Goal One

Effective youth ministry calls the Catholic faith community to continually renew its affective and effective option for young people.

Goal Two

Effective youth ministry fosters the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.

Goal Three

Effective youth ministry invites and empowers young people to live as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today.

Goal Four

Effective youth ministry draws young people to participate responsibly in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith community.

Evangelization: The ministry of evangelization is the energizing core of all ministry with young people. The challenge is to ensure that all relationships and programs offered in and through our Christian community are proclamations of Good News. Through the ministry of evangelization, young people come to know and love Jesus Christ and to recognize their giftedness and vocation, their calling in life. Through the ministry of catechesis, the love is deepened and grows stronger.

Catechesis: Catechesis is an apprenticeship in the Christian way of life. It seeks to initiate young people into believing, celebrating, living and praying all that the Christian community believes, celebrates, lives and prays. Catechesis takes place first in families, and also in parishes, schools, groups and movements. Effective catechesis engages the mind, the imagination, the heart and the hands.

Intentional Relationships: The Church in Canada must decide to enter into relationships with young people. In the encounter, the young people will be challenged and affirmed, grow and be changed. Likewise, the community will be challenged and affirmed, grow and be changed. In entering into intentional relationships with young people, the Church affirms that we wish to live, to push forward into the next generation, to be relevant.

Advocacy: The ministry of advocacy encourages the Church to examine its own practice of fully integrating young people into the life of the Church. How are the voices of the young heard in our parishes, in our dioceses and in the Church throughout Canada? How are the gifts, talents, energy and challenge of young people welcomed, respected and called forth? The Church must model what it advocates for society at large.

Justice & Service: A constitutive element of the message of Jesus Christ is his call to work for justice, to serve those in need, to pursue peace and to defend the life, dignity and rights of all. We know too, from his stories and images, that Jesus had a deep love for all that God has created. This moves us toward a creative response to God’s call to be responsible stewards of all Creation.

Community Life: Building Christian community for and with young people involves 1) welcoming people, welcoming their gifts and talents and helping them to feel that they belong; 2) welcoming God into the midst of the gathering and into the conversation; 3) creating environments that are authentic, positive, accepting, understanding and prayerful; places where learning and growth may occur in safety; and • assuring young people that they are valued, cared for and needed.

Leadership Development: The ministry of leadership development aims to call forth, affirm and empower the gifts and abilities of young people in and for our faith communities. Leadership development is a theme as well as an element of a well-balanced youth ministry.  The entire community must also make room for young people, to nurture and support them. They are the young Church of today, as well as the Church of tomorrow.

Pastoral Care: The ministry of pastoral care is deeply rooted in relationship and in providing compassionate presence that ensures that the special attention of the community is directed toward those who are lost in any way. It is a sharing in the ministry of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came that all might have life, and have it to the full

Prayer & Worship: Through ministry of prayer and worship, young people are accompanied as they find the voice with which they will offer their personal and communal thanks to God. In prayer and worship, young people deepen their relationship with God in Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, and they celebrate that relationship.