Much of Gen Z is stressed, lonely and without faith. How do we change that?

?Nearly half of young people in America today are atheists, agnostic, or believe “nothing in particular.” Most are also stressed, lonely, anxious, nervous, or depressed.

Gen Z is more likely than other generations to report their mental health as “poor” or “fair.” They are also more likely to be receiving professional mental health treatment.

In the Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Chicago, we believe we have identified a powerful remedy to this crisis: faith. It is a belief supported by research.

“There is a mounting body of empirical evidence suggesting that people who are active in their faith tend to be the recipients of a number of important physical and mental-health benefits,” says Byron Johnson, professor of social sciences at Baylor University. Johnson and researchers from Harvard have found that people who attend weekly religious services have higher “flourishing” scores than those who do not. Those scores were determined by surveying 200,000 people worldwide about happiness, close social relationships, financial stability, physical and mental health.

Other research has shown that religious education can have positive mental health benefits. A 2019 study published in the International Journal of Mental Health Systems found, “Religious education can be instrumental to improving adolescent mental health” by reducing the impact of stress, enhancing coping skills, and promoting connectedness which can enhance well-being.

Catholic Schools, therefore, have the opportunity to form students’ faith and, in the process, support their mental health and well-being. Over the past three years, in Chicago, we have focused on doing just that.

We began in 2022, by adopting a clear goal around student faith formation. Our goal is to have students “strongly agree” that “God is present in my life.” As Christians and Catholics, we believe God is not somewhere else, God is present in our world and in our lives and loves all people. The Old and New Testaments talk about God’s presence and love repeatedly. In Ephesians: “There is one God and Creator of all, who is over all, who works through all and is within all.” ?In Matthew: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In 1 John: “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God.” In the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.”

In a secular, materialistic, and individualistic society, we believe it is essential for our students to understand God’s presence and love. If our students do not believe in God’s presence and love, no other teaching will matter.

After establishing our goal, our second step was to help our educators and students achieve it. To do that, we overhauled our approach to preparing our teachers to teach our Catholic faith. For years in our archdiocese, the only faith formation or instruction we provided to our teachers was series of 70 pre-recorded videos on the Catechism. The videos taught the facts of the Catechism but were not designed to empower educators to teach our faith to young people.

So, we set out to develop a course of study for our teachers that is active, engaging, and relevant to today's educators. We were confident we could create learning opportunities that allowed teachers to reflect about their role in Catholic education, feel part of a community through connection with?like-minded peers, and empower them to better engage and form their students.

In 2023-24, we dropped the videos. Instead, we now provide faith formation to teachers through a variety of professional development pathways offered with Catholic universities, religious communities, retreat centers, and Church agencies and ministries. Some of the pathways offer straightforward guidance on standards-based religion instruction. Other pathways address Catholic social teaching, science and religion, service learning, inclusive education, “play and pray” for early childhood educators, and more. Teachers select the pathway they believe is most relevant to themselves and their students. The response from our teachers has been strongly positive. Last year, participation grew among teachers as the year went on, surpassing the number that watched the recorded videos in prior years.

We have also sponsored student art and essays contests, asking students to draw or write about God’s presence in their life. We have received thousands of submissions which are often powerful and touching. We have also printed and distributed thousands of “God is present in my life” posters to schools to put up in classrooms and hallways, each one giving an example of how God appears in our everyday kindness to each other, service, and prayers.

So far, we are pleased with the results. In 2022, the year we started, only 28% of our schools were hitting our target for the percent of students who strongly agreed that God is present in their life. In 2024, we more than doubled to 61% of schools achieving our goal.

And we are not resting. This year we are piloting self-reflection tools that prompt teachers to evaluate where they are in their own spiritual development, set a personal growth goal, and plan how to achieve it. Those tools will be fully implemented next school year.

Our progress to date fills us with joy and confidence for the future. When our teachers are comfortable and confident in their own faith, they are in a better position to support our students’ faith journey. And when our students feel that God is present in their life, they are less likely to be lonely and anxious, more likely to flourish, and more likely to graduate from our Catholic schools with a strong faith foundation that will serve them well in life.

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Greg Richmond is the Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago. This essay is adapted from an October 14, 2024, presentation to the Catholic Leadership Summit of the National Catholic Education Association.