Catholic Youth Work

The phrase Catholic youth work covers a wide range of activities carried out with young people, usually in the name of the Catholic Church and with the intention of imparting the Catholic faith to them and inviting them to practice and live out the faith in their lives. Activities in the field range from small scale youth groups attached to parishes or Catholic schools, to large international gatherings, such as World Youth Day. It is a field which has evolved much over recent decades, especially in comparison to more formal methods of education or catechesis within the church. Nearly all dioceses 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.

In many countries local groups of Catholic youth have founded diocesan or national umbrella organizations to foster the exchange between young people and to organize joint activities, like camps, seminars or pilgrimages. Typical for the youth work of Catholic youth organizations is that their work is not determined by priests or other professionals but that they are self-organized and -determined by young volunteers. However, many Catholic youth organizations also elect a theologically qualified person as "preses". Many Catholic youth organizations in Europe are rooted in the movement of the Catholic Action.

As with youth work in many Christian communities, Catholic youth ministry is often 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 deanery or diocese 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 break down the barrier that is often perceived between priests and church congregations (e.g. the Salesians of Don Bosco).

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