been around really are cradle Catholics,” Welsh said. “Tai was really the first person that I ever met who actually wanted to be Catholic and on their own decided to find Jesus and find their place in the Church that He started. So that was pretty cool.”
Welsh said that many of the high school students who came to the youth group initially were there for the food or the fun of hanging with their friends, but that soon evolved.
“A lot of them might not have been super involved in the faith, but the youth group really helped them to ease into becoming more involved,” he said. “I thought that was a really awesome way of getting people involved and getting involved without it being a theology class at a Catholic high school where you’re forced to be involved.”
Now, their desire to participate often goes much deeper, he said.
“In today’s age, young people, a lot of young people are looking for things that have meaning because increasingly everything’s losing meaning in the world,” he said. “Going through COVID and growing up as one of the kids who was exposed to the internet and the digital world and everything – it’s so empty.
“After spending so much time thinking about things that aren’t real and existing in a world that isn’t real, you begin to just crave something deep and meaningful and beautiful. I think that’s what people are looking for. Young people want to find something.”
Growing Together in Community
The youth group meets usually twice a month. They share a meal and a blessing and usually have a presentation or guest speaker at their meetings. The focus is on deepening the Catholic faith from a high schooler’s point of view. The meetings end with team bonding activities such as playing games or sports.
“I think that being around people, again with like-minded values and spiritual needs, is extremely important, especially in high school,” Deignan said.
His own experience echoes that. When he came to St. Patrick Parish, he found a community where he knew he belonged. Deignan is one of three high schoolers who entered the Catholic faith this year through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA. This is a months-long process of learning about the Catholic faith, culminating in full initiation into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil.
The commitment was hard at times, but he never gave up.
“I think on the nights that it might have seemed difficult balancing it with schoolwork and everything else, but I think I found that even if it was going to run long and be an hour and 45 minutes, there was never a day that I went that I didn’t enjoy going to it afterwards,” Deignan said of the OCIA process.
Looking Ahead with Faith
Deignan is headed to Northeastern University in Boston this fall and will spend a semester abroad in Prague, where he is looking forward to visiting the many beautiful cathedrals in Europe.
“There’s such a politically divisive world, there (are) more and more people that are finding they want to be included and not pushed to the edges of society based (on) their religious or their social views. I do think that people are also looking for … something more spiritual and deeper,” he said.
Living the Catholic faith is not always easy, he said, but he’s found that when he makes time for God, his life is rewarded.
“There have definitely been days where I’ve woken up after, just a late Saturday night and I think to myself, you know, I don’t want to go to church today,” he said. “I think that there’s absolutely a gentle push from God, to be more religious and deepen your faith. But I have never regretted going to church afterwards. And I always feel energized and rejuvenated afterwards.”
That’s the hope that young people need, Welsh said: “A lot of people obviously have lost hope. But I have a lot of hope for the future for the Church. I see the way that the Holy Spirit is moving among young people. Young people are returning to the faith so, so quickly, and just so passionately as well. It gives me a lot of hope for the way that the church is going to be in the future.”
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