Bishop Malesic addresses what the young Church is seeking at First Friday Forum of Lorain County

“What does the young Church want?”

Bishop Edward Malesic posed that question to the 175 attendees at the Nov. 6 First Friday Forum of Lorain County. The audience included a group of students from Elyria Catholic High School, whom the bishop called “my youngest brothers and sisters.”

Overall, the Diocese of Cleveland is doing well, Bishop Malesic said. “We have 47 men studying in our seminary. Chicago and New York are jealous because they don’t have those numbers,” he quipped. “We’re not just forming minds, we’re forming souls.”

He said there is a younger cohort joining and becoming active in the Church, noting most of the approximately 500 unbaptized people who were at the 2026 Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion were in their late teens and early 20s. Another 500 who already were baptized but were entering full communion with the Church also were younger – in their 20s and 30s.

“The trend is younger people are seeking God and taking steps to find him,” the bishop told those at the lunch program. He asked them to think about what draws people to the Church besides Jesus. “What are we doing to bring them in?”

He said for many years, the “nones” – those who identified as spiritual or religious but didn’t attend church – was a growing segment of the population. That trend has slowed.

Recently, the Archdiocese of Chicago conducted a survey (which the bishop wrote about in his September/October column in Northeast Ohio Catholic magazine) examining what is drawing people to the Catholic faith. Especially among younger people, Bishop Malesic said there are seven things they are seeking:

• Authenticity – which young people can sense, noting they know when someone is sincere
• A sense of belonging or community – wanting to feel welcomed, even at the cathedral, where he said many younger people are in the congregation
• Beauty/liturgy – both in the physical church building and the liturgy
• The challenge to follow Jesus – to grow in faith and virtue
• Good liturgy – letting people see how we worship, participating in events like the National Eucharistic Congress
• Being of service to others – making a difference for others through acts of service
• Truth – tradition, our faith which connects directly back to Jesus and the apostles. “We celebrate Mass by taking the bread, blessing it, breaking it and serving it just as we’ve done for 2,000 years,” the bishop said.

He addressed how the Catholic Church is filling those needs and how there is a direct link to Jesus. 

“Me – and my office as bishop – are the touchstone of Jesus. Our tradition goes back two centuries to his time … Our Church is ever ancient and ever new,” he said, noting each generation renews the Church. 

After a break for the holidays, the forums will resume on Feb. 26, 2027 with Maureen Kyle speaking on “Anchored in Faith: Navigating Life, Career and the Media.” For more information, call the reservation line at 440-320-3272 or email ffflorain@gmail.com.