The title of a hit song by Van Halen or the motto of Democratic politicians?  Both, as legislators try to outdo each other with the most “progressive” abortion laws.  Safe, legal, and rare is now up to the moment of birth. Illinois has JB “Moloch” Pritzker as their governor. Under the majority Democratic legislature, partial birth abortion is a go, a woman can decide to abort a baby minutes before it’s born and there are no longer any father’s rights or parent’s rights. So when a Planned Parenthood worker tells a thirteen-year-old girl it’s not a baby she’s killing, the parent doesn’t have to learn about it until it’s over and are left to deal with the irreparable scars down the road. In Illinois, there are no longer father’s rights, either. If your wife or girlfriend decides she doesn’t want the baby, even at 9-month gestation, you have no voice for your child. 

As a Catholic, I believe life begins at conception. However, for the sake of this article, let’s focus on late-term abortion that democratic legislators believe is a women’s right to choose and that this is somehow healthcare.  It is not a baby, it’s a fetus. My first question to the people who tell me this is, do you not know what fetus means in Latin? My next question is when does a fetus magically turn into a baby? Does Dr. Whizzo pop in the delivery room and sprinkle fairy dust to make it a human baby? And even this theory is out since the democratic governor of Virginia decided a mother can choose if the baby lives or dies after it’s born.

A couple of weeks back, a baby born at 23 weeks gestation survived and eventually went home with her parents. That’s odd since she should have still been a fetus and not human. So how did that happen? If lawmakers rule that a mother has the right to choose if her viable infant lives or dies, what’s to stop them from issuing laws that say a 1-3 year old isn’t a child or a 70-year old mother or father isn’t either?

Pick up a science book, is another comment I hear frequently. It doesn’t even cross their minds that they aren’t scientists either. However, using science as my guide, I’ll ask them, when scientists search for life in oceans or distant planets, are they only looking for fully adult humans? Ultrasound technology is scientific, or at least I thought it was. When I was pregnant I had several of them. I saw my “fetus” who magically turned into my daughter. She had a heart-beat, hands, fingers, legs, and toes and perfectly formed human organs. When the umbilical cord was not giving her proper nutrients she stopped moving. My doctor explained that the baby’s brain was reserving energy so that the nutrients that were coming through the umbilical cord could go to the vital organs that kept baby alive. Wow, that sounds complicated for a lifeless, blob of cells.

The abortion crowd will shout, see it needs the woman and the umbilical cord to live! It’s part of the mother’s body. Her body, her choice. No, sorry, wrong again. My doctor had me on stand-by for an emergency C-section. She was perfectly capable of living outside the womb at the 7-8 month mark.  This also shoots down their cry of health of the mother. I know of no circumstance in a late term pregnancy, that the life of the mother has anything to do with killing her baby. The same magical, non-scientific, C-section works for that too. Mom is too sick, she gets a C-section, baby is delivered and everybody lives.

I’d also like a real scientist to enlighten me on how a baby in the womb is not a human baby, but a turtle or bald eagle in an egg is a turtle and a bald eagle? Please, call me to explain.

Last month there was a horrific crime on the south side of Chicago. A baby was cut out of his mother’s womb. The mother died. The baby lived for a few weeks on life support due to brain injuries because of oxygen deprivation. How did that fetus magically transform into a human baby? Did the criminals have the secret fairy dust in their possession? And what was all this outcry in the media against this? That baby is the same baby as in every woman’s womb at 9 months. Why is it that this baby is considered a person with the right to live but the others are not?  Science?  Logic?  Nah.

A few weeks ago a teen mom gave birth and tossed the baby in the garbage. When the grandmother found out the baby was alive, she went to the garbage can and called 9-1-1. The media was outraged. The first responders were on the news in tears. Why? Who could deny this poor little baby life? If mom went to Planned Parenthood, she could have aborted right before birth. What’s different other than she tossed the baby in the garbage and Planned Parenthood would have made sure they killed the baby before selling its body parts and organs to the highest bidder.

