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Game over--and over

26 Apr 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

A sizeable percentage of young people who play video games--almost one in ten--may resonate with the cry of help we hear in this Sunday's psalm: "You who relieve me when I am in distress; have pity on me, and hear my prayer!" A new study suggests that 8.5 percent of young video game players exhibit signs of addiction to gaming. Douglas A. Gentile, a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor at Iowa State University in Ames, said the study is the first to document the prevalence of video game addiction using a nationally representative sample of children and adolescents. "What's most concerning to me is really the total percentage, just the vast number of kids that are having real problems in their lives because they play games, and they may not know how to stop it," said Gentile, whose study appears in the May edition of Psychological Science. Experts say that when playing video games becomes compulsive and results in kids skipping school or not playing with friends it could signal other mental health problems. "What you usually find with these kids is this [video game compulsion] is just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Michael Brody, a psychiatrist in private practice in Potomac, Maryland and chairman of the media committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. "Underneath you usually find a lot of depression and anxiety." Source: An article by Karen Pallarito for HealthDay Reporter

Children teenagers young people mental health adolescents douglas a gentile gaming addiction video games

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Be all you can be but don’t eat all you can eat

25 Apr 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord "made us," says the psalmist this Sunday. So what made the U.S. a nation with a serious obesity problem? A group of retired military officers blame high-calorie school lunches, which they say are making young people too overweight to serve in the military. A study by the group "Mission: Readiness" finds that school lunches are making American kids so overweight that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards. That, in turn, is putting recruitment in jeopardy. A report from the group released Tuesday says that 27 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 are too overweight to join the military. One of the officers, retired Navy Rear Admiral James Barnett Jr., said many young Americans are simply too fat to fight. The officers are pushing for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier. Source: An article by Mary Clare Jalonick for the Associated Press

Children young people obesity united states mission readiness school lunches james barnett jr

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Rockin’ priest puts a new spin on evangelization

22 Aug 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist this Sunday encourages believers to “go out to all the world and tell the good news.” A priest in Italy has found a unique way to do so. “Jesus Is number one!” shouts DJ priest Don Roberto Fiscer as he cranks up the latest hit by Lady Gaga for parishioners gathered at a beach resort in northwestern Italy. “I have a message for you that comes straight from heaven: Without Jesus there is no future, without Jesus we have no love, no joy,” shouts Fiscer, 33, over the throbbing disco music. He sports a lemon yellow T-shirt emblazoned with an image of the Virgin Mary and child and the words: “You are my river of love.” “Music is what young people like the most. Through music, Jesus reaches their hearts,” says the priest, who was a cruise ship entertainer before entering the seminary at age 23. The DJ priest who hosts a program every Wednesday has gained a following. “Some people here in Arenzano find it bizarre, even a bit surprising, but it’s really a great thing because these evenings bring together children, parents, families--and that’s what’s most important,” said Patrizia Rossi, who turned up in a multi-colored dress with her son Filippo in tow. “He’s great, he’s a super person who’s a lot of fun,” said Filippo, around 10. “Believing in God doesn’t mean you have to be sad,” says Fiscer, who says his mission is to “find young sheep who have lost their way by meeting them on their own ground.” Fiscer got the go-ahead for the weekly event from Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, who also heads the Italian Catholic bishops' conference. “He trusts me,” Fiscer said. While dancing and music dominate the event, religion is never far off. “Remember, Father Jan is available for confession over there behind the sun umbrellas,” Fiscer says between two numbers. Father Jan, a Polish priest, hears the confessions of those who approach him on the beach chairs. Back at the dance floor, Fiscer regales dancers: “With Jesus, you’re always on holiday.” Source: An article by Gildas Le Roux for Agence France Presse

Music young people priests roberto fiscer

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“Liquid candy” leads to weighty problems

