 As the publishers of Catholica Australia
and ourselves the parents of adult children, Amanda McKenna and I (Brian
Coyne, editor of Catholica), like many parents of adult
children have slowly come to a realisation that the accepted wisdoms put
forward by the conservative sectors of the hierarchy why so many people
have absented themselves from regular participation do not hold much water.
In our experience the view that people have been sucked out of the Church
by secular humanism, consumerism, laziness or the other distractions of
contemporary society seem to be the wisdom of men who have never had a
24/7, 18+ year commitment to raising a family, or they are the naive or
idealistic beliefs still held by sectors of the population who have not
yet reached the end of the process in rearing a family to adulthood. As
with any story, there are exceptions, but the foregoing seems to us to
be the general picture. The institution needs to start taking responsibility
for its own behaviours which have driven many people to seek spiritual
answers in other places. There are significant failings in the Church's
own communication methods and the agenda.
One of the objectives in creating this cyber community at Catholica
Australia has been a genuine attempt to explore the fullness
of reasons why so many people have become disenchanted with the institutional
Church. In particular we have made a number of endeavours seeking to elicit
the perspectives of young people themselves in the post-secondary to post-tertiary
sector of the population who are disenchanted. In these interviews today
we will be hearing from three young men, all good mates, who went to the
same Catholic school about eight years ago. They share a house today in
inner Sydney with a couple of others — also from the same school
— who unfortunately could not be present when we did the recording.
We have broken the interviews into bite-sized segments of about ten minutes
duration. James and Luke
are the two interviewees throughout all segments and Nick
joined us for the fourth and fifth segments. The house we recorded the
interview in also serves as a recording studio as most of the guys are
connected with the music industry and we apologise in advance for the
low-level ambient music in the later segments of the interview. That was
coming from a recording session in the room next door.
The recording has only been slightly edited as we wanted, as far as possible,
to let these young people speak freely in an attempt to gain an insight
into what their perspectives are today about religion, spirituality and
how they look back on the education experience they received at a Catholic
secondary school. Unlike some of the other youthful contributors we've
had on Catholica, one would
not normally expect these young people to sit down and write some long
essay exploring their opinions on these matters. From that point of view
these young people in these interviews are likely to be far more representative
of the average young person who has been through the Catholic Education
system in recent times. …Brian
Coyne, Editor
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 Introduction
– background about their school experiences — eight years
since they left school — what proportion of their friends are
still involved (perhaps 5 in every 100) — when did they become
disenchanted — God
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LINK:
Interview
with James & Luke – Segment 1 [10m40s
3.66Mb]
“The whole church thing — the whole Catholic
community thing — to be honest I think it's a dying tradition
… it's enough for people to say they're 'Catholic' or 'Christian'
or whatever. It's just like saying that you're 'Australian' or whatever.”
…Luke
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How
they deal with tough experiences — Attitude to religious people
in general — Muslim extremists and terrorists — Why people
believe — What has Catholicism contributed to the world …
and to them — School retreats
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IF
NO MEDIA CONTROLLER IS VISIBLE ABOVE USE THIS LINK:
Interview
with James & Luke–
Segment 2 [12m06s 4.16Mb]
“It goes from that to Rome with the Vatican
City having massive amounts of power and massive amounts of communication
— they had people running between every city — this communication
spread religion. Uneducated people all over Europe did what they
were told.” …James
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Does
religion provide some sort of framework for relationships —
where would society derive its moral values if there was no God
or religion — where they get their sense of identity —
liturgy and secular events — music
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IF
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Interview
with James and Luke – Segment 3 [16m08s
5.54Mb]
“When you asked before if I'm spiritual: if
I ever feel spiritual it's usually at a big festival and there's
thousands of young people around and we're all there for the same
reason which is like … music. And the only thing going through
people's minds is the music … and on that day, it doesn't matter
who you're with, what religion you are, what you're wearing.”
…Luke
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Nick
joins the conversation: Driving goals in life — school perceived
as keeping people out of trouble — needs to be more emphasis
in education on teaching people how to think — a discussion
about having babies
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IF
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Interview
with James, Luke and Nick – Segment 4 [11m46s
4.04Mb]
"When you finally harness or tap into something
that is good, and you produce something - it's like bringing a child
into the world. I don't care for a house, or any of that materialist
rubbish. I just want to make music - things that will stay behind
and have more resonance." …Luke
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Marriage
and babies — From an "extreme" Christian family —
Religion "denies" creativity — Life beyond death
— Richard Dawkins — Lourdes and miracles — Parish
experience — Religion not relevant in times of need.
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IF
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Interview with
James, Luke and Nick – Segment 5 [12m47s
4.39Mb]
"Hillsong, Hillsong. Like guys I've worked with
- religious people I've encountered over the last few years like
Hillsong guys - they're the nicest people. They're overly nice.
They're freakishly nice. They don't lie. They're the most honest
people I've known. They'll do anything for you …………
something's not quite right though!" …James
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On
reflection (meditating) — life directions — travel and
being constrained by possessions — lack of fear — parenting
influences and how they feel they've been shaped by those —
what they'd want for their children.
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IF
NO MEDIA CONTROLLER IS VISIBLE ABOVE USE THIS LINK:
Interview with James
and Luke – Segment 6 [9m33s 3.28Mb]
"I'd want my kids to make up their own mind.
With the whole school thing, I'd put my kids in a school that was
more creative-based - doing more things like arts, drama, music.
If you look at all the schools around they're more focused on maths,
English - and creative arts are at the bottom." …Luke
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Dear James, Luke and Nick, whatever some
may think, Amanda and I don't think you're booked on a one-way ticket
to hell. We're very impressed by all of you in fact! You may not
be able to yet see it but we believe your parents, your teachers,
your schools have an enormous amount to be proud of in how you present
yourselves. They also would applaud your honesty, your candour,
your sincerity and the courage with which you have faced the challenges
in your lives and in the self-evident love you all show for one
another and for your wider communities and our world. Thank you
for the time you gave us in recording this interview and for your
courage in sharing your opinions with us so honestly. Brian and
Amanda
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©2007
Catholica Australia. Permission granted for republication provided attribution
given to original source.
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Husband
and wife team, Amanda McKenna and Brian Coyne are the publishers
of Catholica Australia. Brian
can be contacted at 
