Being a teenager: Choosing God to build yourself

Anatole's parents gave him the choice. His father, an atheist, and his mother, a Catholic, did not baptize him when he was a child. At college, Anatole joined the chaplaincy of his own free will. At 14, he made his decision: he wanted to be baptized.

On May 11, during a pilgrimage of middle school students which brought together more than 11,000 eighth and ninth graders for Pentecost, he received the sacrament which marked his entry into the Catholic Church. Alongside nine other catechumens of his age, he proclaimed before the assembly of his peers: “I believe!

Anatole's baptism is part of a broader trend: in 2024, the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) has registered more than 5,000 catechumens aged 11 to 17, or 50% more than the previous year . Adolescence is “a phase of transition,” as Pope Francis described it at the opening of the pastoral congress of the Diocese of Rome in June 2017. “Adolescents are neither here nor there; they are on the way, in transit.

Embracing faith and existential questions

During this exploratory period, choosing faith is a personal and courageous decision. “There is no one now to tell us what to believe,” said Émilie, 14, referring to her parents, who occasionally took her to mass when she was little. During the pilgrimage during which Anatole was baptized, she reflected on the weekend with her friends and Antoine, 24, one of the leaders of their group. “I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived,” the girl admitted.

Antoine smiled, recalling the unenthusiastic teenagers he had accompanied on the bus the Friday evening before the rally. Two days later, everyone – Antoine included – had a hoarse voice and a heart full of the meetings and highlights of the weekend. Émilie is surprised: “My favorite moment? The vigil of adoration, which moved me greatly.

“I am struck by the great spiritual thirst of adolescents,” shares Father Nicolas Joli. He organizes another pilgrimage for young people. He confessed non-stop all weekend. In his parish in the Paris suburbs, more and more teenagers “curious about God” come to see him after requesting information from Christian influencers on social networks. “Their questions are very direct, very direct,” said the priest, raising many existential questions: “Salvation, life, death, heaven and earth are questions that concern them.”

With their parents' heritage kept at bay, adolescence is an age of “who am I?” “. The search for answers is personal but also fueled by the views and questions of their peers. “What is your religion?” At school, they grew up with Muslim friends whose daily lives are anchored in their faith. Would Catholic teenagers, as a minority, have a harder time embracing their faith among their peers? “I have no problem saying that I am a Christian,” defends Nathan, 16 years old. “Everyone knows it and they come and ask me questions.” The high school student is sure of himself: God is at the center of his life. Busy with tennis competitions, he does not attend mass regularly, but prays fervently every day.

God: a companion to grow, strengthen and hope

“I talk to God at night. I feel like He is calling me to do good around me,” the teenager confided, adding that he seeks to live his faith in a practical way. “At our age, I think we talk very badly to each other. So, in high school, I try to resolve conflicts and bring a little more kindness. »

When kindness is absent from the school hallways, 16-year-old Martina finds confidence in her faith. “When I don't really feel like I fit in or belong in certain groups, I think of God who loves me just the way I am, and I know that I don't have to be someone I'm not. not to please others,” she said. . Martina finds comfort in the life of Christ when she experiences times of doubt, anger, or exclusion. “It’s almost reassuring to see that, like us, he experienced difficult and very human times.”

For these adolescents who are looking for their way, God appears to be a fairly reliable companion. “I don’t believe in God with absolute certainty,” confessed Chloé, a 16-year-old high school student responsible for pastoral care at her school in Nancy. “But I like the idea of ​​having a reassuring presence by my side.” This feeling is all the more important as she lives between her divorced parents. “It’s a bit like having a father figure. It’s a presence that supports me but also gives me the strength to assert myself,” she says, recognizing her lack of self-confidence.

“Graduation is at the end of the year, graduate school is coming up, and I'm not sure what I want to do… It's a pretty unstable time,” she said. “Faith and the framework of values ​​that comes with it allow me to hold on to something tangible. Whatever my choices, as long as I make them consistently, I am confident that I will do good.

Faith also allows these adolescents, concerned about climate change and the “many conflicts in the world” and deeply affected by the poverty they observe around them, to project themselves with hope into the “adult world”. “When I pray, I intensely hope that things change, that people become aware of the real problems,” Chloe said. Martina must live this hope in a group: “It is very important for me to share my faith and live these values ​​collectively, like in a scout camp. »

A collective faith

At the age of interrogation, Father Xavier de Verchère, national chaplain of the Scouts and Guides of France, noted that “young people have difficulty engaging in purely ritual or normative proposals”, such as the traditional mass. parish. live collectively among peers of the same age. “They are not afraid to talk about their faith,” says the chaplain. “We just need to create the conditions of trust to enable them to do so. »

“Faith is discovered through others,” adds Agnès Charlemagne. “This is why the Church is the Church.” A pastoral trainer in Marseille, she has been designing tools for 20 years to help adolescents discuss their faith and spirituality more broadly. “We cannot offer a purely top-down catechism to adolescents who reject everything.” In his “Where Are You?” Workshops, Charlemagne starts with teenagers' questions and lets them interact first.

In the discussion, the role of the adult is that of a witness. “It's up to us to say: 'I asked myself this question forty years ago too.' Here are the answers I found along the way. What do you think ?' » A testimony that helps the young person to express themselves and give meaning to their questions. “The role of the chaplain is to offer words, a word from God or the life of a saint. We provide keys to interpretation to reveal this lived intensity,” adds Father Nicolas Joli, who accompanies the young people on a summer bicycle pilgrimage.

Conversely, adults have much to learn from the complete and spontaneous faith of these young people. Through them, “it is God who speaks to us”, insists Father de Verchère. They question the baptism of their interlocutor by examining the structures of faith and the Church. And they bring it to life. “What touches me about adolescents,” says Charlemagne, “is that they express out loud what we, adults, no longer dare to experience.”