04 Sep 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Loving one another fulfills Jewish law because love “does no evil,” explains Saint Paul in this Sunday’s selection from the Letter to the Romans. But not all “loves” are benign. A new study has shed light on America’s increasing love affair with sugary beverages, which in part explains the growing problem of obesity, especially among the young. Over half the people in the U.S. drink a sugary beverage a day, said the new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Males ages 12 to 19 guzzle the most sugary drinks, about 273 calories' worth per day on average. And 70 percent of boys ages 2 to 19 consume sugary drinks on any given day. Sugary beverages have been implicated as contributors to obesity, especially among the young, and that in part explains why the world is becoming a heavier place. Obesity rates worldwide have doubled in the last three decades, according to three new studies being published in the British medical journal The Lancet. People in the Pacific Islands, such as American Samoa, are the heaviest, one of the studies found. In developed countries, Americans are the most obese and Japanese are the slimmest. In 1980 about 5 percent of men and 8 percent of women worldwide were obese. By 2008 the rates were nearly 10 percent for men and 14 percent for women. An additional 1.5 billion adults worldwide were overweight. On the heels of the CDC study on sweetened drinks, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced it's taking part in the “Life’s Sweeter With Fewer Sugar Drinks” campaign, whose mission is to get people to drink fewer sugary beverages. The campaign's goal is to broaden the battle against sugary drinks from health experts to civic organizations, youth groups, civil rights groups, and others, said CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson. "The enormous health and economic benefits that would result from drinking less 'liquid candy' will be supported by a broad cross section of America. Not since the anti-tobacco campaigns has there been a product so worthy of a national health campaign," Jacobson said. Sources: Articles by Jeannine Stein for the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press

young people obesity centers for disease control and prevention center for science in the public interest sugary drinks life’s sweeter with fewer sugar drinks michael jacobson

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Don’t let the sunshine in

08 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In light of the fact that we will rise in Christ, the author of the Letter to the Colossians encourages early followers to “think of what is above” rather than focus on earthly concerns. In light of an alarming rise in skin-cancer cases among younger people, researchers and dermatologists are strongly encouraging young Americans to think about the sun above and the harmful effect of ultraviolet exposure. Between 1970 and 2009 the rate of melanoma among women increased eightfold and quadrupled among men, according to Mayo Clinic experts who studied medical records over that time span for a selection of people in a county in Minnesota. Lead investigator Jerry Brewer, a Mayo Clinic dermatologist, sounded the alarm about what he called a dramatic rise in the disease for women in their 20s and 30s. “There is no such thing as a healthy baseline tan," Brewer said. “Even though young people have more of an understanding of the detrimental effects of tanning, they are still not changing their behavior and they are tanning just as much or more as they did way back in the 80s,” said Brewer. Although the current study did not focus on reasons for the increase, Brewer said other researchers have found that people who use indoor tanning beds--a $5-billion-a-year industry--are 74 percent more likely to get melanoma than non-tanners. "In the recent five years it has been a steep increase," said dermatologist Kavita Mariwalla of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. "If you go to a high school prom these days every single person is tan," she said, adding that popular television shows like Jersey Shore have instilled the notion that tanning--like going to the gym and doing laundry—is part of daily life. Doctors urge people to limit sun exposure, use sunscreen, and check moles for the “ABCDE” of melanoma: asymmetry, a border that is blurred or irregular, colors that are varied within the same mole, a diameter of more than a pencil eraser, and elevation or evolution--signs that the mole is raised or is changing shape. Source: An article by Kerry Sheridan for Agence France Presse

young people tanning melanoma mayo clinic jerry brewer kavita mariwalla

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Internet entices in ways sacred and profane

