Vatican Information Service reported that Pope John Paul II turned 82 on May 18 and marked his birthday by presiding at an audience in the morning for 7,000 participants in a meeting sponsored by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. A student band played Happy Birthday, and they were joined in song by the pilgrims present in the Paul VI Hall.

The U.S. bishops will take their next step in addressing the problem of clergy sexual abuse of minors when they meet June 13-15 in Dallas, TX. The April 23-24 meeting in Rome of the U.S. cardinals and top officials of the U.S. bishops’ conference with the Pope and Vatican officials put certain groundwork in place for the upcoming bishops’ meeting, which is not the same as saying that the meeting pre-empted the Dallas meeting.

Two texts emerged at the conclusion of the April 23-24 meeting in Rome of the U.S. cardinals and top officials of the U.S. bishop’s conference: a communique by all the participants and a letter to all U.S. priests by the U.S. participants. "We pledge to support you in every possible way through these troubled times, and we ask that you stay close to us in the bond of the priesthood as we make every effort to bring the healing grace of Christ to the people whom we serve," said the letter to the priests.

Some young adults "have received good spiritual mentoring; the vast majority say they have not," Sister of Notre Dame de Namure Mary Johnson told the April 18-21 Third Continental Congress on Vocations in Montreal, Quebec. "There is very little support, startlingly so, for young people to discern their true heart’s calling, whatever that calling may be," she said. Johnson, associate professor of sociology at Emmanuel College in Boston, shared results of research she and three colleagues did on Catholics ages 20 to 39. The results appeared last fall in a book titled Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice (University of Notre Dame Press)....

...Some findings of her team’s research on young adults are "germane to the vocation ministry we all share," Johnson told the vocations congress. "These findings are presented under three rubrics: spirituality, community, and mission - the elements that comprise the core of the Christian vocation." Asked by the researchers if they ever had been encouraged to consider becoming a sister, brother or priest, only 15 percent of the young adults contacted said yes, and of the that number most received their encouragement from family, Johnson said.....

... "This generation has come of age in a time of spiritual yearning," Johnson said. "Eighty percent of them consider themselves to be ‘spiritual.’" The sociologist said: "In spite of the pull of the spiritual marketplace, the faith of young-adult Catholics is strong. The vast majority hold firmly to the core tenets of the faith. They believe in God, they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, they believe that God is present in the sacraments. They believe that at Mass the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. They believe that Mary and the saints hold a special place in the lives of Catholics. And they pray."