The Church in the 21st Century Center
Student Voices Project Synod Report Summer 2022
INTRODUCTION
In the fall of 2019, Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Center set out to develop a method for ‘taking the pulse’ of Boston College students’ faith journeys. Between November 2020 and October 2021, the Center’s Student Voices Project surveyed nearly 550 Boston College undergraduate and graduate students about their faith journeys. In the first phase of the Project, the Center distributed an online survey to over 370 students, prompting responses to the following questions:
1. What has been your best experience in the Church?
2. What has been your worst experience in the Church?
3. If you could tell Pope Francis one thing, what would it be?
4. What nourishes you in life?
5. What do you want from the Church?
In the second phase, a new survey was distributed to more than 100 students. This second survey required students to write short responses to two questions on an index card:
1. How has Boston College helped you deepen your faith?
2. How can Boston College help you deepen your faith?
Finally, in October 2021, more than 75 new students engaged in an online survey that asked how Boston College has helped, and still can help, deepen students’ faith.
Phase One and Two Findings
After a year of data collection through online surveys and focus groups, the Student Voices Project distilled four major findings from the Phase One and Two data:
1. Boston College students desire a sense of community on campus and around their faith;
2. Boston College students are interested in faith and willing to engage with questions about faith outside of Mass;
3. Boston College’s coursework and distinctive academic programs facilitate fruitful engagement with questions of faith; and
4. Boston College students believe that hospitality is a crucial factor in Mass attendance and the success of related programs.
Notably absent from the Project’s Phase One and Two findings is a robust discussion of the social, moral, and political issues that typically accompany surveys about young people’s faith. This is not because students did not mention these issues or note that they were the impetus for feelings of exclusion. Instead, the Phase One and Two data revealed that most college-aged respondents were principally interested in learning about the Catholic tradition before discussing other derivative issues. Moreover, the absence of these typical findings in the first Student Voices Project report can be attributed to the fact that:
Students lack a robust understanding of their faith, leading them to be apathetic about religious practice and participation in the life of the Church.
The students who participated in the Project’s first two phases could almost unanimously identify at least one aspect of their college experience that had helped them deepen their faith. In fact, the Project recorded stories of students who enrolled in a first-year theology course and subsequently added a theology major or minor. Similarly, students expressed thanks for Boston College’s ability to facilitate the building of faith communities that they had not previously found in their dioceses or high schools. Most strikingly, numerous students discussed how the Mass and availability of the sacraments on campus were important parts of their faith journeys. Take just these sample responses to the question of how Boston College has helped students grow their faith:
1. “Reflection has opened my eyes to spirituality.”
2. “By giving me a faith community! Love my God-squad.”
3. “Because of the theology core, I have been able to academically learn about my faith.”
A SERVICE TO THE SYNOD
Having learned that the Student Voices Project’s model of short, digitally accessible surveying was an effective strategy for understanding how students view their faith, the Center adapted this model to support Pope Francis’s Synod on Synodality. This national effort featured a concise online survey with four questions:
1. What has been your best experience in the Church?
2. What has been your worst experience in the Church?
3. Where do you see God working in your life?
4. What do you want to see in the future Church?
Fast Facts: Who Participated? Major Conclusions?
In the course of three months, the Future Church Synod Project collected a large sample of responses from a variety of students and institutions. Here are some fast facts about our participants:
After analyzing the Project’s 1,000+ responses, over 95% of which were generated from high-school-aged students, the C21 Center reached three major conclusions about where young people stand in relation to their faith:
1. Young people want to develop a greater understanding of their faith and a sense of meaning in practicing it;
2. Young people desire a sense of community around their faith; and
3. Young people desire greater engagement from school, parish, and Church leaders, especially around pressing social issues.
Finding #1: Understanding & Meaning
Across all four survey questions, students identified a general lack of understanding of their faith. Likewise, students widely acknowledged that they had little sense of meaning in practicing their faith. For example, when prompted to identify their “worst experience in the Church,” multiple students discussed their lack of understanding of the Church’s theology, especially related to the sacraments and the liturgy. Take the response of this first-year high school student in Maryland:
“I consider my worst experiences in the Church to have been times where I have not been able to understand a Bible passage or mass, as it has made me feel disconnected from its message.”
Furthermore, consider the response of this third-year high school student from California to the same question:
“The pain in realizing that I knew and felt nothing for this faith.”
While some students specifically acknowledged their lack of understanding of Church doctrine, as in the above responses, others made more implicit acknowledgments that their faith formation has been negatively impacted by poor catechesis. In fact, students expressed feelings of apathy and disinterest in faith because they could not make sense of the Church’s teachings and practices.
Students expressed a similar level of discomfort with participation in the sacramental life of the Church, often because they felt “forced” to participate. For example, one first-year high school student from Massachusetts described his/her worst experience in the Church this way:
“Confession in Middle School. I lied because I felt forced to confess, it was not out of my own willingness to.”
Considering the fact that 97% of respondents in the national survey were high-school-aged students, a lack of catechetical knowledge is not a particularly surprising finding; indeed, many students in Catholic high schools are only beginning their adult faith formation journeys. Nevertheless, these responses are striking given that even many college-aged students surveyed in the first two phases of the Student Voices Project described a similar lack of understanding of the faith.
The college-aged student data, however, revealed that college coursework in theology and philosophy facilitated fruitful engagement with faith.
Aside from concerns about understanding fundamental features of the Church’s spirituality and sacramental theology, the Future Church Synod Project revealed students’ confusion about the Church’s social, political, and moral teachings. In some instances, students indicated their disagreement with Church teaching outright, such as in the case of these two first-year high school students from Missouri:
“What has been your worst experience in the Church?”
1. “Disagreeing with the Church's teachings and morals at times.”
2. “Disagreements with church teaching on capital punishment.”
In addition to this “typical” disagreement over Church teaching, students expressed a lack of comfort with how the Church accompanies students in their quest for understanding
difficult issues. Take, for example, the response of this third-year high school student from Connecticut:
“What has been your worst experience in the Church?”
“I think I don't like the way the Church (or at least my local leaders) currently address "difficult teachings" namely abortion, homosexuality, etc … I understand that [clergy] are passionate and probably angry, but don't tell us to just accept teachings without thinking!! I think my generation loves to think. We like to make our own decisions. And I really do think that if we are able to think about things ourselves without so many stigmas/political colorings/interferences/people yelling at us from both sides, then we might actually be more inclined to accept Church teachings on some things.”
Students who discussed disagreement over (or a lack of understanding of) social, political, and moral issues often suggested that the Church was not offering convincing rationales for its positions. In cases of theological doubt (e.g., over the sacraments), students who struggled with their faith similarly suggested that the Church was not effectively teaching about why Catholics should believe what the Church believes. In the words of one first-year student at a Catholic high school:
“I just want to better understand what’s happening.”
Just as students expressed a desire for a greater understanding of their faith, they also hoped for a greater sense of meaning in practicing it. Most often, students expressed disappointment with the liturgy and participation therein, as will be discussed in Conclusion #2. But, put simply:
Students want to know what the Church teaches, why the Church believes it, and why (and how) it should matter in their lives.
Despite the warning signs in this data, there are signs of hope in the Project’s findings about understanding and meaning. Indeed, while far fewer high-school-aged students specifically articulated their desire for understanding and meaning (as compared to college-aged students), high-school-aged respondents nevertheless suggested an openness to engaging with the Church’s teaching on fundamental theological questions (e.g., the sacraments), as well as social, political, and moral questions.
Ultimately, to effectively teach high-school-aged students about the Catholic faith and accompany them as they come to understand it:
The Church must demonstrate greater interest in and capacity for exercising its teaching function in a pastorally responsive way.
As reflected in the Student Voices Project’s Phase One and Two findings, a pastorally responsive approach accompanying young people in their quest for understanding and meaning can take different forms. At the high school level though, these are some of the practices that students suggested could be beneficial.
Suggestions:
1. Offering more intelligible explanations for …
i. Why Catholic sacraments exist,
ii. Why students receive sacraments at certain ages, and
iii. Why the Mass is conducted in the way that it is, especially during the Eucharistic celebration;
2. Offering more substantive information to students about how personal conscience relates to the Church’s social, political, and moral teaching;
3. Engaging with contentious issues in a serious way that recognizes U.S. culture’s hostility to traditional Church teaching in some areas;
4. Exercising the Church’s teaching function from a position of openness and encouraging students to explore previously held beliefs; and
5. Providing students with concrete experiences in which they can come to understand God’s love.
Finding #2: Community
Like the Phase One & Two college-aged respondents, high-school-aged respondents expressed a clear desire for community around their faith. In many cases, these high-school-aged responses were connected to the desire for an inclusive sense of community across gender, race, and, especially, sexual orientation. Similarly, students identified a more basic lack of faith community among young people. For some, this lack of community made practicing faith an awkward and uninviting experience.
Not all of the respondents who discussed community identified it as lacking. Indeed, a number of respondents noted that strong faith communities of which they were a part, or
of which they knew, were signs of hope. Take, for example, this response from a first-year student at a Catholic high school in New York City:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
“Seeing members of the LGBTQ+ community feel welcome to come into one of the services.”
Similarly, see this response from a first-year, Catholic high school student in Missouri:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
“My best experience with the church has been how loving, inclusive, grateful, and forgiving the community is. When I became confirmed, I felt very welcomed and opened into the catholic church.”
Even students who said they did not practice a faith could highlight positive examples of faith-based communities. Take, for instance, this response from a first-year agnostic student at a New York City Catholic high school:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
“When my grandmother passed away, her church community was very supportive of me and family and made sure to check up on us.”
Among self-identified Catholic students, those who discussed community largely did not do so in discussing their “best experience[s]” in the Church. Nevertheless, this general observation does have some notable exceptions, such as from this first-year Catholic student from the same New York City high school:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
“My best experience is most definitely my ability to contribute to my own church community. I am a lector at my parish and enjoy having the opportunity to spread the word of the Lord through my own voice. Additionally, I have always loved to sing. Singing at church as a cantor has provided me with a way to proclaim the word of the Lord whilst also sharing the gifts that God has given to me.”
This response fits within a larger context about the liturgy and participation therein. Indeed, a noticeable number of students, even of high-school age, noted that the liturgy and participation therein were important facets of their faith communities. See, for example, these responses from high school students in Maryland and New York:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
1. “Being able to form a community/family with the other kids at mass.”
2. “I really enjoy participating in Mass in school with my school community.”
3. “Christmas mass. It has this incredible feeling of community and celebration I have rarely seen in other places.”
In addition to the liturgy, students also identified positive examples of faith-based communities in their parishes, schools, and service opportunities.
In the parish context, most students mentioned positive memories of parish events, or general examples of feeling included in a parish community:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
1. “Church community activities like fundraisers or fairs.”
2. “Seeing the amount of generosity and thoughtfulness that lives in a church community. People are always looking out for their fellow parishioners, and it’s easy to feel the love in the community.”
3. “Whenever the whole parish comes together to do something good for the community, like a funeral or something along those lines.”
More frequently than in the parish context, students identified Catholic schools as examples of positive faith communities:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
1. “The community I have found of sisters with the same values within my school.”
2. “Finding a community through school, connecting with teachers and community members involved in the Church.”
3. “Catholic School and connecting with others in the Catholic Community.”
4. “Being able to share my faith with the community within my parish and school.”
In addition to parishes and schools, students discussed how service opportunities (or other forms of outreach to the less fortunate) were community-building experiences:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
1. “I like going to Church with my friends and family and putting my faith into action in the community.”
2. “Serving others and the emphasis on community service.”
3. “I liked going to church on [Easter] as well as when we would do church-organized events to help the community.”
There were a variety of reasons why students did not feel a strong sense of community around their faith. Many of these reasons included feelings of exclusion because of the Church’s moral teaching. See, for example, these responses from a first-year agnostic and first-year Catholic high school student at high schools in the state of New York:
“What has been your worst experience in the Church?”
1. “I was told by members of the clergy words that the bible justified the restricting of women's rights and hatred against the LGBTQ+ community.”
2. “Seeing communities be told they're not accepting and hated for being different. For example, the LGBTQIA+ community and other religions.”
There were other students who mentioned more general failures in community-building, such as this first-year Catholic student from an unidentified parish:
“What has been your worst experience in the Church?”
“The church I attend does not have a very loving "community" and had no sense of fellowship.”
Perhaps most striking among responses about “community” was the number of students who discussed their desire for a stronger sense of community in the future Church, especially among youth. Indeed, the exact phrase “community” was used more than 50 times in response to the question: “What do you want to see in the future Church?” These are just some examples of how students described their desire for a greater sense of community in the future Church:
“What do you want to see in the future Church?”
1. “I want to still see a strong community of faith in the Church for my generation.”
2. “This. [The Student Voices Project] is a great start, and I think that more community-based discussions are much more healthy for everyone’s relationship with god.”
3. “I want to see more people come together as a whole community and people attending church more often.”
4. “I want to see in the future church more of a safe community for everyone despite their sins, and faults in life, I want to see more of an acceptance for everyone and I want to see more people connect with each other during mass and making mass something that teens and adults and children can connect to and deepen their spirituality.”
As compared to college-aged respondents, the Student Voices Project’s high school respondents more directly connected feelings of exclusion to issues with community building. Among high-school-aged respondents, feelings of exclusion were usually connected to questions of gender and sexuality. However, both the high school and college data similarly indicated a widely held desire for greater community around one’s faith in the future Church.
Based on these data, ministers to young people might consider the following practices to facilitate the building of faith communities for young people.
Suggestions
:
1. Ensuring liturgies are inviting to young people, especially by providing opportunities for students to participate in different facets of the Mass or encouraging students to attend Mass with friends and family;
2. Providing opportunities for young people to engage in public service with their parish communities;
3. Creating other community-building traditions around the Mass, such as sponsoring a dinner after the Mass concludes;
4. Creating new, engaging opportunities for parents, families, and young people to build community in their school/parish contexts, such as through service, fairs, or fundraisers; and
5. Remaining mindful of the need for Catholic schools and parishes to provide welcoming spaces for Catholics of all backgrounds to practice their faith.
Notably, a majority of students indicated that other people or groups were areas where they saw “God working in [his/her] life.” In light of this finding, the importance of community-building to the future Church should assume an additional level of priority. These are just a few examples of how students identified community, broadly construed, as a way that God was working in their lives:
“Where do you see God working in your life?”
1. “ … in my friend group.”
2. “I see God through my friends and family, my teammates, coaches, and every little thing that God has blessed me with.”
3. “I see God in my life in my friends and teachers at school.”
Finding #3: Engagement
Synodality necessarily requires engagement among members of the Church, both lay and consecrated to religious life. Though not explicitly drawing on the Church’s synodal tradition, the young people who responded to the Future Church Synod Project expressed a strong desire for reciprocal engagement between the laity and leaders in Catholic schools, parishes, and the Church’s hierarchy, especially around pressing social issues. Put directly:
Students want to talk about difficult issues, not merely be talked to about them.
Notably, this finding was not one that was necessarily shared with the Phase One and Two data, likely because students at Catholic colleges have opportunities in their classes to engage with difficult questions of faith and social teaching. Indeed, one of the major findings of the Student Voices Project’s first two phases was that academic coursework facilitated fruitful engagement with faith among college-aged students.
Often, high-school-aged students described their desire for engagement by discussing the need to “listen.” Take, for example, this response from a first-year high school student who self-identifies as an “on paper Catholic”:
“What has been your best experience in the Church?”
“Having good teachers that listen to my questions and answer honestly and give real help and not judge on real and genuine religious questions (this rarely happens). Plus with good friends you can make anything fun.”
Similarly, see this response from a first-year Catholic high school student:
“What do you want to see in the future Church?”
“… The church has been much too stubborn in the past when presented with suggestions, and I think that if they were willing to listen to the new members of the church, many of the issues would be resolved. Many people leave the
church because they feel as though their voices aren’t heard, but if the church was willing to listen, I can guarantee people would be much more content.”
This finding among the high-school-aged respondents was echoed by some college-aged respondents who participated in the Future Church Synod Project, such as this Catholic undergraduate student from Pennsylvania State University:
“What do you want to see in the future Church?”
“Actual concrete engagement with social ails, a willingness to listen and evolve.”
Among those high-school-aged respondents who discussed the need for the Church to “listen,” many specifically mentioned the need for the Church to listen to young people. Take, for example, this response from a fourth-year Catholic student at a Catholic high school in California:
“What do you want to see in the future Church?”
