Mission & Identity
An important goal of our Office of Mission and Identity is to promote dialogue about faith and the Church . One of the programs that has served as a means for doing this has been our annual Forum on Faith hosted in partnership with America Media . On Sunday , March 11th , the Prep hosted our fourth forum , Five Years of Francis : The Impact of a Historic Papacy . Panelists were Chris Lowney , best-selling author and international speaker , David Gonzalez , award-winning journalist at the New York Times and Meghan Clark , PhD , associate professor of moral theology at St . John ' s University . The conversation , moderated by Tim Reidy ’ 92 , Executive Editor with America Media , focused on the impact of Francis ’ papacy on the church as we approached the five-year anniversary of his election .
The speakers offered their perspectives on the successes and shortcomings of Francis ’ papacy , Francis ’ s communication style , his call for the church to go the “ margins ”, the significance of Francis being the first pope from Latin America and the challenges still facing the Church . One of the areas of concern for the panelists was that while Francis has been extremely popular and accessible to people in a way we have not seen in many years , he has not yet had any significant success in increasing participation in the Church , particularly among the younger generations . The panelists pointed out that we have seen a steady decline in church attendance over the last 30 years , and Francis ’ papacy does not seem to be reversing that trend in any meaningful way . Chris Lowney suggested that we need to look for new and creative ways to re-engage those who have drifted away from the church . He suggested that there is a need to change the attitude of people about their participation in the Church from a “ consumer mentality ” to an “ ownership mindset .” He challenged parish communities to look for ways to be more welcoming and to create opportunities that provide this sense of ownership .
At Fordham Prep , while we have much room for growth in engaging our students in their faith life , we can also be proud of our many successes in this area . In a survey this fall of the entire student body , 85 % of students reported that having a personal relationship with God was important to them and almost 90 % reported that being involved in retreats and service at Fordham Prep was important . This is reflected in the continued high participation rates in these programs , with over 90 % of juniors participating in the Emmaus Retreat each year and more students than there are spots applying for our service immersion trips to Tennessee and Ecuador . The challenge for us is to help our students also fully engage in their local faith communities so that when they become young adults they will look to those communities to nourish their faith and to be leaders in service .
Our panelists ’ concerns about the future of the Church should make us all pause to reflect on the role we can each play in our local faith communities . For centuries , graduates of Jesuit schools have been sent out into the world to be leaders in faith , agents of change and promoters of justice - as St . Ignatius said , “ to set the world on fire .” While it is very Ignatian to think big and to set our gaze afar , perhaps at times we forget that it just might be our local faith communities that are most in need of alumni of Jesuit schools . Their presence and gifts can help make those communities places where people feel welcome and where all can be enlivened by the love of God and power of the Holy Spirit .
May God continue to bless you and your families .
Brian Carney Vice President for Mission & Identity
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