27 May 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Pentecost reading from 1 Corinthians speaks of the many parts brought together in the Body of Christ. The internet also unites people in a variety of ways, and that includes people of faith. A new study finds that nearly half of adults in the U.S. who are online are using the Internet for religious purposes. The study by Grey Matter Research reported that 19 percent of online adults have recently visited the website of their current place of worship, while another 17 percent have visited the website of a place of worship they are not attending. An additional 17 percent read religion-oriented blogs at least once a month and 16 percent followed a pastor or other religious leader on Facebook, Twitter, or another social network.“Young people are especially likely to be using the Internet for religious purposes,” said Ron Sellers, president of Grey Matter Research. “Yet younger Americans in general are less likely than older people to attend worship services or claim any specific religious identity. . . .Young people are obviously looking to the Internet to be a significant part of their faith experience.”Orthodox Jews in New York City, however, were encouraged to approach the internet with caution at a massive rally Sunday. Some 40,000 Orthodox men dressed in black suits and white shirts gathered at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, to listen to rabbis preaching the temptations and potential problems that stem from access to pornography and other explicit content on the uncensored Web.Still, many attendees readily conceded that the Internet played a big role in their lives. Shlomo Cohen, 24, of Toronto, said he used the Internet for shopping, business, and staying in touch with friends. “Everyone needs email,” he said. Cohen said he was there because the rally was a good way to remind his community to keep temptation at bay. “Desires are out there,” he said, adding that men could be particularly susceptible. “We have to learn how to control ourselves.” Sources: Articles by Jeff Kunerth for the Orlando Sentinel and Michael M. Grynbaum for the New York Times

religion young people internet orthodox jews ron sellers grey matter research

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Youth urged to avoid the agony of Ecstasy

08 Sep 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

God’s counsel may be inscrutable to mere mortals, as the first reading suggests this Sunday, but the advice to party-going youth regarding a potent form of the designer drug Ecstasy, called Molly, is clear and urgent: Stay away from it.The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is ramping up its efforts against Molly, the powder form of Ecstasy, after numerous overdoses along the East Coast last weekend. “There’s no ‘good batch’ of Molly, MDMA, Ecstasy,” said Anthony Pettigrew, a spokesman for the DEA New England division.“This is stuff that’s made in somebody’s bathtub in either Asia, the Netherlands, Canada, you have no idea what is in this stuff," he said. "Dealers want to make more money, so they’ll mix and adulterate the stuff with meth and any number of other drugs to addict people to it.”Whether it's snorted as a powder or swallowed as a capsule, the drug is said to lead to a sudden rush of energy and "feel good" levels of the brain chemical serotonin for 3 to 6 hours. "It produces feelings of increased energy, euphoria, emotional warmth and empathy toward others, and distortions in sensory and time perception," according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.The negative side effects are often teeth grinding, dehydration, anxiety, insomnia, fever, and loss of appetite, but even more dangerous ones can occur, including hyperthermia, seizures, high blood pressure, and depression due to the sudden drop in serotonin levels as the drug wears off. Other dangers—not always known by users—arise if it's cut with substances like methamphetamine.Amid the string of overdoses, DEA offices in New England and other regions are engaging “in a continuous exchange of information” to target those bringing the drug into the country from overseas, said Erin Mulvey, a spokeswoman for the New York DEA.“We are seeing [Molly] goes hand-in-hand with a lot of nightclub activity, concert venues, areas where there’s a lot of teens listening to music,” she said. “With these overdose deaths and the focus now with trying to get the awareness out, we’re trying to get in front of the problem.”Homily hint: Our culture is awash in pharmaceuticals—some of them prescribed for illnesses, others bought and sold for “recreation.” But our God calls us to freedom. Encourage families and loved ones to have open, frank conversations about drugs so that problems can be addressed before they develop or worsen. Sources: Articles by Jack Encarnacao for the Boston Herald, Kent Sepkowitzfor The Daily Beast, and Nina Golgowski for the New York Daily News

teenagers molly illegal drugs dea drug enforcement agency anthony pettigrew national institute of drug abuse erin mulvey youth drugs teens young people ecstasy

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Study: Young Latinos losing faith

11 May 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"What are we to do?" said those around Saint Peter in response to his preaching. The church may well be asking the same question about young Latinos, who are leaving the Catholic Church in droves, according to a new study, with many drifting into the country's fastest-growing "religious movement": the "nones." Nearly a third of Latino adults under 30 don't belong to a faith group, according to a major survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. That's a jump of 17 percentage points in only the last three years.The trends highlighted by Pew's Latino survey also mirror large-scale shifts in the American population as whole. According to other studies conducted by Pew in recent years, nearly a third of all millennials—Americans between the ages of 18-33—are religiously unaffiliated, a dramatic and ongoing change from previous generations.“One of the most striking recent trends in the American religious landscape has been the growing share of the unaffiliated, and this study allows us to see where Latinos fit into that story,” said Cary Funk, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center and one of the coauthors of the study.The overall breakdown of the nation's estimated 35.4 million Latinos is: 55 percent Catholic, 22 percent Protestant, and 18 percent unaffiliated.That's bad news for the Catholic Church, which has seen a 12 percentage-point drop in Hispanic members since 2010, with most of the losses coming from former Catholics under 50. As recently as a few years ago, two-thirds of Latinos were Catholic; now nearly one in four Hispanic adults is a former Catholic, according to Pew.More than half (55 percent) say they simply "drifted away" from organized religion. A similar number (52 percent) say they no longer believed in the teachings of their childhood religion. A smaller number of Latinos (4 percentage points) have left Catholicism to become evangelical Protestants, according to Pew."Outreach to the Hispanic community is a top priority for the Catholic Church as the huge growth in the Hispanic community offers a challenge to keep up with the pastoral needs," said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.See the Pew report.Homily hint: While the church should be concerned with the loss of significant numbers of specific groups, the best response is not merely to blame cultural and social trends but for each and every believer to show in their own lives that the Catholic Christian faith is a living and life-giving path which speaks to human hearts and minds in ways nothing else can. Source: An article by Daniel Burke for the CNN Belief Blog

young people latinos catholic church hispanics pew research center

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Sleep deprived youth won’t make the grade

31 Aug 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Following Jesus will involve a fair amount of self denial, we hear in this Sunday’s gospel. Early start times on school days deny young people vital hours of sleep, say pediatricians. Their recommendation? Let kids sleep in on school days.A new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published Monday recommends middle and high schools delay the start of class until 8:30 a.m. or later. The AAP notes natural sleep cycles can make it tough for students to fall asleep before 11 p.m., so a later school day could help combat sleep deprivation.“Chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common–and easily fixable–public health issues in the U.S. today,” said pediatrician Judith Owens, MD, FAAP, lead author of the policy statement, “School Start Times for Adolescents,” published in the September 2014 issue of Pediatrics.Most experts recommend 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep on school nights. A National Sleep Foundation poll, however, found 59 percent of sixth through eighth-graders don’t get enough sleep and 87 percent of high school students get less than the recommended amount. About 40 percent of high schools in the U.S. start before 8 a.m., according to the AAP. Only 15 percent start at 8:30 a.m. or later.Homily hint: Sleep deprivation is widespread in our wired society. Encourage good habits in your home by shutting down the electronics at least half an hour before bedtime, especially if children are living at home. Habits established early last a lifetime. Source: An article by Jessica Dabrowski for Fox News

young people sleep

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Religious trends reflect who we are

Short essays about observed trends in Roman Catholic life - Pastoral trends

A major new study on teenagers and the life of faith led by Christian Smith of the University of North Carolina suggests that, in general, Catholic teens are less connected to their faith then teens of most other faith traditions. He suggests that this is the case because teens reflect their parents’ level of commitment. We get what we want. If we want to predict the faith life of our young people, look at the generation that is raising them and the way the faith community of which they are a part lays out its lived expectations. Excluding statistically inevitable exceptions such as deeply practicing and highly committed families whose children leave the practice of the faith, consider instead the more representative statistical average: Children whose parents sporadically attend and who themselves sporadically attend or not at all. Or children of parents who attend out of a somewhat resented habit but cannot express or share faith with their children in a credible way. Trends in religious practice reflect who we are, and what we want. Think of the young person who feels a vocation to be a priest, sister, or brother, or who wants to work for a service or justice organization and accept low wages rather than pursue a high-paying position. How many parents would discourage the former and encourage the latter? What about Catholic elementary and high schools, and colleges and universities? Catholics have surely supported those schools because they formed communities of faith, but has the real selling point for the tuition and pride often been because they give young people a leg up in the march toward success? It’s not that success is a bad thing: It’s only a question of what we really want.

Authors Bryan Froehle

teenagers young people catholic schools

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