Which leads me the outrage, barbarity, horror, atrocity and scandal over the abused young calves at Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana. Women and men, screaming and carrying posters with pictures of the abused cows picketed outside the facility. Stores pulled Fair Oaks dairy products from their shelves. News crews were outside filming and shoving microphones at store employees and owners, demanding answers and accountability. The names of the three criminals were released and a manhunt ensued.  This went on for days. I was amazed at the outpouring of concern for the cows.

It would have been nice to see the several pro-life groups who were outside of Pritzker’s office, praying, while he signed the bill into law. I know they were there. However, the media chose not to air it. It doesn’t fit in with their abortion is healthcare agenda. If abortion is healthcare, why don’t we see into an abortion clinic to witness an abortion on a news documentary, as we’ve seen open heart, bariatric or brain surgery? We’ve seen cosmetic surgery on television and tonsillectomies to name a few, so why not partial birth abortion? It’s just a fetus after all—it’s not like it’s human or anything. It’s a part of the woman’s body, right? So how does it suddenly separate from the mother’s body and become its own person? Let’s see and we can decide for ourselves.  

I’m being sarcastic because they will never show this. It’s barbaric and it’s murder and they know it. They also know every Planned Parenthood facility and any person defending it would be called out. It’s much easier to say it’s not a person and just a fetus when you don’t know or don’t care. Just because something is deemed “scientifically proven” and legal doesn’t make it right. In doubt? Read up on the history of slavery in the United States. Research human zoos and eugenics in the United States. Groups of people were lawfully and scientifically deemed not human, not a person, and murdered. As we were judged harshly for this scourged period in our history, so too will be judged for the murder of infants.



The same question Chubby Checker asks in his version of the Limbo Rock, I can ask several democratic United States governors and legislators who support and cheer for late term abortion and infanticide. This has nothing to do with politics, because I can ask the same of some US Catholic Cardinals. I watched in anger and disgust as the “catholic” governor of New York, Mario Cuomo (D) signed his late term abortion bill into law while members of the New York legislature, cheered wildly. To top this, Governor Cuomo ordered the Freedom Tower to be lit that night in pink for victory!

Governor Cuomo, who identifies as catholic, has been vocal against Church teaching throughout his career. He stated in 2014, if you are pro-life, you ‘have no place’ in New York1. Does this sound catholic to you?  If you’re not sure, ask yourself if you could imagine Jesus congratulating King Herod on the slaughter of Jewish baby boys in his quest to kill Jesus.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D), went even lower. The bill in his state included infanticide. Governor Northam explained on local radio station WTOP that under his bill a newborn baby will be kept “comfortable” while mom and doc decide if he or she should be snuffed out. How low can you go? Apparently as low as China and South Korea. Such illustrious company. Thank God the bill was defeated.

Let’s move on to the democratic ladies in white, headed by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D) California, a “catholic”, and newbie Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) New York. This block of women wore white to represent the late 1800’s to early 1900’s US suffragette movement. Interesting, since all leading suffragettes of the time, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone among others, were vehemently against abortion and considered it a tool of men to oppress women. These legislators couldn’t even stand or applaud President Trump’s comments against infanticide. Instead of white, the female democratic legislators should have worn red.

Speaking of wearing red, the color of cardinals, and I’m not talking about birds or the baseball team, I’m talking about Catholic Cardinals. Namely, Cardinal Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York. When the good people of New York rose up against the horrific abortion law in their state, many turned to their religious leaders. Catholics demanded punishment of Cuomo on the grounds of his prolific, unrepentant pro-murder stance. The outcry is not limited to New York—it’s country wide. According to Pew, only 25% of US adults approve of late term abortion—many of the 75% against are pro-choice2. So what did the chief shepherd of the Diocese of New York City faithful do?  Cardinal Dolan was horrified and condemned the law. When pressed on why Cuomo shouldn’t be excommunicated he stated that excommunication shouldn’t be used as a weapon3.

OK so why do we excommunicate women who legally have the abortion and the people who legally perform them4 but not the legislator who made it all legally possible? I’m not a theologian but I thought excommunication is an agent of mercy, not punishment or a weapon. It’s meant to bring the person back to the faith through penance. If you are Catholic, you want to be in communion with the church—not against it. How can Cuomo, a man who repeatedly and flamboyantly flips his nose at our Lord, have the honor of partaking in anything sacred? He’s not sorry. He’s rubbing it in our faces.

In the wake of the current sex scandal rocking the Catholic Church, why do our shepherds keep adding fuel to the flame? In what way will this lead people to the faith? Who wants admittance into a religion where the person next to you reviles the very principle you stand for? If Governor Cuomo called a presser this morning and said he was wrong about this law, begs forgiveness, and will vote to repeal it, Catholics would accept this and welcome him back, but he’s not going to do that because we know what happens to politicians who buck democratic party lines. One need looks no further than Pro-Life Illinois US Rep. Dan Lipinski (D)5.

It’s time we tell our “shepherds”, religious and legislative, we’re not having it. When I discuss the new late term abortion and infanticide laws to friends and co-workers, many don’t know a thing about it. The media squelches the story because it doesn’t follow their agenda, but the Church should not. This should be the main topic of every homily. What are parish priests afraid of? Parishioners like Governor Cuomo.

Just last week I read a story that Bishop Hurley, Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan, removed Father Edwin Dwyer, a canon lawyer, from his parish for introducing reverence and tradition back into one of his Masses6. The congregation loved it—except for a wealthy couple who reported him. He was removed expeditiously. Money is what influenced this bishop to do the unthinkable. Money and prestige influence some priests, bishops, and cardinals. Cardinal Dolan rubs elbows with the elites, attends cocktails parties and exhibits, even those that exposed sacred Catholic garments to the vile, mocking fashion of wealthy celebrities7.

All of us will have to face God one day—including Dolan and Cuomo. It’s our job to enlighten our loved ones. You and I have a voice. I intend to use mine. I am Catholic and proudly Pro-Life. To quote gospel singer, Mavis Staples, “We go high when they go low.” Don’t be afraid of being mocked and hated. Don’t get discouraged. Be proud. Wear it like a badge of honor. Instead of dancing the politically correct Limbo, heed the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:13-28 and Luke 6:22-23, “Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy! Your reward will be great in heaven.”


1 The Washington Times – Sunday, January 19, 2014

2  Pew Research Center, Public Opinion on Abortion, October 15, 2018

3 Relevant Magazine, NY Cardinal Dolan Won’t Excommunicate Gov. Andrew Cuomo Over Abortion Law, January 28, 2019

4 Canon #1398

5 CNN Politics, An anti-abortion, conservative Democrat fights for survival in Illinois primary, Eric Bradner, March 19, 2018

6 National Catholic Register, Nation, Saginaw Priest Removed From Parish for Traditional ‘Style of Worship’, Joseph O’Brien, February 7, 2019

7 National Catholic Register, Blogs, How the Vatican Became Enmeshed in the Met Gala, Edward Pentin, May 9, 2018


David Gates of the soft rock group, Bread, wrote and sang this song. When I first heard the song many years ago in the early 70’s, I was drawn to the melancholy lyrics and pure vocals Gates is known for, but I had no idea what it would mean to me years later. Turns out I’m not alone. Search the internet for, Aubrey by Bread, and read how this song arouses powerful emotions in all who hear it. There are several interpretations of the lyrics, but they’re essentially about loss and what could have been.

The lyrics speak to many mothers of children lost to miscarriage. If you’ve never experienced the pain of miscarriage, it can be difficult to comprehend. The medical definition of miscarriage, according to Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia, is “the spontaneous loss of a fetus before the 20th week of pregnancy”. No matter how early in the pregnancy—it is the death of a loved one—a real person, and you must allow for a grieving process. These babies were members of the family. Their images were captured on ultrasound and their presence was made known. A nursery may have been prepared, names may have been bandied about, and a future envisioned. That child was theirs and now he or she is gone.

Miscarriage is a topic not much discussed as it occurs early in a pregnancy with little to no outward signs that a child existed. There is no preparation for the loss; one day your baby is alive and kicking, the next day he or she is not.  Having others try to minimize it makes it even worse. There are support groups for miscarriage.  However, I wonder how many parents who lose their babies in the 1st trimester attend? Possibly it’s because of the misconceptions of others. An actual “baby” never existed so why would there be anything to be that upset about? That is wrong and far from the truth. As Catholics, we believe life begins at conception. No matter the age of the fetus, he or she is a living human being.

A few years ago I was visiting with an elderly friend and her sister. That particular afternoon, she told me her sister wouldn’t be joining us because it was the anniversary of her miscarriage. She said her sister cried every year on this day. She then asked me how silly I thought it was for her to be depressed over a baby that never was.  I quietly informed her that I lost three children to miscarriage and the hurt is always there. I felt for her sister and wished she would talk to me—someone who understood.

When I experienced my miscarriages I asked if my babies would be baptized and what would happen to them. I can at least take comfort that my miscarriages happened at Catholic hospitals and I was assured they were baptized or prayed over, treated with respect, and buried in a Catholic cemetery. One of my miscarriages happened at home and my mother baptized the baby after consulting our parish priest over the phone. It didn’t seem so at the time, but I was blessed to have seen him. I was not able to have a liturgy or burial for any of my babies. Today you can ask for your child’s remains. There are cemeteries with special sites for miscarried babies. Your priest can also perform a ceremony for you. I would have loved to have something like this. It brings about closure that so many of us never received.

After an announced miscarriage or memorial service, you will hear an abundance of condolences from family and friends. While all are well-meaning, not all are suitable for parents grieving the loss of their child. ‘You’re young, you can always have another baby.’ Or if you already have living children, ‘Well you still have Dick and Jane’. Or ‘This is a blessing in disguise/God’s way to spare you from having a child that’s not quite right’.  Don’t offer any of these “sympathies”. One child can never replace another. Mom and Dad wanted that child. Loss never feels like a godsend and they would give anything to have this child. Some miscarriages have nothing to do with the health of the child and the parents may know this. Many women feel the miscarriage is their fault and live with misplaced guilt, so please, no.

Instead, be the shoulder to cry on and the hand to hold. Let them know how loved that child is—not was. Keep them in your prayers and provide the space for them to mourn. My mother, who lost both a living child as well as one to miscarriage, was a sought-out comforter to other moms in the same position. She provided the right amount of prayer, sympathy, counsel, understanding, and informed them that their child, who may have never lived in this world, was alive with God in His. She would go on to describe the celebration in heaven for the newest saint! How beautiful and uplifting.

Most moms are shocked to learn that their “baby” will be fully-grown in heaven. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, “All will rise in the condition of perfect age, which is thirty-two or thirty-three years. This is because all who were not yet arrived at this age, did not possess this perfect age, and the old had already lost it. Hence, youths and children will be given what they lack, and what the aged once had will be restored to them: “Until we all attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of fullness of Christ.”1

How to remember our lost children?  For my miscarried children, I have Masses said for all unborn babies on the anniversary of each miscarriage. I’ve donated to causes in their memory and fight for the repeal of Roe v. Wade in their name. Because I was able to actually see one of my babies—perfectly formed in every way—I know the lie of the clump of cells. I can’t tell you how many pro-abortionists I have silenced with that truth. “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

 I cried while writing this as, yes, the pain lessens but it never goes away. The thought of what could have been…the children who would have lived, played, and grown into adulthood with their two living sisters…the love they would have brought to both me and my husband. They would have completed most of their schooling by now, maybe contemplating marriage, or even having children of their own. I look forward to meeting them when we’re reunited in heaven. Will I know them? Yes, instantly, I have no doubt. Until then, I will quietly celebrate them every April and January and know one day, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” Revelation 21:4.

