Following is part of a letter from Bp. Robert Morlino, now the bishop of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin. At the time he wrote this (Sept. 2002), he was bishop of the Diocese of Helena, Montana. It was a wonderfully encouraging article for me, being one of those young Catholics, and seemed to capture the spirit of our generation. Enjoy!
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The young people of the whole world, a fine sample of whom were present in Toronto, the young people of our diocese, those who are going to spend most of their lives in this third millennium, are often referred to as Millennials. I like the term very much. These Millennials very much want to follow Pope John Paul II as the direct successor of Peter. That is why they turn out by the millions to see him all over the world.
It has become clear to me through many years of working with young people that they want to be more Catholic, rather than less. The Holy Father does not proclaim to them that they should follow their conscience, for example about pre-marital sex. He simply proclaims the truth that pre-marital sex is always wrong and that one can live according to this truth with the Grace of Jesus Christ. The Millennials applaud wildly when they hear this Good News from our Holy Father.
These Millennials want excellence in the living out of their faith rather than mediocrity. With all that is wrong in the world and the Church today, even with all of our scandals which have victimized Millennials, they choose not to be discouraged because they know discouragement is the tool which the devil uses to keep good people from doing great good. When good people give into the temptation to discouragement, they mope about, demoralized, doing neither anything very bad nor anything very good mediocrity. The Millennials want excellence and they seek to follow the advice of St. Paul never to give into discouragement. Thirdly, the Millennials want unity in their Church rather than division. The battles of the last thirty years between liberals and conservatives rightly turn them off. They know that the terms liberal and conservative are derived from politics, and that the whole point of those terms in the political sphere relates to the desire of the conservatives to defeat the liberals, and the desire of the liberals to defeat the conservatives one group chooses to make losers out of the other group. The Millennials have no interest in this whatsoever. They know that in Jesus Christ Risen from the Dead, we are all called to be winners, winners who live out the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death.
They want, again, to be more Catholic not less, excellent not mediocre, unified not divided. The Pope leads them to that vision, and in that sense he is a Millennial Pope. With our young people I want to follow him, and I am a Millennial Bishop. My vision, my agenda, is simply to go forward into this Millennium with the Millennials under the leadership of Pope John Paul II.
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The young people of the whole world, a fine sample of whom were present in Toronto, the young people of our diocese, those who are going to spend most of their lives in this third millennium, are often referred to as Millennials. I like the term very much. These Millennials very much want to follow Pope John Paul II as the direct successor of Peter. That is why they turn out by the millions to see him all over the world.
It has become clear to me through many years of working with young people that they want to be more Catholic, rather than less. The Holy Father does not proclaim to them that they should follow their conscience, for example about pre-marital sex. He simply proclaims the truth that pre-marital sex is always wrong and that one can live according to this truth with the Grace of Jesus Christ. The Millennials applaud wildly when they hear this Good News from our Holy Father.
These Millennials want excellence in the living out of their faith rather than mediocrity. With all that is wrong in the world and the Church today, even with all of our scandals which have victimized Millennials, they choose not to be discouraged because they know discouragement is the tool which the devil uses to keep good people from doing great good. When good people give into the temptation to discouragement, they mope about, demoralized, doing neither anything very bad nor anything very good mediocrity. The Millennials want excellence and they seek to follow the advice of St. Paul never to give into discouragement. Thirdly, the Millennials want unity in their Church rather than division. The battles of the last thirty years between liberals and conservatives rightly turn them off. They know that the terms liberal and conservative are derived from politics, and that the whole point of those terms in the political sphere relates to the desire of the conservatives to defeat the liberals, and the desire of the liberals to defeat the conservatives one group chooses to make losers out of the other group. The Millennials have no interest in this whatsoever. They know that in Jesus Christ Risen from the Dead, we are all called to be winners, winners who live out the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death.
They want, again, to be more Catholic not less, excellent not mediocre, unified not divided. The Pope leads them to that vision, and in that sense he is a Millennial Pope. With our young people I want to follow him, and I am a Millennial Bishop. My vision, my agenda, is simply to go forward into this Millennium with the Millennials under the leadership of Pope John Paul II.
