Catholic Youth Work
Encyclopedia
World Youth Day
World Youth Day is a youth-oriented Catholic Church event. While the event itself celebrates the Catholic faith, the invitation to attend extends to all youth, regardless of religious convictions....
. It is a field which has evolved much over recent decades, especially in comparison to more formal methods of education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
or catechesis within the church. Nearly all diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
s and a great deal of parishes have some form of youth provision running, although a great deal of areas particularly in the developed world are finding youth work both more difficult and rare as the numbers of young people regularly practicing the Catholic faith continue to decline. In contrast, though, the new and exciting developments of recent decades and particularly the influence of the new movements within the Church are ensuring that youth work continues to be an active and fruitful field.
Generally there is little Catholic interaction with youth groups in other Christian denominations.
Overview
As with youth work in many Christian communities, Catholic youth ministry is normally conducted by a combination of local priest pastors and lay volunteers. Some parishes, particularly in more affluent parts of the world, may well employee lay professionals on a full time basis as well. In some areas of the Church, such as North America, there will be full time youth officers at the deanary or dioceseDiocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
level. Some of the time these will be lay professionals and some of the time they will be priests or members of religious congregations. The advantages to employing priests in these roles include the reduced salary costs, their ability to minister the sacraments and their guaranteed theological knowledge. The shortage of priests in many areas, however, mean that dioceses are increasingly turning to religious or lay people, who as well as being a little more flexible, will also often be able to breakdown the barrier that is often perceived between priests and church congregations.
Mission teams, residential centers, and new movements groups will normally be staffed largely by lay volunteers and professionals, perhaps with a priest in charge. School chaplaincy, on the other hand, is largely split between lay, religious and clerical practitioners, depending on the area in question.
Training and qualifications
The issue of training and qualifications for Catholic youth workers is normally a sticky question in many parts of the world. The advantages and generosity of lay volunteers, for instance, is often augmented in the minds of some people by their lack of catechetical and theological knowledge in comparison especially to priests and also by their lack of training in informal education in comparison to secular youth workers. Many systems to educate and train youth workers have appeared and youth workers are able to participate in schemes for catechists (such as the CCRSCatholic Certificate in Religious Studies
The Catholic Certificate in Religious Studies is a certificate awarded by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.It is designed:...
in the UK). Also many youth workers in the Church are increasingly opting for secular training. On the whole though, the Church still lacks a formal and widely recognized system of training and achievement for youth workers. Although a new Foundation Degree
Foundation degree
The Foundation Degree is a vocational qualification introduced by the government of the United Kingdom in September 2001, which is available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
in Youth Work/ Youth Ministry (with professional JNC recognition)is starting September 2007 at Newman University College
Newman University College
Newman University College is a university college offering academic degrees and teacher training in Birmingham, England.Known as Newman College of Higher Education until January 2008, it has the highest employment of graduates rate of UK universities and is in the top 25% of UK universities for...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. This will be the first of many across the UK.
Activities and ministries
There are a variety of different activities which are classed as Catholic youth work. They include the following:Parish based youth work
A great deal of parishes have groups which cater to young people in some way or other. These may be designated 'youth groups' of 'youth clubs' or may be groups for particular young people within the parish such as altar servers or those about to receive confirmation, for example. Whether or not all groups for, or including, young people in parishes can be considered among the realm of youth work is debatable as many will be catechetical or organised around particular duties rather than holding to the established methodology of informal education.Catholic residential youth work
Main ArticleCatholic Residential Youth Work
Catholic residential youth work is the work of the youth retreat centres and residential centres operated by the Catholic Church. In the UK, Catholic residential youth work is an important part of the Church's ministry to young people.-History:...
This involves the focused work done normally for just a few days where a course or retreat is run for a group of young people in a residential retreat center. Normally this work is very transitory work and residential centers can expect to work, in some cases, with thousands of young people a year. Young people are normally sent on retreat by a school or parish and thus the work is normally secondary rather than primary input. Catholic residential youth work is particularly popular in the UK, where an established network of thirteen centers exists, including places like Castlerigg Manor, SPEC Centre, Briars, Soli House, St Vincents Centre and Walsingham House.
Mission Teams
'Mission teams' is the term used to describe groups of youth workers who spend a period of time (usually around a week) in schools or parishes running a program, normally fairly kerygmatic in nature, with a group of young people. The transient nature of these programs makes this field somewhat similar to residential work, however the increased costs of maintaining mission teams combined with the difficulties in recruitment mean that they are normally not as widespread.School chaplaincy
This is particularly popular in the UK and Australia and other countries where Catholic Schools are common, but struggles to receive recognition in many areas where the role of full time lay people within the Catholic Church is still not properly respected or provided for. Chaplaincy involves a dedicated youth worker acting as a lay chaplain to introduce an element of youth work provision into a school so as to back up the school's Catholic ethos and complement the mainstream educational work of the school.Area (diocesan/deanary) youth work
Many dioceses or deanaries will employ a coordinator to look after youth initiatives for a group of Churches. This is especially important in areas where not every parish can afford a full time worker. Typically these coordinators, who may be a priestPriesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
, a religious brother or sister
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
will be responsible for training local volunteers and assisting them in setting up local youth groups, organizing large events or pilgrimages such as to World Youth Day
World Youth Day
World Youth Day is a youth-oriented Catholic Church event. While the event itself celebrates the Catholic faith, the invitation to attend extends to all youth, regardless of religious convictions....
, and building links between parishes and other local Catholic bodies such as schools.
New movements
Movements such as Youth 2000Youth 2000
Youth 2000 is an international Catholic movement for young people, generally between the ages of 16 and 35.-Purpose:Whilst specific details vary from country to country, the main focuses of Youth 2000 tend to be as follows :...
and various organizations connected to the Charismatic Renewal, will normally run either local groups not connected to parishes or schools, or larger annual events. Normally these groups will aim to enforce a certain part of faith in young people or a certain tradition or style. One of these new movements is LIFE TEEN
LIFE TEEN
Life Teen, Inc. is a Catholic youth ministry organization and movement originating in the United States. It was established in 1985 at St. Timothy's Parish in Mesa, Arizona to "lead teens closer to Christ." Life Teen believes that "Eucharist-based ministry has the power to transform teens,...
, "leading teens closer to Christ"; a parish-based program centered around the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
, Contemporary Christian Music
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...
, relational ministry and catechesis. The largest Catholic youth organization in the world is CFC-Youth for Christ, with around 200,000 youth members in 160 countries.
World Youth Day
A global event held every 2-3 years and attended by the PopePope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
. The event in the Philippines in 1995 was attended by over 5 million people, making it the largest Christian gathering ever. The last event
World Youth Day 2005
The 20th World Youth Day 2005 was a Catholic youth festival that started on August 16 and continued until August 21, 2005 in Cologne, Germany. It was the first World Youth Day and foreign trip of Pope Benedict XVI, who joined the festival on August 18. This meeting was decided by the previous...
was in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia in July 2008 and the next one will be in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain in 2011.