WelCom, September 2024
Representatives from the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference National Council for Young People of Aotearoa met with the New Zealand bishops at the Home of Compassion in Wellington, 20–21 August.
The council, with representatives from each diocese, meets regularly with the bishops. Its role is to advise and advocate on behalf of young Catholics in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Among the many topics discussed at last month’s meeting were Young Church leadership, safeguarding and best practice for keeping young people safe, the 2025 Jubilee Year and its ‘Pilgrims’ of Hope’ theme, World Youth Day including next year’s Jubilee of the Youth, 28 July–3 August 2025 – a ‘mini’ World Youth Day for Youth and Adults, The Send Gospel national youth event in November at Mystery Creek, Hamilton, and the two-day Life Teen Aotearoa Leadership Convention held in partnership with the Archdiocese of Wellington at Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt, 30 August–1 September 2024.
Our council’s work is vast says chair Nick Wilson. ‘We work on different projects such as the World Youth Day, a major worldwide celebration held every two to four years in a different country, and which draws together thousands of young Catholics from around the world. We collaborate on national ministries, such as LifeTeen Aotearoa Summer camp and we co-operate in the tertiary chaplaincy space,’ he said.
‘It is important to the bishops and to us that we work together as much as possible in providing encounter experiences for young people with the living God. There is much to distract young people from a life of discipleship. To counter this, we take great hope and encouragement from the words of Pope Francis’ document to young people in Christus Vivit, which speaks about the importance of accompanying young people in their hīkoi whakapono – their faith journeys.’
Nick says people often think it is just the youth minister who is responsible for the work of accompanying young people. ‘This is erroneous, because by virtue of our baptism, our Vatican II ecclesiology points to our calling to journey together as a community of disciples. Perhaps a question for reflecting on for the disciples of some longevity reading this is: “how can I assist the faith journey of the young people in my local faith community?” After all, you too were accompanied by someone – a teacher, a priest, a youth worker, a whānau member or similar back in the day.
‘Now it is your turn to pass on the faith and nurture it in the young. In this way, we live Jesus’ call in Matthew 28 to baptise people and animate their faith lives. We send a strong message to young people if we are excited about living and sharing our faith lives.’