If you have suffered the pain of miscarriage, know you are not alone. There are countless parents out there going through the same pain as you. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your parish priest. Chances are he knows others within your parish who suffered the same loss and can put you in touch with them.


1 The Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas – THE ELEVENTH ARTICLE “The Resurrection of the Body.” Qualities Of The Risen Bodies, paragraph (d)




This Burt Bacharach/Dionne Warwick classic shares nothing with this article except the title.  If you get your news from the mainstream media, chances are you may not have heard the story of Alfie Evans, a British toddler, sentenced to death by the UK’s National Health Service. Mainstream media chose to ignore the story as they ignore the Right to Life March every January. Alfie was born on May 9, 2016 to Thomas Evans and his wife, Kate James. After several months the parents complained to doctors that the child was weak, but were assured nothing was wrong.  In December of that year the baby was admitted to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, England after suffering a seizure and eventually lapsing into a coma. The hospital was never able to diagnose what condition Alfie was suffering from.

In June, 2017 the parents were concerned that Alder Hey was considering turning off his life support, even though the child was responsive to them, but were hopeful that a diagnosis would be forthcoming by the same doctor in the US who offered help to Charlie Gard, as well as other doctors in Utah and Italy. However, Alder Hey refused any outside doctors to look at the child or to let Alfie’s parents remove him from the hospital. In February, 2018 a judge from the Liverpool Civil and Family Court heard the case and sided with the hospital that life support must be pulled and the child must die. The Supreme Court in London as well as the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France both declined the case. In April of this year Thomas Evans met with Pope Francis, pleading for asylum for his son as the UK “does not want to give disabled children the chance of life and instead the hospitals in the UK are now assisting death in children.”1

On April 23, 2018, ironically the same day Prince Louis was born in London, Alfie was granted Italian citizenship but Alder Hey refused to let the boy go. The Vatican sent a medivac helicopter, complete with doctors and nurses to bring him to a Roman hospital. The government answered this by deploying 30 police officers to stop any outside medical personnel from entering the hospital and the parents from taking the child out.  They also removed the ventilation tube from the child without proper weaning, and stopped all food and liquid. They insisted Alfie wouldn’t live beyond 3 minutes. Alfie began breathing on his own, continued sucking on his pacifier and looking into his parents’ eyes, while the calls for the child to be transferred to the Italian hospital continued.

However, on April 28th, 5 days after removing life support, Alfie passed away. Reports have surfaced that the child died after a nurse gave the child 4 injections after the father had been called away to a meeting with hospital officials and while the mother was sleeping.2 The hospital had previously planned on giving the child a drug cocktail that would end his life.

This is the 2nd such incident in a matter of months that we’ve seen out of England. I’d expect this behavior in North Korea or Iran, but England? The irony of the “disposable life” of Alfie Evans compared to the hoopla surrounding the birth of Prince Louis on the very same day that they removed Alfie’s life support and began starving him, was not lost on anyone. If this had been Kate and William’s child, would the hospital have prevented any life-saving methods or second opinions? We all know the answer.

The UK prides itself on operating the platinum model of socialized medicine as dictated by the government. If this supreme “free” medical care was shown to be inferior for any reason, what would that do to its glowing reputation? So faceless bureaucrats, in an effort to protect, can prioritize who receives care and who lives or dies based on your value to the State.  We are also witnessing the progression from abortion to infanticide. If it’s OK to kill a baby not yet born, what’s the difference if the child is already born AND has a disability? It’s easy to make that jump when you believe a person has no benefit to society, especially one with a set of overburdened government entitlements.

