What do our young people really want — or need?

Greetings all,

I feel as though I've been away for a week but it's only been about 48 hours — and a refreshing 48 hours at that. Much interesting conversation with a fellow member of Catholica who, like us, has been through the long journey of bringing up a family and who has much to continue to reflect on at this end of the journey. His wife is still actively involved in "the system" and struggling with a lot of these issues that we are able to talk about a little more openly and honestly in a place like Catholica. What do our young people really want — or need? These are the questions educators face every day. Are our Church leaders the people best situated to answer those questions? There's something about living with young people 24/7 for 18+ years that causes a certain "mugged by reality" perspective that no man can get from the occasional "dinner with the neices and nephews". And talking about being "mugged by reality" I do urge you to read the post which Gail has placed on our forum this morning which looks at these issues of the needs for our youth — again from the perspective of a woman whose brought up a family, who's been active at parish and diocesan level in trying to make sense of it all. Unfortunately our Church leaders who need to be reading this sort of stuff are the ones who are least likely to be reading it. Not unrelated to all of that, Daniel Gullotta also offers a reflection on the recent Youth Retreat he recently attended in Brisbane. <Click HERE to read Daniel's commentary> <Click HERE to read Gail's Post in our Forum>

PETITION UPDATE…

Today the petition total stands at 8100. <Click HERE to access the petition information page> and <Click HERE to sign the petition online>.

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher