Mobilizing the Field Hospital: Pastoral Care as a Paradigm for Ministry with Young Adults

Paul Jarzembowski

doi:10.3390/rel11110617

Abstract

When considering the Church and young adults, marketing or educational approaches are often used; however, these are inadequate to address the realities facing people in their 20s and 30s, including mental health, economic conditions, and racial and cultural injustice. What is needed is the development of a new ecclesial paradigm based on Pope Francis’s “field hospital” analogy, which emphasizes pastoral care as a primary step in ministerial accompaniment.

Highlights

Woundedness is nothing new to young adulthood. This demographic, understood as those in their late teens, twenties, and thirties, single or married, with or without children2, has, for many years, been marked by constant and intense life transitions. From his longitudinal research study on young people, sociologist Christian Smith observed that “emerging adult life in the United States today is beset with real problems, in some cases troubling and even heartbreaking problems,” which “damages people, relationships, a sense of a richer purpose in life, a rational social order, and perhaps even the earth’s environment.”3
This article puts forth a descriptive analysis of those approaches, noting their limits, as they compare to Pope Francis’s ecclesial vision rooted in his “field hospital” analogy,4 and concludes by proposing a fitting paradigm of dynamic pastoral care and accompaniment
After a careful examination of the realities facing the young, Pope Francis made a sobering assessment: “Young people frequently fail to find in our usual programs a response to their concerns, their needs, their problems and issues.”15 Pope Francis observed that the “usual programs” were not an adequate approach to young adults, and that a new model must be developed, going on to say that “the young make us see the need for new styles and new strategies.”16 Models are helpful tools for applying theological frameworks to lived experiences

Summary

Introduction

Woundedness is nothing new to young adulthood This demographic, understood as those in their late teens, twenties, and thirties, single or married, with or without children , has, for many years, been marked by constant and intense life transitions. From his longitudinal research study on young people, sociologist Christian Smith observed that “emerging adult life in the United States today is beset with real problems, in some cases troubling and even heartbreaking problems,” which “damages people, relationships, a sense of a richer purpose in life, a rational social order, and perhaps even the earth’s environment.”.

The Tipping Point

The Need for a New Model

The Field Hospital Model and Young Adults

Key Issues for Immediate Pastoral Care

Findings

Conclusions