DI S CE RN ME NT I N T H E MODE RN W OR L D
Dr. Michael J. McCallion
IN THE FA LL OF 2 0 1 6 , P OPE FR A N C I S A N N OU N C E D T H E T H E M E OF T H E XV
ORD INARY GENERA L A SSEMBLY OF T H E S Y N OD OF B I S H OP S : “YOU N G P E OP L E ,
THE FAITH A ND VOCAT IONA L D I S C E R N M E N T,” W H I C H R E C E N T LY E N D E D.
Part I titled “Recognizing: The Church
Listens to Reality” (Instrumentum Laboris),
delves into what young people had to say
about their faith lives and the Church as
well as what many expert social scientists
(sociologists and anthropologists) have
learned studying youth. As the document
states: “In this first step, we should focus
on grasping concrete realities: social sci-
ences provide an essential contribution
which, incidentally, is well represented in
the sources that are being used, but what
they have to say is looked at and re-read
in the light of faith and the experience of
the Church” (p. 8). This article focuses
on two themes found in this first section
of the document, tradition and social me-
dia, both of which challenge youth and
provide opportunities.
Sociologically, an ominous challenge
youth face today is living in a cultural con-
text of liquidity (explained soon) which
deemphasizes tradition(s) and, moreover,
promotes a social media that further un-
dermines communal traditions. As the
document states, “several non-Western
Bishop Conferences are wondering how
they can accompany young people in deal-
ing with this cultural change that is unrav-
elling traditional cultures rich in solidar-
ity, communal ties and spirituality, feeling
they do not have adequate tools” (p.11).
Arguably, more than non-Western peo-
ples are facing this unravelling. As Amer-
icans, we live in a culture that Polish
sociologist Zygmunt Bauman names
“liquid modernity,” a culture that does
not value stability, maintaining tradi-
tions, or practicing rituals that express
and create familial, social, and ecclesial
identity. Bauman, in other words, inter-
prets the present cultural context as a so-
ciological and cultural liquefaction where
“it is now the facility with which things
can be turned upside down, disposed of
and abandoned that is valued most . . .
we are all thrown into an unstoppable
hunt for novelty.” In other words, all is
liquid: family, community, faith, parish
life—nothing is solid, stable. And where
there is familial or social or religious so-
lidity it soon vanquishes in wave after
wave of cultural liquidity until we “for-
get” what was given us as gift—faith, fam-
ily, and community (see also #63). One
important and difficult challenge youth
confront today, therefore, is maintaining
traditions, both familial and religious,
which previous generations (especially
the baby boomers) let slip through their
fingers. But how did traditions slip away?
Baby boomers, like most Americans
,are regularly “on the go.” Notably,
Americans get caught up in the cultural
process of upward social mobility which
often results in physically moving great
distances away from families, communi-
ties, and parishes. A friend recently said
he was moving to North Carolina because
he liked the area. I remember telling
him I would miss him. He said, “Oh,
just come down anytime—we’ll still see
each other.” No, we won’t! The distance
between us will quickly begin to thin out
our relationship. I will not see him every
week at Church or in our golf league or
at other local community events. I might
text or phone him but that is completely
different than seeing him in person. We
seldom ask ourselves, young or old, what
do I owe the family and community who
raised me? Do I have obligations to the
family, community, or parish where I
have spent my life up until this point?
Our American cultural value system
of individualism answers this question
with, “Hell no, go, do your own thing,
find your own way, be your own person,
you are not obligated to anyone except
yourself.” In other words, disconnect,
depart, leave (abandon) your family,
friends, community, past traditions, and
communal rituals that rooted you and
gave you a sense of belonging. Moreover,
in physically leaving family and parish to
sink temporary roots somewhere else, of-
ten far away, sociologists have found that
one’s familial and communal narratives
or stories slowly fade as well.
As the liturgist Timothy O’Malley re-
cently wrote: “liquid modernity reveals not
a multiplicity of meta-narratives, opening
up a space for religiosity. Instead, liquid
modernity is the collapse of all narrative
except for the angst-ridden individual,
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