Generation 13 begins its quest for peace: Pax Christ Youth Forum seeks new members

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 27, 1995 by Leslie Wirpsa

NEW ORLEANS - When U.S. baby-boomer Catholics committed to peace and justice issues were coming of age, their discussions probably focused on anti-Vietnam protests, civil rights marches or nuclear disarmament. On the younger end, they might have discussed the sanctuary movement and solidarity with Central America.

They were embraced by a church aflame with fervor of Vatican II, further kindled by the Latin American bishops, conferences at Medellin and Puebla and not yet charred spiritually or economically by clergy sex abuse scandals.

Middle-class baby boomers made up the last big wave of peace and justice Catholics who were largely able to base their political commitments on a sense of personal security. Most expected to have decent jobs, buy homes and, if they wanted, to find ways to raise a family. Few saw college-educated peers forced to work at Wal-Mart or "temping" around at jobs with no benefits.

Observations like these were made by 32 young adults - mostly in or around their 20s - who gathered Jan. 13-16 for a Pax Christi Youth Forum retreat in New Orleans. Youth Forum members outlined a world that is very different from the one faced by previous generations of activists. They also concluded that, because of the context in which they are coming of age, they face immense challenges in organizing other young people to work for justice and peace.

Formed in 1992, the Youth Forum aims to bring more young people into the U.S. section of Pax Christi, a member-supported, international Catholic peace organization.

Youth members recognize that Pax Christi U.S.A. is made up of a lot of middle-aged" Catholics and amazingly religious women" in the words of Mike Monnens 24, a graduate of St Johns University in Minnesota.

The New Orleans retreat was coordinated by Pax Christi youth coordinator Andy Prince, 26; baby boomer Tom Cordaro, director of campus ministry for the University of Miami, served as facilitator. Participants discussed trends shaping the lives of what scholars have referred to as "Generation 13" - the post-baby-boom generation born between 1961 and 1981, the 13th since the founding of the U.S. republic.

Seeking insight to mobilize peers, the Youth Forum members analyzed statistics outlining the scores of young "13ers" raised by dysfunctional families and divorced parents, by families where television often filled the vacuum created by both or single parents working full-time.

"You have an incredible survival instinct," Cordaro told them, "because you have been abandoned, left alone."

As teens, Generation 13 watched the waning of large-scale, big stuff movements like the struggle for world peace, the women's movement, the civil rights struggles. Reaching young adulthood, they saw poverty and homelessness swell in U.S. cities and they watched the urban streets of the United States flood with guns, drugs and the blood of their peers, especially those of color.

"In Washington, D.C., all we hear about is 14-year-olds killed by other l4-year-olds," said Judy Coode, 27, a graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans. "I don't have a clue how this is supposed to stop. There seems to be a brick wall of hopelessness in our cities."

Kathy Schmitt, 28, a divinity student at Catholic Theological Union who lives on Chicago's South Side, agreed: "For the previous generation, violence was the Vietnam War. For our generation, the war is in our homes. We don't only see it on TV."

As Generation 13 grew up, the media, baby boomers and yuppies were telling it that only money matters at almost any cost. But statistics simultaneously taught them that ongoing declines in real wages and family-supporting jobs would make them the first generation since the Civil War whose living standards as adults would be below that of their parents.

"My dad dropped out of high school. He worked in electronics. He had benefits, good pay. Now places are only hiring people part time, and you don't get any benefits," said Edward Gallagher, 21, a philosophy student at Fordham University in New York who does outreach in the Bronx. "I think it's the fault of the downsizers who are downsizing to increase their profits."

Jennifer Kochanek, 21, a senior at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., said it is big news when peers land good jobs.

Generation 13, Gallagher said, faces a world of "marketplaces that are not life-giving, that eat people up."

What kind of guidance and inspiration is the Catholic hierarchy offering young people, especially those committed to justice?

Not much, Gallagher said. Many members of the Youth Forum said their faith commitments had, over the years, been nurtured by individuals, dynamic parishes religious communities or work in social justice. But, they said, they see the hierarchy moving away from the needs of the people.

"It's going back to pre-Vatican II, and all you can talk about is abortion," Gallagher said.

Most of the bishops, he said, "are above us. ... The are not walking (with the people), listening, hearing the hopes and dreams and desires of the people."