Signs of Growth
For most of my adult Christian journey, I’ve been conscious of the popular narrative that Christianity, in the West, is in decline. I’ve heard about the declining relevance of Christianity in modern society. I’ve read the statistics showing a steady decline in numbers of those practising the Christian faith into which they were baptised as babies. The story for Catholics is not that different. As an article about a recent small resurgence in Mass attendance shows, the overall picture is about a steady decrease in the practice of the faith. Mass attendance has dropped from a healthy 1.8 million in 1958, to 701,902 people attending Sunday Mass in 2019, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. In 2021, showing the impact of the covid pandemic, the number was 389,960, with a jump in 2023 to 554,913.
Within this overall picture, the recent jump might seem insignificant but even the secular press has taken notice. Recently there have been articles about the number of young catechumens being received into the Church, and about young people ‘finding truth in the Church’, not to mention the huge media attention around the death of Pope Francis and the forthcoming conclave. Among the many reasons attributed to this surge are immigration and the impact of internet evangelisation. A survey commissioned by the Bible Society and carried out by YouGov, called The Quiet Revival has found that Gen Z are playing a key role. In 2018, just 4 per cent of 18–24-year-olds said that they attended church at least monthly. Today, this has risen to 16 per cent, showing that there is a hunger within young adults to respond to the Gospel.
Flame: Unstoppable
Perhaps, like me, you have seen these new flames of faith being ignited and have been encouraged and inspired. Back in March, I attended the Flame 2025 event at OVO Arena, Wembley, with 10,800 people in attendance. There were huge numbers of young people along with their diocesan youth ministry teams and school staff, diocesan bishops and clergy, religious brothers and sisters, charities, missionary groups and new movements within the Church ranging from the Little Sisters of the Poor to One Hope Project to CAFOD.
The event, organised by CYMFed, filled the arena to the brim with youthful enthusiasm and zeal for faith. It focussed on the theme, ‘Unstoppable’. The day was filled with inspirational speakers from all over the world and incredibly talented musicians including Adenike Adewale. The giddy crowd were certainly unstoppable in their enthusiasm as they welcomed adventurer Bear Grylls to the stage. As he was interviewed, I was captivated by the contrast of his bold and adventurous life in comparison to the vulnerable way he spoke about his faith. He said,
Later, young people performed a contemporary drama based on the Scripture reading of Jesus’ Temptations in the Desert. There was a great sense of fun in the crowd with cheers for Jesus and boos for the devil. But underlying the pantomime antics, I felt a sense of young people wanting to align themselves with God and with all that is good and true.
“What inspired me about Flame was…”
Young people from around the country who attended Flame were struck by the experience of so many Catholics gathered into one place, by the sound of thousands of voices singing together and by how enthusiastic everyone was. This was brought home to me by a group of students from Cardinal Allen school in Preston who were inviting people to be interviewed for their social media account and were brimming with enthusiasm. It reminded me of how powerful it is for young people to be witnesses themselves.
The Church in Heaven Inspiring the Church on Earth
Young people inspiring other young people has been on our mind as a team as we’ve been reflecting on the next steps for our Prayer and Liturgy: Journeying Together programme. Many of you will have seen the publicity for our Jubilee Journey series of assembly resources, you might have encountered the stories from the series in our Personal Lenten Reflection Emails, or you might have even been using the assembly resources in your secondary school with students.
With the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, you will be aware that the canonization of Carlo Acutis has been postponed – but we know it is coming. The date for the canonization of Pier Giorgio Frassati has been set for this 3 August during the Jubilee of Youth in Rome. And there are other young ‘blesseds’ on the path to sainthood like Chiara Luce Bandano. All three were on fire with faith and unstoppable in their determination to give their lives for the good of others.
Here at Ten Ten Resources, we want to make these three inspiring stories known to as many young people as possible, allowing the Church in Heaven to inspire young people with faith, hope and love.
Journeying Together: Unstoppable
Inspired by the Flame 25 Congress theme, Journeying Together: Unstoppable will be the theme for our new assembly series. These assemblies will immerse students in the lives of three modern-day saints who were resolute in putting God at the centre of their lives: mountaineer, social activist and party-lover Pier Giorgio Frassati; teenage tech-genius Carlo Acutis; and radiant youth leader Chiara Luce Badano.The assemblies will focus on the reality of their everyday struggles and sufferings while showing the greatness of their example, their strength of faith and the virtues they displayed. Each fully resourced assembly will feature young presenters and introduce different forms of prayer with opportunities for students to participate and lead.
We can only commit to creating this resource if, by Wednesday 14 May, we get a minimum of 50 schools pledging to order the resource.
Will you make the pledge?
Images: Flame 2025 by Catholic Church of England and Wales on Flickr. Licenced under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://www.cbcew.org.uk/
PierGiorgioFrassati-Présentation by Luciana Frassati via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Chiara Luce Badano by cmdiocese on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Foto Carlo Acutis from carloacutis.com
