Young Catholics want doctrinal clarity, not adaptability, Irish bishop says

The next generation of young Catholics is less interested in a Church that adapts to modern culture and more drawn to one with a solid doctrinal foundation that is firmly anchored against a fragmented world, an Irish bishop said.

Speaking at a book launch in Dublin in mid-February, Bishop Niall Coll of Raphinoe said young people born after 1995 — whom he dubbed the “i-Gen” — are seeking “clarity, coherence and tradition” rather than the “adaptability” often championed by Church reformers.

“Growing up (since 1995) entirely in a post-Christian, digital, morally fragmented culture, they have no inherited memory of Catholic Ireland,” Bishop Raphinoe said, according to a Feb. 26 report by The Irish Catholic.

“Often converts, they are drawn to doctrinal solidity, sacramental depth and continuity with the Church’s tradition. For them, the Church lies in truth that is intelligible in body and demanding, not adaptability.”

Bishop Coll was among several speakers featured at the launch of “Transformative Renewal in the Catholic Church,” a book written by Spiritan Father John O’Brien that analyzes the structural and spiritual challenges facing the Catholic Church in the U.K. and Ireland.

The bishop’s remarks come as the Catholic Church in Ireland prepares for its National Synodal Assembly Oct. 17. The event is the culmination of the Irish Synodal Pathway, a five-year process launched by the Irish bishops’ conference in 2021 that seeks to engage clergy, religious orders and the laity in dialogue regarding Church governance and mission.

In his address, Bishop Coll suggested that Catholic leaders often misread the room, focusing on progressive agendas that do not resonate with young Catholics in the Church.

“Having grown up amid constant choice, information overload and moral ambiguity, they (young Catholics) are less interested in conversation and more in formation that produces conviction and confidence,” he said.

“If you are in a leadership position today, most people you meet are not on fire with progressive questions, and it is hard for me to say that to you,” the bishop said.

Bishop Coll also noted that synodality, “if not anchored in Scripture and doctrine, risks endless discussion without direction,” which, in turn, underscored “one of the most pressing challenges: catechesis and catechist formation.”

Renewal, he said, “cannot be sustained without formation.”

“A synodal church requires not only participation but understanding, not only voice but formation. The people of God cannot discern together unless they can articulate what they believe and why.”

Reflecting on Father O’Brien’s book, Bishop Coll said the Spiritan priest’s emphasis on “mutual learning with integrity” can serve as a guide for future synodal discussions so that “the hunger among ‘i-Gen’ Catholics for coherence and tradition might be received as a gift to the Church not a problem to be managed.”

“Synodality must hold together listening and teaching, discernment and authority. The task is not to choose between synodality and tradition but to integrate them,” the bishop said.

While renewal may “be slow and sometimes uneven,” it nevertheless requires “sustained theological clarity and spiritual depth,” he added.

“The future of Irish Catholicism will depend on whether the Church can become both synodal and coherent: a church that listens deeply, teaches clearly, forms intentionally and bears warm witness in a wounded world,” Bishop Coll said.

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