“I would like the church to keep listening to young people and understand that some of the rules may not make sense any more.”
This sentiment was shared by other students who responded to the question of “What do you want to see in the future Church?”:
“What do you want to see in the future Church?”
1. “A Church that knows how to get to the youth; a Church that knows how to listen to the needs of others; a spiritual family.”
2. “I would love to see a Church that listens and acts; that welcomes and appreciates. I dream of a church which is a table at which all are welcome to bring forth their ideas and discuss their opinions; a family in which the parents do not press their ideas on their children, but listen and discuss to find the truth together; a community in which all can feel safe and find sanctuary without judgment.”
And, similarly, some students identified a feeling of not being “listened to” as their “worst” experience in the Church. This feeling was even echoed by older respondents to the Future Church Synod Project. Take, for example, this response from a graduate student at Fordham University:
“What has been your worst experience in the Church?”
“Not having a seat at the table. Ignored or worse, being listened to respond and not to understand.”
Based on these data, ministers to young people students might consider the following practices to facilitate greater reciprocal engagement between young people and Church leaders, and throughout the Church community.
Suggestions:
1. Creating sustainable feedback structures in which young people are incentivized to share their thoughts about parish or school practices directly with Church leaders;
2. Ensuring students are ‘at the table’ when parishes or schools make major decisions about programs, events, or other initiatives;
3. Expressing openness to young people's hopes and desires for the future Church in preaching and teaching; and
4. Offering to engage in meaningful, honest conversations with young people about Church teachings and other aspects of the Catholic Tradition.
WHERE DO WE GO NOW?
When Phases One and Two of the Student Voices Project concluded, Boston College’s C21 Center delineated nine, data-driven strategies that Boston College could consider implementing to support students’ faith formation. After a nearly two-year period of “listening” to students, the University is considering these recommendations and how they might best be incorporated into the University’s current offerings. Likewise, when Phases One and Two were completed, the Center asked two questions about how the Project’s findings might change the way that we think about young people and the Church:
1. How should the methodology and results of the Student Voices Project impact the way that the University thinks about the broader question of young people and the Church?
2. Are there actionable learnings about engaging young people, informed by the survey data, that Boston College can offer to the Universal Church?
In response to this second question, the Center designed and implemented the Future Church Synod Project. As we have since learned, the Student Voices Project model offers an effective way to learn from young people outside of the Boston College community. This finding suggests that the Project’s model can be a valuable resource for parishes, Catholic
high schools, and other Catholic colleges interested in ‘taking the pulse’ of their students’ faith. Thus, in light of the Project’s findings:
Catholic parishes and other institutions should consider how the Student Voices Project model can be used as a tool for sustaining a “listening Church.”
Similarly, the results of the Student Voices Project offer signs of concern and hope that cannot merely be addressed on a local level, but must also be incorporated into larger strategic planning being undertaken by the Church on regional and national levels. Thus, in light of the Project’s findings:
Bishops’ conferences should consider how young people can be regularly engaged in strategic decision-making and reflection on the Church’s future.
Amidst a time of great apathy in religious practice, this is a hopeful sign for the Church, but one that will not bear fruit without sincere initiative on the behalf of Church leaders to engage with young people.
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In addition to the concrete suggestions made by this report about how ministers to young people might consider enhancing their ministry, the findings of this report must encourage greater attention to how the American Church thinks about the role of Catholic schools in ministry to young people. Indeed, first-year high school students and graduate students alike described the central role of Catholic education in their faith formation processes. This offers a challenge and opportunity for the Church:
If the Church is able to grow its Catholic schools and enhance their abilities to accompany students, the future of the Church will be bright.
While supporting Catholic schools is not the only solution to the issues facing the Church today, doing so in concert with parishes and Church leaders has the opportunity to increase the faithful’s participation in the life of the Church. Just as Phases One and Two of the Student Voices Project found, many fruits come of a Catholic education regardless of age. Even college is not too late; indeed, it might be the perfect time. By equipping high school, college, and graduate students alike with the tools of the Catholic Intellectual and Spiritual Traditions, there is no doubt that Catholic educators make students more likely to participate in the life of the Church.
