by Sarah McGeehan, Youth Ministry Coordinator

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One of the big concerns during the Synodal process was how we can enable young people to flourish within the Church. In response to this, our Pastoral Plan proposed the appointment of a full-time youth advisor to create a networked youth ministry that brings together present and future provision across the archdiocese.

 

I feel very blessed to have been given this job, and excited to be collaborating with parishes to support their work with young people, but I also recognise the challenges that lie ahead. I am comfortable working with young people in a spiritual or religious context as I spent thirty years teaching Religious Education in secondary schools, five of which I was also school chaplain, and I’ve run a Justice and Peace youth group in my own parish for ten years. However, there is always more to learn, and although there are wonderful things already going on in our archdiocese, there is still more to be done.

 

Working with young people is not straightforward. They live in a complex and confusing world, very different to the one that many of us grew up in. They have big questions about belonging, identity, meaning, and the future, to name a few. To understand their needs and their desires in their spiritual life, we need to listen – to their questions, their struggles, their hopes.

 

Psychologist carl Jung suggested that loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that are important to you. To really enable the young to feel as though they belong in our Church, that they are truly a part of our community, we need to listen. We have two ears and one mouth, as the saying goes, so that we may listen twice as much as we talk.

 

In Christus Vivit, Pope Francis said that the community has an important role in the accompaniment of young people. “All should regard young people with understanding, appreciation and affection and avoid constantly judging them or demanding perfection beyond their years.”

 

So we need to listen without prejudice. It might be difficult to hear what they have to say. But I believe they will continue to surprise us too. As Pope Leo XIV put it, young people are the “promise of hope” - hope for a better Church, a better world and a better future, and we can be a part of that journey, walking alongside them.

 

If there’s anything going on in your parish for the youth, then please let me know so we can publicise it and celebrate it.

 

Saint Carlo Acutis pray for us!