The final document on young people, composed by young adults themselves at the invitation of Pope Francis for the 2018 Synod of Bishops, says: “Lots of young people, having lost trust in institutions, have become disaffiliated with organized religion and would not see themselves as ‘religious.’ However, young people are open to the spiritual.”

Perhaps even longer before this document was published, I have been thinking about the expression “spiritual but not religious.” Part of this has to do with my identity as a pastoral minister and Catholic priest. I was initially inclined to see such phra...