Not Your Grandparents' Church

This concise, direct book is aimed at young adults—cradle Catholics who have left the Church. Patricia Wittberg, a Sister of Charity, makes no attempt to persuade readers to swallow seemingly irrelevant teachings or to engage in rituals they may find boring or unintelligible. “Young adults in the twenty-first century have their own needs, desires, and questions,” she writes. “Catholic spirituality is wide and varied; there is something in it for everyone.”

Wittberg focuses on the following aspects of young adult life.

■ The problem of having too many choices

■ The pursuit of authenticity

■ The noise of social media

■ The wise use of time

■ Goals and expectations

■ The accumulation of “stuff ” and consumer culture

■ The disparity between rich and poor

■ The polarization in our country and the world

This book invites young adults to sample some of the spiritual treasures and wisdom of Catholicism as they search for their own answers. “Yes, it is no longer your grandparents’ (or even your parents’) Catholic Church,” Wittberg writes, “but it can be yours, to make of it what you will."

PATRICIA WITTBERG, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio, is a research associate with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. After receiving her Ph.D. in Sociology, she taught at Indiana University and Fordham University. She has authored or co-authored many books, including Catholic Cultures (Liturgical Press © 2016) and New Generations of Catholic Sisters (Oxford University Press © 2014).