Young adults: Are you ‘ghosting God’?

Millennials are a tough generation to reach with the Gospel. They are educated, tech-savvy and opinionated — and increasingly identify as either secular or “spiritual but not religious.” Evangelizing them means meeting them where they are, engaging them intellectually, inviting them to “be Church” — and using clever marketing strategies.

On Nov. 18, Father Cesar Jaramillo, a diocesan priest, gave a group of young adults at Our Lady of Consolation (OLC) Parish in Wayne those and other new and engaging ideas for evangelizing the current generation of “nones” — people who have no religious affiliation.

The priest, 32, a parochial vicar at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, talked about and led a discussion about “Are You or Somebody You Know ‘Ghosting [cutting off communication with] God?’ ” which was the topic of that evening’s meeting. It was held by the combined young adult ministry of OLC and Annunciation Parish, also in Wayne, inside OLC’s ministry center.

“Millennials are the most challenging but offer the most hope. They are willing to be intellectually challenged. They want reasons for the faith we profess,” Father Jaramillo said. He is also an adjunct professor for the Catholic Studies Program at Seton Hall University in South Orange. “St. Pope Paul VI said that ‘modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.’ We need to show them something radically different and attractive — something they don’t see in other areas of their lives.”

Therefore, “we need to have our finger on the pulse of society to engage them,” said Father Jaramillo.

Father Jaramillo referred to an effective academic marketing strategy that helped Seton Hall craft a course about a dense topic that might not appeal to “nones”: the Theology of the Body. It’s Pope St. John Paul II’s teaching on the human person and God’s plan for sex, marriage, and family. The course was given a clever title: “Faith and Fashion” — a look “at the age-old question, what it means to be a human person.”

The course analyzes three views: the human person in the image of God in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition; in the image of self, as defined by other schools of thought; and in the image of fashion — people as portrayed by the fashion media. This allows Father Jaramillo, who teaches the course, to impart Catholic teaching without being combative.

“About 80 percent of the class is willing to engage in the conversation about objective truth, beauty, and the truth about the human person. I challenge my students by arguing that everything about the human person on Face­book or TikTok isn’t true,” Father Jaramillo said. “Once others see our openness, our kindness, and our pursuit of holiness, they will naturally be drawn by that. We need to re-emphasize the relational aspect of our faith — person-to-God and person-to-person.”

In the discussion, Father Jaramillo urged Catholics to use the “personal touch” in evangelizing — meeting people where they are in their lives. At the cathedral, the All Souls Day Mass on Nov. 2 gets a much bigger attendance than the All Saints Day Mass the day before. At All Souls, churchgoers can write the names of five deceased loved ones on a candle and pray for them. This is popular because it “taps into their humanity” — their grief.

Father Jaramillo encouraged Catholics to invite people to “be Church.” At St. John’s, priests invite young adults to be lectors or join parish leadership.

One young adult, Michael DiBenedetto, suggested that millennials be invited to service ”— “faith in action” — for example, volunteering at a home for unwed mothers.

The “Ghosting God” discussion was initially scheduled before COVID-19, said Jeff and MaryAnn Miller, the young-adult ministry coordinators.

“There’s a lack of young-adult participation in parish life. We need this group in the Church. They need to take over when our elders pass on,” MaryAnn said.

John Abbot of Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Pequannock said the discussion encouraged Catholics to “have the confidence to speak about their faith amid skeptics.”