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Looking for another, more meaningful New Year’s resolution? Bob, McCarty, director of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry, said in an interview with xt3 recently, that he has a great love and admiration for Catholic young adults today “because this is the generation that is most called to serve.”  

Xt3 linked the interview to New Year’s Eve of its Christmastide calendar with the hopes of inspiring young Catholics to create change for the common good in this New Year. He said it only takes one person to make a difference.

The bulk of the interview, however, addresses the struggle McCarty sees young adults face: chasing the cultural dream which values materialism or the Jesus dream which is full of authentic values and a “genuine way of impacting people’s lives.”

He said the Church’s response is to ensure there is community support to help young adults live the Jesus dream more clearly. 

Pilgrims from St. John Vianney Parish in Sedona in adoration.

“God is bigger than any words that we use. And God is bigger than any one of our experiences,” McCarty said.

So it takes a community — which includes people over time not just those in the here and now — to help understand God, he added.

If you’re a young adult, perhaps the interview will confirm your struggles and inspire you to overcome them. If you minister to young adults or know who does, perhaps you can be part of the solution to ensuring young adults feel a welcome part of your community and parish life so that they can effectively be of service to God’s people.

Download the audio interview. Don’t worry if you didn’t attend World Youth Day in Australia, I was still able to access the interview without logging in. It’s a fairly quick eight-minute interview once you get past the 30-second intro. 

If you like what McCarty has to say, check out what else he had to say about youth ministry.

• McCarty broke Catholic youth into the millennial and post-modern generations with distinct characteristics during a presentation at the Youth Arise conference in Brisbane, Australia last July. Both are tolerant of diversity, making this “a critical moment in the Church to tap into the passion and compassion of young people,” McCarty said.
• McCarty shared his expertise on the causes of youth minister burnout and how to prevent it in an April 2007 article.