WORDS Sarah Cannata

Parishes need to find ways to help young people use their talents in the community.

It’s one of the biggest questions facing the Catholic Church in Australia, and World Youth Day puts it right in the spotlight. What can our parishes do to inspire young people to open their hearts and minds to our faith?

‘We need to make the messages of our Christian faith relevant to our lives in 2008’, says Bec Bromhead, the national World Youth Day Coordinator for St Vincent de Paul.

Bec, 26, is a community worker. She was born into a practising Catholic family where parish life was an integral part everyday living.

She says her motivation to become an active participant in the church comes from knowing that Christian values will guide her through life.

‘The message of the Gospel should relate to what is happening in the world around young people. It should offer advice as to how we can best live a good and true life in our world,’ says Bromhead.

The Vinnies have a national network mobilising young volunteers, in schools, parishes and the broader community. They also have youth representatives on each of their regional, diocesan, state and national councils.

‘This is to ensure a youthful perspective and spirit in the Society, which was started by a 19-year-old university student in Paris’, says Bec.

For individual parishes, it’s important to develop age-specific ways for young people to be involved in parish life says John Riddle, who founded the St Patrick’s Youth Group in Melbourne’s east as a 16-year-old in 1993. He has just produced a book of resources for youth groups.

John and four friends helped found the group because there didn’t seem to be anything else out there specifically for young people. Over the last 16 years, he’s helped provide a safe place for retreat and fun for thousands of young people through the youth group.

He says that the group’s motto, ‘run by young people for young people’, reflects the need for young people to have a voice in the community and the capacity to take action.

But at what age is involvement in the parish realistically able to flourish into a leadership role that often demands serious commitment? Sixteen is the magic number according to John.

‘In this age group a maturity begins to develop. We see a heightened focus on social inequalities and a concern for the issues regarding their peers and age’, he says.

John says getting young people involved in a parish isn’t enough. A genuine interest in social justice issues must also be sparked if we want to see the full benefits for youth.

However, like getting young people involved in a parish to begin with, this is no easy task.

Bec says that establishing an interest in social justice issues is just the first step. The real challenge is to get young people active in solving social justice problems.

‘A key is raising the awareness of what it is like to be on the other end of a social justice issue,’ she says. ‘Making a personal connection with an issue will always require a young person to assess their role and consider how they can respond.’

Meanwhile, John encourages parishes to communicate with local secondary schools to determine what social justice issues will be addressed over the course of the year. He says parishes could link in with this by finding ways for young people to get involved in finding solutions to issues in their local community.

Sometimes asking for help is the best policy. ‘A small write-up about a social justice issue in a parish newsletter will always trigger an interest and lead to volunteers coming forward’, John says.

When John is asked what benefits young people have to gain by being involved, his answer epitomises that of a man truly dedicated to positively influencing youth.

‘Under the model that St Patrick’s Youth Group offers, young people are trained, they gain work experience, develop event management skills and exhibit a social justice perspective’, he says. ‘We offer friendship, unconditional support and the most important thing: our Catholic community can be strengthened.’

Bec supports this, saying that she has gained a great deal personally from the relationships she has formed with others over the years. She considers herself privileged to have seen first-hand the strength, resilience and hope of some of the people she has had contact with.

A good youth group will benefit both the young people and the parish, bringing a new life and energy to a parish and providing young people with what John describes as the greatest gift of all: opportunity.

Five ways to get young people involved in your parish

1    Give young people responsibility: Allowing young people to run groups themselves will make

them feel valued and respected in the community.

2    Trust them: The gift of trust will inspire a young person to commit to a job and follow it through.

3    Implement a program that transforms participants into leaders: Youth need to be given a goal to aspire towards.

4    Reach out to high schools: Getting the word out as to how young people can be involved is important.

5    Ask individuals to serve in the ministry: Inviting a young person to engage in parish activities transforms a bystander into a participant.