Who has the best interests of any child? Common sense tells us the parents do. No one loves your child like you do. With the continued removal of God from our culture, government becomes all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-giving. The State knows best on every aspect of your life, family, and death. What the government gives, the government can take away.

Which leads to this question. What happened to Queen Elizabeth? She is the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Is it now OK to execute disabled children under the Christian Anglican Church? As a Catholic, I was much appalled by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, who stated the courts and hospital were acting “with integrity and for Alfie’s good” in deciding that removing life-support is in the baby’s “best interest.” 3 They said this just after Alfie’s father met with the Pope in Rome. They even had the audacity to say that the parents and child were not Catholic. To top this off, a priest of the Archdiocese of Liverpool refused to give the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to Alfie, a baptized Catholic, saying and I quote, “it is not my job”. Fortunately, an Italian priest, Father Gabriele, who happens to live in London, traveled 4 hours to the hospital to administer the sacrament to the baby. 4

 Is this what Mother Church is now?  Remember those wristbands that were all the rage some 10 or 15 years ago? WWJD? What Would Jesus Do? Is this what He would have said to the parents of a sick, disabled child asking for healing or blessing? It’s not my job? The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, pledged his support to Alfie and his parents. Yet the Archbishops of Liverpool and Wales chose not to obey God’s Commandment or even the Pope, but the State.

Abortion opened the door to the culture of death that permeates our society. How many abortions are performed on babies with disabilities? What is to say the Alfie Evans story could not happen here in the US? We have seen shades of it already. If you’re not familiar with the Justine Pelletier case in Boston, research it. Even more frightening, with the absence of religion and history in US classrooms, many US citizens are calling for socialism here, and along with it, single-payer, government-run health care, just like the UK model, because they believe it’s “free”.  Once you accept something from the government, they own you. Would you trust your life to government agencies because they’re run so efficiently and without corruption? If you’re not sure, ask a veteran who has to rely on the VA or see how many times children entrusted to Children & Family Services are abused or die while in their care.

Welcome to the wonderful world of eugenics! If you’re not clear on what this is, open up a history book and read about 20th century Progressives and eugenics in the United States, and the right to kill “mental defectives” and “incurables”, forced sterilization, and forcible segregation, and how it inspired Hitler.5 Yes, you read that right. Americans pushed back on eugenics after Hitler, but with the eradication of God, evil rushes in to fill the void. If we can’t even protect the most innocent, a child, just think how easy it will be to exterminate the elderly and the undesirable. If we don’t start standing, with our clergy at the lead, there will be hundreds of thousands of Alfies whose lives will be sacrificed on the altars of indifference, convenience, and the common good.


1 Timeline based on of ECHO News Agency, Liverpool News,

2 LifeSite News, Bioethics, Dorothy Cummings McLean, May 1, 2018

3 LifeSite News, Bioethics, Dorothy Cummings McLean, April 18, 2018

4 Thomas and Alfie Evans were both baptized Catholic and mother, Kate James, was baptized Protestant. LifeSite New, A Plea For Mercy: Thomas Evans asks Pope Francis to Save Little Alfie, Bioethics, Diane Montagna, April 16, 2018


I Can’t Get Next To You

The Temptations were once called the “kings of R&B” and ruled the airwaves from the ‘60s to the ‘90s. It’s unfortunate that most Millennials, both Generations Y and definitely Z, probably never heard of them or of Motown Records. The song is about a man who can do anything, except get close to a particular person he likes. The same can be true about the Catholic Church and Millennials. It’s not just the Catholic Church but all organized religions. Millennials, my children included, are all about technology, independence, and truth.  They are the largest demographic in the US and therefore wield an enormous amount of leverage in several markets.

