California Catholic Daily reporter, Mary Rose, visits a California college each week and asks students about God, good, and evil. Interview on the Library Quad with Kayla, who is studying biology during her first year at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, on October 21, 2019.
Do you consider yourself religious?
Kayla: Yes. I’m Catholic. I go to church on Sundays. I pray before every meal I eat. I go to church on holidays and my birthday, too. Sometimes I go when I need to talk to God. When I just have no one to turn to, I’ll sit there and just pray to him. Or I’ll confess my sins, like to get the feeling of it off my chest of the sins I’ve created.
If an atheist asked you why you believe in god what would you say?
Kayla: Because there’s heaven and hell and I believe in God. I don’t know. That’s how I grew up. My family is very religious and we do all that stuff but I don’t know how to explain it. It’s hard.
Do you believe in an afterlife?
Kayla: I don’t know if I do. I don’t know what’s going to happen after. I don’t know.
If someone asked you who’s Jesus what would you say?
Kayla: I don’t know how to word it. I don’t know how to put it in words. I don’t know how to explain it.
Do you agree with the teaching of the church on abortion?
Kayla: No. It’s your body, your choice. It shouldn’t matter to anybody else because there’s instances where you don’t want to keep the baby, for instance rape. Or if you don’t have enough money to support the baby, why have it? So it could live a bad life? Or for it to end up in foster care and not feel loved? Whereas you could just abort it and, when you’re ready, give birth. I think that no one should be able to tell you whether or not you should keep that baby because it’s your body. Your body changes, you’re adapting to the baby and it messes with your body. And living with the fact that your child was conceived the way you didn’t want it to would just probably eat the woman alive.
Why do you think the Catholic Church says abortion is wrong?
Kayla: Because you are killing a life.
What do you think about the Church’s teaching that marriage is only between a man and a woman?
Kayla: I don’t like that because that’s not right. Yes, Adam and Eve, but no, you should be able to love who you want. In my family, they don’t accept that either. They don’t accept the same gender in my family. Some of my family members allow it. Like my mom, she doesn’t care. She has a lot of gay friends. But her sisters, some of them don’t like that. They want me to be with a man or, like, a boy with a girl. I don’t think that’s right. I think you should be able to have feelings for whoever you want whether it’s the same gender or not. I don’t like that. I don’t agree.
Should you always have the right to act on your feelings? Some adults have feelings for small children. Should they be allowed to act on them?
Kayla: Oh yeah, that’s wrong.
How do you decide what’s right and what’s wrong?
Kayla: Well because abortion, yeah, it’s wrong, you’re killing a life, but it’s not anyone else’s choice. If I had a baby and I wasn’t ready and my choice was to abort it, my mom would probably kill me, not literally, but she would probably be upset. But it’s not her choice because it’s not coming from her. The baby is not growing inside of her, it’s growing in me, so it would be my choice, regardless of what I grew up believing. And gay marriage, love is love, you attract who you attract, and sometimes it might be wrong but it is what it is. You might attract someone else the same gender, and you should be allowed to. There shouldn’t be no wrong in liking who you like and what you prefer.
It is legal in California for someone with a terminal illness to commit suicide with a doctor’s assistance. What do you think about that?
Kayla: It is? And a doctor can help them? Woah, I never knew about that. Well, I mean if they don’t want to live and they’re allowed to do it, then why not? Why waste more time being alive if you don’t want to be here? Yeah, it’s not right, but if they don’t want to be here, then why keep living if you don’t want to live? And even if it’s not right, it’s their choice. You can’t stop them.
California Catholic Daily exclusive by Mary Rose.
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This young woman is the perfect example of a lost generation of Catholics, whose luke warmness Our Lord will spit out of His mouth.. Well done Vatican 2 well done
Since this confused young woman attends Mass and goes to Confession, I’m wondering if the priests (and deacons) at her parish are speaking the truth or, as some do, avoiding it?
Let us pray for Kayla.
“I don’t know how to explain it” says it all. This is so sad.
This article should be a huge wake up call to parents, grandparents, priests, deacons, and every caring adult in the Catholic Church. This young lady has been given tons of information in her life, yet at her age is not able to explain the faith.
I hope the Bishop sees this and starts insisting priests give catechist from the pulpit as a part of every Sunday homily.
The TV and internet have educated her along with souls that know not what they teach and are following the father of lies. It’s heartbreaking.
She does not seem to grasp the amazing love Jesus has for her. When one begins to understand love itself, one want no love back that love which offers them so much love. One does not want to be selfish.
If one sees another who is part of God’s Body broken one wants to help, not say they have the choice to kill themselves. Love sacrifices for the other.
I pray she goes to confession this Advent, and God pours his grace upon her, so she can see more clearly the error of the thoughts she’s been feed. In this way she will be able to get more graces during communion each Sunday and grow into the woman God created her to be.
Well said, Ann. And, bohemond, thanks be to God, not all in her generation of Catholics are lost. Many are serving our Lord, the Church and a world in need with fidelity, even sacrifice. Let us more fervently pray for and encourage our young adults. (Our Lord Jesus Christ is the “judge of the living and the dead” and He will determine who He will spit out of His mouth. That’s not our place.) Ora et labora!
Well if Kayla wants to take biology, she has already flunked it as she has confused the reproductive system with the excretory system if she thinks sodomy and so forth is .all right. She has also flunked the Commandment against murder. We are supposed to help people through their pain and ease it, not kill them. Jack Kevorkian who help start this whole euthanasia thing was a pathologist not an oncologist. He knew nothing about pain relief, but a whole lot about cadavers.
Correction to my last post: “Jack Kevorcian who helped start ……….”
Maybe I seem harsh, but It seems they are not teaching students the dangers, repercussions and responsibilities of certain behaviors. At least some Christian high schools still explain, without going into sordid detail, the dangers and failures rates of contraceptives, abortions and promiscuous behavior, and that a child is being ripped apart in an abortion. They also warn that certain acts are not healthy nor safe and encourage reasonable modesty for both boys and girls. Parents are often of fault too. Need to get off here for
I wonder why Kayla thinks she needs to go to confession. She doesn’t seems to grasp the concept of sin. Prayers for her.
So sad that this young lady has been raised in church but never experienced conversion to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Faith formation that doesn’t include conversion of heart first is only preparation for the protestants to lead our youth to the personal encounter they should have received in their own Church.
how can you go to confession
when you get to make up your
own rules ???
Wow! Her parents were/are the first and foremost educators of their daughter and they have failed her. I say this not because Kayla rejects Church teachings but because she has no clue about her relationship with Christ and her duty to Him. She has an 11 yr old understanding of her Faith which is void of any understanding of the supernatural. Heck, this poor girl has no understanding of basic biology and logic. It was her parents responsibility to properly form her in the Faith and to help her to understand why the Church has the teachings She has and why it is in our best interest to follow them.