Catholic students discuss issues relating to their faith life in Nam Dinh Parish on April 30. (Photo: tonggiaophanhanoi.org)
By Teresa Le Thi Thuy Tien
June 2 2022
The Church should take on the role of companion to help students walk firmly and safely on the journey to full maturity.
“How are you feeling today?” That simple question creates difficulties for many Catholic students today. They cannot correctly answer how their emotional and psychological state is or what their purpose in life is.
Those issues, meanwhile, are the most visible manifestation of maturity in astuteness and faith.
From another viewpoint, the Catholic Church takes on the role of companion to help students walk firmly and safely on the journey to full maturity. So what happens if the companion does not really walk with students?
College students are affected by social networks that are not only their main working environment but also make a direct impact on their thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
They pay little attention to their religious life. Many university students only start to pray when they get into sticky situations, while others do not even know how to say prayers.
Students start to work while studying, even in the first and second years, to earn money to support their families or to experience social life. They highlight the need for personal and social relationships, seeking joyful and interesting things in life in the real or online environment.
All young people are easily engrossed by such a hectic lifestyle and those who deviate from that will have a sense of failure or being abandoned
However, they fail to understand themselves and their lives clearly and fully, so they have their will and faith shaken easily, do not know how to behave or deal with tough challenges, the purposes in their life and how to achieve them.
The reasons are that students are placed under considerable pressure by modern life that requires them to spend as much time as possible studying, working and interacting with society.
All young people are easily engrossed by such a hectic lifestyle and those who deviate from that will have a sense of failure or being abandoned.
Students have few true companions who are able to understand, sympathize, share and serve as their fulcrum. Companions should not interfere in students’ decision making but know how to help them understand their own problems and make decisions, since students are different from other young people in one thing: their sense of independence and capacity for self-determination.
Among 22 student groups under the Catholic University Students Association in Hanoi Archdiocese, 80 percent of students already have spiritual directors who are priests. In the past all groups organized their own activities without priests.
Many students could not control their lives by themselves but entirely rely on other people’s help. They are indolent in studying catechism, the Bible and developments in the Church.
They take part in social trends but fail to apply Catholic teaching to their lives. When unexpected things happen, they cannot come up with real solutions and blame them on other people.
Priests and religious who are experts in communication, psychology, liturgy, sacred music, marriage and other things should be invited to train students in problem-solving skills and faith practice
The student association needs to make official regulations and groups need to respect the association’s leading role and operate according to its guidelines.
The archdiocese should send more religious to walk with those groups who have no priests or whose spiritual directors are far away from them.
Association leaders should closely supervise activities of groups so that they can support them.
Priests and religious who are experts in communication, psychology, liturgy, sacred music, marriage and other things should be invited to train students in problem-solving skills and faith practice.
Students should be given communication skills as a top priority since social media greatly affects their behavior, feelings and mentality. They need to spread their activities among Catholics in the archdiocese.
To communicate effectively, Catholic media should approach the mainstream of social trends and communication activities must be various, fascinating and creative.
In addition to reports, pictures and videos, Catholic media should publish short movies, animated cartoons and podcasts and use all digital channels to spread information.
They should set positive trends by organizing activities that stimulate creativity among young people, such as covering hymns and telling Bible stories in creative ways.
All students should be taught the spirit of charity so that they can live a life of charity as we believe that doing charity is an effective way to evangelize
The student association should work with local Catholic entrepreneurs to provide vocational guidance and job prospects for members. Students in difficult situations should be given material support to finish their studies.
All students should be taught the spirit of charity so that they can live a life of charity as we believe that doing charity is an effective way to evangelize.
We believe that Catholic students will truly flourish and live a better life if they are given opportunities to express their views and gain practical knowledge and experience to cope with challenges in their lives, increase their capacities and develop creativity.
To have great maturity in faith, all Christians need a process of being tempered and trained. On that journey, if students find good companions who get things into proper perspective and know how to share and support, their journey will be much more peaceful and stable.
Finally, Catholic students in the new era must remember that changing perspective will bring about effective changes. They need to grow flexibly and actively to be good Catholics and good citizens.
We hope that what we mention today will be heard and welcomed to really produce beneficial changes to the lives of Catholic students so that they can live out their faith maturely.
* Teresa Le Thi Thuy Tien is a Catholic student from Hanoi. She delivered a talk at Hanoi Archdiocese’s pre-synod seminar on April 30. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News. This article was summarized and translated by a UCA News reporter from a Vietnamese article published by tonggiaophanhanoi.org here.
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