All urged to ‘accompany’ young-adult Catholics

By Tracey Lamont, Contributing Writer
Photos | COURTESY LOYOLA INSTITUTE FOR MINISTRY

The Loyola Institute for Ministry, in collaboration with Dominican Father David Caron of the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and Dr. Alice Hughes and Deacon Michael Whitehouse of the archdiocesan Office of Religious Education, recently hosted a packed workshop on Pope Francis’ 2019 document “Christus Vivit” (Christ is Alive!), a post-synodal exhortation focused on the needs and concerns of the young-adult church.

The Dec. 14 event, which was attended by Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Loyola’s president Tania Tetlow, drew nearly 100 participants from various backgrounds: volunteer ministry leaders, school administrators, parish staff, office directors, religious, clergy, parents, grandparents, parishioners, youth and young adults.

The workshop was led by Paul Jarzembowski, the staff liaison for the U.S. bishops’ National Advisory Team on Young Adult Ministry. He was an observer to the Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment in Rome in October 2018 and had the honor of meeting Pope Francis.

Jarzembowski said the pope modeled the way of accompaniment and deep listening by engaging young adults in conversation and even laughter throughout the synod. He said Pope Francis wrote “Christus Vivit” as a love letter to the people of God, and that he is filled with great hope for our young church.

Anxiety, exclusion among young adults’ concerns

Jarzembowski began the workshop by unpacking the synodal process, which involved listening to the voices of young adults from across the globe. He then examined the document in practical and meaningful ways.

During the synodal process, young Catholics from across the world identified their greatest needs and challenges, including struggling with identity formation, anxiety, migration and the climate crisis, as well as social exclusion, instability and violence.

The young people also expressed a longing for meaning. Addressing this, Pope Francis noted the importance of listening to young voices, taking seriously their experiences of church, and working with youth and young adults to create a culture of encounter through “acompañimiento” – or accompanying young adults with the patience, love and compassion God has for us.

All Catholics are asked to minister to young adults

Jarzembowski  said Catholics need to break down the silos that often exist within a parish or ministry and work with one another across not only parish lines but also within our own ministries.

Ministry with young people is everyone’s job, he said, not just that of the youth or young adult minister.

The workshop included a listening session with six young people who were asked to share their challenges and hopes for the church: high school students Emmanuel Levy, Trent Burke and Maggie Tran, and young adults Samuel Rottman, Jazmin Gutierrez and Claire Gallagher.

Maggie said her hope for the church was that we might focus more on the goodness and beauty of the Catholic Church than on the restrictions or what we cannot do.

Trent said one of the most powerful moments in which he fell in love with his faith was on retreat, in particular a Kairos retreat. He recommended that ministry leaders and teachers consider hosting Kairos retreats with students in their parishes and schools.

Improved parish-school collaboration requested

Emmanuel asked how teachers and ministers might bring the faith to life beyond textbooks and memorization to make the faith more relatable to their lives. He also addressed Archbishop Aymond, noting how there is this unspoken competition between parishes and schools.

The archbishop said he was grateful to Emmanuel for bringing this up, responding, “We’re on it!”

Archbishop Aymond said the archdiocese is in the process of gathering youth ministers and campus ministers to see how they might complement one another, to help the schools and parishes better support one another.

The workshop unleashed the voices of our young church. If we are willing to truly listen, we can ignite meaningful change in the way we view hospitality, family life, evangelization, religious education and ministries with youth and young adults in our faith communities.

We hope to offer a follow-up session to explore how people are putting into practice what they learned. Attendees were asked in a closing evaluation what would be helpful to them in terms of follow-up events.

Tracey Lamont is an assistant professor of religious education at the Loyola Institute for Ministry. She welcomes readers’ feedback on the subject of young adult ministry at her email: tlamont@loyno.edu.