Practicing Catholic faith in artificial intelligence, space tourism era

By Nisha Jose

Kottayam, Oct. 5, 2021: I am the founder director of Vathil (door) Foundation that promotes mental health and wellness. Our activities include counselling, training and workshops for people from different walks of life.

We also offer a diploma program in counselling and psychotherapy in association with School of Social Work of Marian College Kuttikkanam (Autonomous), a hill station in Kerala’s Idukki district.

Helen Keller, an American author and disability rights advocate, once said, “True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” What greater purpose can a person have than serving Jesus and one’s fellow beings?

Helping others has brought me immense satisfaction and a sense of purpose. However that was not enough as I found myself lacking in training. So I pursued MSc in counselling psychology from Montfort College Bangalore that opened up for me various avenues to work with the youth in and outside Kerala.

A decade of working with young people through various institutions gained me deeper insight into their problems and challenges. Although young people are known as the future of the country I found that most of their problems were either neglected or unaddressed by society. I perceived a huge gap and the birthing of Vathil Foundation is attempt to fill it.

From its humble beginnings in 2018, Vathil has worked zealously in creating awareness on mental health and mental health issues, thus promoting help seeking behavior.

Youth today are focused and highly competent. They are resourceful, adaptive and hold a wide world view. They are rather tolerant and accepting of the present cosmopolitan culture. However they are bombarded with information through various traditional and virtual means. This uncensored and endless flow of information, although a blessing, may sometimes lead to confusions and unforeseen challenges.

Another issue that is commonly observed among the youth today is the heightened need to excel and meet up to the expectations of society, this invariably has contributed to an increase in stress and anxiety among them. The lack of self confidence and with a diminishing sense of self has led many to depression as well as an increase in rate of suicides.

An alarming intolerance to rejection in romantic relationships is seen among the youth leading to rash behaviors like stalking and harming the very person they claimed to have loved once upon a time.

With the emergence of secular universal spirituality the idea that it is enough to be a good person to have a good life is extensively promoted thus cancelling the importance of being part of a structured religion.

A considerable change is witnessed in the value system due to the influence of media and the ever changing cosmopolitan culture that they are exposed to. When we talk about their belief system, their concept of right and wrong is extremely subjective and relative. For example while counselling a girl addicted to drugs once told me, “While some people tell me it is right whereas others say I am wrong, only I know what is right for me.” She further added, “Why should I restrict myself from experiences of happiness that does not harm others?” This clearly resonates with the underlying core belief of the young minds today.

Among the Christian youth what is observed is a lack of knowledge in differentiating between Christian morality and the morality of the world. The Church needs to outreach the youth with an intention to equip them with a thorough understanding of the criteria for choosing between right and wrong.

Another area that needs specific attention and intervention among the youth is to help them explain the relationship between faith and science. For instance I clearly recollect a young practicing Catholic boy I came across a few weeks ago. When he moved to the hostel his faith was challenged by his atheist friends who argued that the Bible and the Christian teachings were against scientific principles. He felt helpless and angry as he could not defend his faith in front of such impelling scientific arguments. This is a universal challenge which shakes the very core of their Christian faith and therefore needs to be addressed through various platforms in the Catholic Church.

Recently Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt of Palai spoke about the highly prevalent “narcotism” which destroys society. I highly appreciate him for highlighting the issue and bringing it to public attention. Narcotic activities are on a rise among the youth and are most often perpetuated by terrorist groups actively aiming at destroying the youth-the future of any religious community.

Concrete reports and scientific studies clearly indicate that narcotic terrorism has been a long standing threat to the world and it is high time the government initiated investigations on such matters in a time sensitive manner.

The present generation is considered torchbearers to the coming generation, which makes it imperative to study the problems and challenges faced by the youth today, thus paving a path to a better and brighter tomorrow.

(Nisha Jose is a counselling psychologist living in Kottayam, Kerala, with her parents. She has an elder sister.)