Catholic Panel’s First Goal--Get Young People Involved in the Church

Los Angeles-area Roman Catholics ended their first goal-setting consultation Sunday by saying that the archdiocese must, above all, spend more time and money to involve young people in parish activities.

Archbishop Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, who said his role will be “to help move forward this consensus,” said he thought that the voting at the Los Angeles Archdiocesan Convocation reflected broad concern that there are “so many Catholic youth and yet so few are involved in any programs.”

The 965 delegates, 855 of them laity from the archdiocese’s parishes in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, gave 526 votes to youth goals in voting at Loyola Marymount University. The proposal called for every one of the 285 parishes, by next summer, to have paid youth ministers and counseling services for drug, alcohol, gang, pregnancy and other problems.

Of 15 other possible priorities placed before the delegates, two virtually tied for second. Improving the archdiocese’s financial resources and addressing social injustices received 401 and 400 votes, respectively.

The two-day meeting culminated, except for a “celebration” Nov. 30 at the Sports Arena, a yearlong process of soliciting the opinions of ordinary Catholics about priorities for the next five years. Earlier, nearly 320,000 had answered questionnaires and 70,000 took part in parish assemblies, which were followed by five regional convocations.

Youth was the top priority that emerged from the five regional meetings, but it was unclear what other goals would rank high in the vote Sunday. For instance, social justice, which encompasses peace, fair wages, minority rights and similar issues, was no higher than fourth in any regional meeting. But Mahony said the rewritten proposal and eloquent statements during the discussion period Sunday may have made the difference.

Harmony and self-congratulation were the order of the day. Mahony told delegates assembled Sunday that “we are not gathered as political parties or factions. We are bound together by the Holy Spirit and our common call.” Indeed, delegates adhered to the ground rule that nothing negative be said about competing goals.

Officials who managed the consultation process said few complaints of omission have been registered. “People are just so amazed that they are getting to say anything,” said Sister Carmel Somers of San Fernando. The traditional manner of goal-setting has been from the top down in the hierarchal Catholic Church.

One complaint on the floor came from Mary Trudeau-Mottola, 30, of Brentwood, who said she was “one of few, too few, young adults” involved in the church. She explained in an interview later that the church “has a big job to reach out to alienated young adults and to involve them in leadership.”

Mahony, asked if he was disappointed by any of the voting, said he had hoped evangelization, bringing active Catholics and “unchurched” people into the parishes, would have ranked higher than 14th. At first, he told reporters that the low priority given to evangelization might rule out some programs aimed at inactive Catholics, but he later said that some programs that received low votes could be “folded into other categories.

Delegates were asked Sunday to pick only five priorities among the 16 available. The fourth-highest was improvement of Catholic schools, which got 360 votes. Fifth was spiritual growth, which received 302.