As reported recently in the Times of Malta almost half of Maltese youths believe in God, even if they do not deem themselves to belong to organised religion.
Such surveys shed light on how intimate and personal matters such as one’s faith and relationship with God are being perceived by young people.
Undoubtedly, in today’s world, the term ‘religious’ has acquired a negative connotation as it is associated with what is considered an archaic and static institutionalised structure.
This means that the younger generation finds it difficult to identify itself as such, including those who feel that they have a healthy and intimate relationship with God.
I believe that young people prefer to see themselves as seekers rather than as religious. Perhaps this is the reason behind the self-characterisation of many present-society youngsters as ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘religious’.
While there is still a fraction of youths who began their spiritual journey from a tender age due to their religious upbringing and who continued to develop their spiritual lives as they grew older, even if not quite seamlessly, others started seriously exploring such a mystery later, maybe even in their adult life.
In my opinion, since the latter kind of personal journey is becoming more common, the Church should offer a personal and non-judgemental accompaniment. Such fraternal guidance should present the Christian faith in a communitarian environment rather than an institutional one.
The EY survey published in 2021 clearly shows that 46 per cent of youths do not consider themselves to be religious; however, there are 36 per cent who state that they are. While focusing on the reported minority of those who identify themselves as atheists, we should not simply disregard the 13 per cent increase in the 2022 survey (49 per cent).
This increase is indeed noted in the article ‘Half of youths believe in God... but not in organised religion’, where it is stated that, in the last survey published by the EY, 46 per cent of the millennials and 49 per cent of the (later) Gen Z youths claimed to believe in God.
Similarly, from time to time, the Archdiocese of Malta studies such issues through the Institute for Research on the Signs of the Times, DISCERN. In 2021, research among almost 500 youths aged between 16 and 25 was conducted in order to better understand the attitudes of young people in society.
Being brought up in a predominantly Catholic society meant that few questioned the Church’s teachings- Luke Vella
The results showed that 16 per cent of the participants identified as having no religion, however, 81 per cent identified themselves as Catholic and three per cent as belonging to other religions.
Hence, 84 per cent considered themselves to be religious. It would be interesting and instructive to investigate the greatly diverging results between the two studies.
It must also be noted that, up to the recent past, it was culturally expected of one to be religious, in our case, Catholic.
Being brought up in a predominantly Catholic society meant that few questioned the Church’s teachings and perhaps quite a few never really appropriated their faith in a personal manner.
Nowadays, it seems that even if youngsters may not consider themselves as religious, many still have some kind of personal and intimate relationship with the mystery of God or the divinity. I strongly believe that this situation should be considered as an invitation for us as members of the Church to be present – in the midst of this great search.
After all, we are all searchers and seekers and, as Christians, we believe that, while passionately seeking ultimate meaning in life, we are all being sought passionately by God and this is what we believe religion to be ultimately all about.
Luke Vella is president of Għaqda Studenti tat-Teoloġija.