Last year, Pope Francis called for the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Bishops to focus on “Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment.” Next month, Catholic youth from around the world will gather in Rome for a pre-synodal meeting. Their goal? Tell the Catholic Church hierarchy what is it like to be a young Catholic in today’s modern world and begin to shape the conversations for the October synod from our perspective.

Let that sink in for a moment.

The church, in an effort to plan for the future, is starting with engaging the future of the church, young people.

Synods can change the culture of the church, look at the impact the AOD’s Synod on the New Evangelization has had. Synods are a ways for the lay faithful to be empowered through contributing input to the church hierarchy. A place for robust discussions, as many viewpoints as possible, discernment, and growth. And the synod documents acknowledge that, approaching this particular synod as a place for the Church “to examine herself on how she can lead young people to recognize and accept the call to the fullness of life and love, and to ask young people to help her in identifying the most effective way to announce the Good News today.”

Pope Francis said that “all young people have something to say to the Church, to the bishops and to the Pope!” I fear that we have let down the Holy Father and the Church in our lack of commitment to participate in the beauty of this process, in allowing those who want to hear us the chance to listen to our stories.

Unfortunately, the first effort to gather input from youth involved an online survey. While there are 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, only 100,000 youth completed the survey, despite its translation into many languages. However, a new engagement effort is being made via Facebook groups, the English one can be accessed here. In the groups, young adult moderators are posing questions to help shape input for the synod of bishops in October.

In addition to engaging in the discussion in the Facebook group, I am planning to blog about each question in more detail. A glimpse into the modern day young Catholic, if you will. Hopefully it will help adults in the US understand some small part of the challenges that young Catholics go through and desires we have of the church itself. Building off of the universal church’s synod, maybe something I say can resonate with our local leaders and start change here in the archdiocese too!

Our participation is at the very heart of this synod of bishops. I hope you will join me in making our voices heard, even if you and I have different opinions on how the church can best empower young people to be faithful Catholics, our ideas need to be heard. The Church, in her great wisdom, sees that need and is trying to address it. Let us not fail in our call to be faithful disciples and obedient to Her calls! Participate, join a Facebook group, fill out the survey, engage your Magesterium in a new and open way! Let us open the flood gates of the Holy Spirit on Rome this year and inspire great movements of youth in the church! It can be done, but it can’t be done without you my friend!

For more information, the USCCB has a good FAQ, there is a multilingual website from the Vatican, and multilingual social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To go even deeper, spend some time in prayer with the Preparatory Document for the synod, a lengthy examination of what the synod wants to address.

Let us youth not fail the Church we love so dearly.

Here’s more about the three major themes the Synod wants to cover!