The youth, their spiritual life, accompaniment, formation, team life, and apostolate—central themes addressed by those responsible for youth ministry
The territorial youth ministry coordinators, together with the life and mission team of Regnum Christi from the General Directorate, gathered in Rome from February 22 to 28. The goal of this meeting was to bring to the table various topics that today touch on the mission of Regnum Christi with and for young people.
Each one expressed their vision of the reality faced by their territory in the field of youth ministry, and they addressed the five key elements of the life of a young person in Regnum Christi: spiritual life, accompaniment, formation, team life, and apostolate.
Five challenges were identified:
- The scarcity of human and economic resources
- The complexity of structures that become unsustainable
- Lack of clarity on how to carry out the mission without losing focus on what is essential
- Individualism and isolation
- Creating a cultural change in the way of accompanying, forming, and launching young people into apostolate
The diversity of contexts and common challenges lead to discerning what is essential and specific to the gift that God has wanted to give to young people through Regnum Christi and how to make it shine in the current reality. To do this, starting from what is experienced in localities and territories, the essential of pastoral work has been conceptualized as “being communities of apostles who form communities of apostles.”
Father Gabriel Abascal, LC, shared that “working with young people in Regnum Christi involves many challenges, but at the same time we see it with great hope. The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is that we are facing a world diametrically opposed to the one we experienced when we were young. The adaptation and the environment where young people find themselves are in constant movement, demanding a lot of preparation and accompaniment if we want to form the apostles we need to re-evangelize societies. The specific challenge in Regnum Christi is that, after the renewal we have undergone due to our history and institutional wounds, it is now our turn to renew the structures we have operated with for many years to be able to accompany, form, and launch young people into apostolate. The Church is going through a serious vocation crisis, and Regnum Christi feels it too. It is up to us to rethink the ways and structures, without losing the essence of our charism, so we can do the work God asks of us in youth ministry.”
A document has been prepared (which can be viewed here) that gathers all the conclusions from these meetings. This provides a resource to inspire the living out of the essential in the sections of Regnum Christi and among those who coordinate them.
