CoffeecathThe Catholic Report has linked to a story about a Catholic coffee shop in Arizona that has closed shop after a year of being in business. The idea was to provide a place to hang out for Catholic young people and to provide a non-threatening witness to non-Catholics and non-Christians. Sadly, although the numbers patronizing the shop were increasing, it just couldn’t last long enough to be profitable.

I always thought it would be awesome to create a place for young Catholics and other Christians to hang out. It would be like the coffeehouses of pre-enlightenment England that were filled with highly caffeinated, highly thoughtful individuals who used them as a spot for great philosophical discussion and eventually societal change. Throw in a few statues, provide scapulars to all, devote some time to the rosary, and change the topic to theology and you have my vision. Of course, we’d be trying to undo much of the work of those men in pre-enlightenment England! But, hey the model could work.

Sadly, for young people interested in theology, especially Catholic theology, there are few venues to intelligently discuss their faith with others. I am still technically a young person and ever since I’ve been out of university, I’ve been unable to find any casual setting where people can just meet, relax, and simply have good theological discussion. These kinds of places would also be good to help people who are uninterested in Christianity or Catholicism learn more about the positives and the beauty of the Faith.

I guess the main question I’d ask: can this work? Can anything that relies on young people, many of whom are somewhat impoverished, succeed?  I’d like to think that it could. America is a revivalist nation and I think that the next revival could be Catholic. I’m serious and may blog more on this topic later. Of course it won’t be like the Great Awakenings I-whatever, but I believe it may happen. Perhaps the historians will then look back say it all started with some caffeine hyped youths with more time than money.

Photo by Jonathan Bennett, taken with morning coffee