Reading time: 5 minutesThe following article by Christian Walbröl (COJOBO graduation 2025, KSJ leader and volunteer in Ireland) takes up an observation many people will recognize from practice: spiritual questions are surfacing more strongly again among young people—often quietly, and often outside familiar church settings. Walbröl is part of the team at Common Home TV and in Ireland also works with the mission partners COREAM and SERVE.
Faith— for many, that sounds like old rituals, quiet pews, and traditions that have faded somewhere between baptism and First Communion. And yet it can currently be observed that more and more young people are once again engaging with spiritual questions. However, they do so differently than earlier generations: less dogmatic, less tied to institutions. Meaning is not found in the church service, but in spaces that one would hardly have associated with the search for God in the past.
One example is music. Whether Christian rap, spiritual pop music, or calm indie tracks with existential lyrics—these genres open up spaces in which young people can encounter their own questions. Songs like “Ja ich glaub” by O’Bros show this particularly clearly: they combine modern beats with a personal search for support and trust. The song is about holding on to love, hope, and something greater despite doubt and uncertainty. It expresses a confession that does not moralize, but encourages. For many young people, music becomes a gateway to topics that easily get lost in everyday life: Who am I? What do I truly believe? What carries me when school, relationships, or the state of the world feel overwhelming? In such songs they find words they often cannot formulate themselves—and the comforting feeling: “I am not alone with my thoughts.”
This way of approaching faith through art is by no means new. Making the invisible visible through beauty and creativity has always been a central part of the Catholic tradition. Over the centuries, the Church has produced or commissioned some of the greatest artists to bring people closer to God: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s frescoes, or Caravaggio’s dramatic interplay of light and shadow were visual theology. Art was not decoration, but proclamation. It reached people emotionally, intuitively, and often more deeply than words ever could. Against this background, the question arises as to why art today often no longer plays the same central role in the communication of faith. Perhaps rediscovering art as a contemporary, lived expression of faith could once again open doors that are more likely to be closed by mere instruction.
“Perhaps this is the opportunity of our time for the institution: to strengthen those who are searching and help them find answers in the depth of the Catholic tradition, not only through rituals. A resource that can offer orientation amid the noise of everyday life.”
What is striking about these new spiritual formats is their unobtrusiveness. They do not lecture or preach, but meet people where they are. They speak of doubt, exhaustion, and inner struggles—and still leave room for hope. It is precisely this openness that makes them credible for many young people. In a time when much feels uncertain—climate, war, school, the future—spirituality becomes attractive when it does not claim to have all the answers, but encourages people to take responsibility for their own spiritual life.
Alongside music, community plays an enormous role. As a Shell youth study from October 2024 shows, many young people report that they are looking less for religion and more for belonging. Groups, camps, trips, as well as youth prayer evenings or spiritual workshops give them the opportunity to experience something greater together. It is about the feeling of being carried when you do not know what to do next—and about knowing your own worth, regardless of where your path leads. Young people want to be taken seriously, not patronized. Where they can speak freely and without pressure about their questions, genuine connections emerge.
Interestingly, many young people have not turned away from faith—they are rather tired of institutions, not least because of numerous scandals in recent years. Traditional church structures often seem too rigid, too bureaucratic, and too far removed from their lives. Yet the longing for meaning remains. It shows itself in interest in mindfulness, sustainability, and social engagement. Spirituality merges with the desire to make the world better. Faith has become less about confession and more about practice: How do I relate to others? Where do I find rest? What gives me strength? If these questions lie at the heart of the Catholic faith, then the perceived distance may lie less in the content than in the way it is communicated. Many people’s lived faith today appears personal, searching, and open, while institutional forms of expression are often perceived as closed, absolute, and distant. Bridging this gap may not require changing the message, but translating it into lived experiences that resonate with today’s reality.
A generation is emerging that is spiritual without necessarily being religious in the classical sense—or religious, but looking for new ways to express that religion. A space is opening up that has little to do with traditional ideas of how faith is handed on.
Perhaps this is precisely the opportunity for the institution: to strengthen those who are searching and to help them find answers in the depth of tradition—not only through rituals. Not imposed, but discovered. As a resource that can offer orientation amid the noise of everyday life. Young people no longer want to be told what they should believe—they want to find out what nourishes them spiritually.
In the end, it becomes clear: the path to meaning and faith today leads through very different stations. Some find it in prayer, others in music, still others in shared experience. But what they all share is the search for something that carries. By turning again toward what matters most in their own way, young people may not be moving away from faith at all—but rediscovering its core.