Pope may find willing ear among young U.S. Catholics

By Michael Conlon, Religion Writer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pope Benedict may find a particularly receptive audience during his U.S. visit next week among some younger Catholics who have come of age seeking a stronger and perhaps more conservative religious identity.

Many want something other than the Roman Catholic Church of their parents, who lived through the period after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) when Latin was dropped for English and Gregorian chant swapped for guitar Masses, experts say.

Their ranks are swelled by immigrants from Latin America, Africa and elsewhere who brought with them a more traditional piety that highlights some prayers and processions that seem somewhat out-of-date to Catholic baby boomers.

The pope's visit to a country whose 67 million Catholics represent its largest religious denomination runs from April 15 to 20, with about a dozen events in Washington and New York.

"In general, there is among young people -- 30 or younger -- a growing desire for a reassertion of Catholic distinctiveness," said Mathew Schmalz, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

But they are not simply turning back the clock to the 1950s.

This is the "John Paul II generation" that supports the late pope's mix of doctrinal conservativism and Church authority with what Schmalz called "more radical concerns of Christian witness -- social justice, right to life.

"It can and often does play out with what might be called conservative (philosophy) but not always," he added.