As a Baby Boomer, working in a university setting, I deal with Millennials all day, every day.  I can tell you they do not think in the same traditional way that you or I do. Contrary to what is being put out there about them, they are creative, smart, and opinionated. They can be open to everything and closed to everything at the same time. They hold no loyalties, they trust no one, are in debt, but generally optimistic. They hold off on marriage, yet lead in out-of-wedlock births, while firmly believing children raised in 1-parent homes are bad for society. A recent Pew Study shows the divide.  Where 70% of past generations absolutely believed in God, only 58% of Millennials do with only 36% self-identifying as religious.1

Organized religion is low on their priority list. Many experienced “religion” from the church services they were forced to attend by their parents. They don’t like phonies and if Millennials aren’t learning or doing something constructive they are disengaged. The one truth they have embraced is Pro-Life. They are the catalyst driving the movement. Just tune in to the March For Life every January and look at the ages of those involved.

If we want Millennials to return to the Church we have to engage them. Millennials are desperate for truths and if you don’t give it to them straight, you’re out. They don’t want wishy-washy sayings or flip-flop beliefs; they want the history and the proof of who you are, what you believe in, and why. They want the blood and guts, the nuts and bolts, botta bing—botta boom.  Who was Jesus, what did He say, and what did He do?  Who are the saints, what did they say, and what did they do. Why do we have these sacraments? What do these symbols mean? Why do you do what you do?  You must be prepared with answers and fully engage them. They are interested and they will challenge you so be prepared.

In their book, The Millennials, Thom and Jess Rainer state that those Millennials who do strongly believe and identify with God “are passionate about their faith”. They want to be “radically” rooted in community, know Scripture, and love their neighbor.2 This could account for the uptick in young people returning to traditional Catholic churches.  Teach them the traditions of the church. Most Millennials have never heard of the Tridentine/Extraordinary Form/Latin Mass, Gregorian chant/Medieval sacred music/polyphonic music, and many are drawn to it.

You can’t expect Millennials to just wander into your church. You have to seek them out. They love an invitation. They are not shy about talking to older people—they like being mentored. You will have to come out of your comfort zone, though. You must make yourself available to them. If they know what you’re saying is truth they’ll return and listen for more. They are thirsty for knowledge. Be that fount.

I’m not saying all of them will listen. There are several who, like some of us, are jaded or firmly held in their beliefs and not open to other opinions. Many were raised in a secular home. As one Millennial put it, “I pray all the time but who am I praying to?” They are hungry for answers. Others are taught religion is a bad thing—guilt laden, judgmental, and close minded.  We need to show them that’s not so.

Don’t expect Millennials to come running to a “young adult” group meeting at the church. The first thing you should do is avoid the young adult moniker—they hate it. Go to them on their territory. Remember Theology on Tap? Why not host a short, engaging, lecture at the local coffee shop or art center? After the lecture open the floor to discussion.  Keep it fast-paced and make sure the topics are rooted in Scripture and relatable to today’s society. Explain what we can do together for others in our neighborhood.

Millennials want to change the world and make it a better place. Ask for their help organizing church/community events, teaching the youngsters and the oldsters the fundamentals of computers and safely navigating the Web, hosting a Millennial Bible Study, coordinating a food pantry day, neighborhood cleanup, or painting or remodeling for a neighbor in need, anything where they can lead the way and make a difference in their community—all in the name of being a good Christian. Include them in church services as lectors or ushers. Millennials are the most educated generation…utilize their skills and include them in parish councils. Millennials love social media.  You want to reach them, make sure your website is up to par and you must have an active Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc. And who best to be in charge of your church’s social media?  A Millennial of course.

Lastly and most importantly, when they see a parish community actually living their faith, knowledgeable in its teachings, knowing God and His Law, and loving each other, you will capture their hearts and souls. Who doesn’t enjoy being with people of all backgrounds and ages who love their Lord and their neighbor?  Isn’t that what living Catholic is all about? To get Millennials to the Catholic Church we need to change I Can’t Get Next To You to Come Together.


1 Pew Research Center, Social & Demographic Trends, Millennials in Adulthood, March 7, 2014

2 The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation by Thom S. Rainier and Jess Rainer


Me Too?


































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