Society today owes a lot to many anonymous youth leaders who have, for a long time, devoted themselves to young people. The encouraging developments in youth ministry in the recent years mean we remain hopeful also for the future.
Youth ministry is the holistic accompaniment of young people, with special attention to community life and meaningful faith journeys. Various leaders and key players in civil society know their beginnings in public life to Church youth organisations. They encountered dedicated leaders and friends who helped them recognise their own qualities and offered them the right experiences to strenghten them.
Even today, Church groups provide a sought-after space for young people of all ages. A recent study by the Diocesan Youth Commission (KDŻ) shows that Church groups make well over a quarter of youth organisations, in terms of membership. At least one in every four young people active within organisations of any category are members of Church groups.
A vibrant, forward-looking young Church benefits the whole of society
The study was conducted by the research institute Discern with more than 5,000 young people. ‘Grassroots’, as the published report is entitled, reveals a vibrant scene of over 400 different groups within the local youth ministry scape. We are grateful to all those who, day after day, render this important service to the advantage of the Church and society at large.
The research presents a picture of the young Church today, focusing on long-term association and leaving aside participation in short-term initiatives like Lenten talks or summer voluntary experiences. These temporary involvements are, however, not to be discounted.
Many young people go through deep transformative processes in these short-term projects and, particularly in the case of volunteering, contribute directly to social justice both locally and abroad. The findings highlight the areas we can be thankful for and others where we are challenged to new opportunities and horizons.
Right now, more Church groups are catering for adolescents until age 15 (60 per cent) through parish-based centres and movements and this contributes to the fact that the majority of members overall are students (about 75per cent).
It is interesting that young people over the age of 16 are more likely to find groups in localities other than their own.
Women are slightly less active in Church groups than men, even at leadership level, though the imbalance is not as high as in civil society.
There is a high rate of commitment and involvement among participants, with almost 70 per cent attending every meeting or activity while many are empowered into leadership roles.
The strongest motivations for attending are the building of good friendships and meaningful faith-formation. Away from their groups, members still lead active social lives: going out with friends, practising sports and networking on web media are the top leisure pursuits.
The young are also quite spiritually active, even in the traditional forms like Mass. Religious practice among youth is, however, more strongly identified with alternative methods like personal prayer and bible-sharing.
The Church welcomes the challenges that lie ahead to make these environments more accessible and relevant to youth life in general. Young people are already at the forefront of the transformations taking place, which, of itself, demonstrates the trust and hope in youth.
The Church is committed to the empowerment of young people, encouraging them to take centre-stage in the developments that, as a whole body, it needs to go through. The vision of the Church for youth ministry in Malta, thus, unfolds over three closely-related themes: discipleship, quality, and dialogue. These dimensions guide the present plan of action and evaluation at national level and frame a new 2015-2017 strategy, currently being drawn up.
Discipleship: the particular characteristic of Church groups is that they offer more than just companionship to adolescents and young people; they offer a community. Groups encourage participants to seek meaning in life, not least spiritually, to allow them a fuller, richer youth phase.
We observe with satisfaction that, where sensible spiritual experiences are offered, the response from the young is overwhelming.
Quality: young people deserve nothing but the best. In recent years, there has been a remarkable effort by the Maltese Church to equip youth leaders with professional and vocational formation programmes ranging from ‘apprenticeship’ to Masters level.
This approach is clearly even more demanding of volunteers, all of whom already dedicate a lot of their time, energy and, often, resources to the development of young people. However, numbers in formal and non-formal training is on the increase as leaders understand that further competence and accountability is the way ahead. The step-up in the quality of leadership is bearing fruit.
Dialogue: people’s lives are not divided into partitions. The young Church seeks ways to blend faith with the whole breadth of life: the arts, politics, culture and environmental causes, among others. Various Church groups are exploring points of convergence with young people of different faith paths and convictions, leading to mutually-enriching experiences of genuine dialogue.
‘Grassroots’ has revealed that Church-based environments are still top providers of developmental spaces for the young in Malta. Youth groups offer significant and compelling opportunities to both adolescents and young people. The road ahead will see these groups preserving their safe and serene atmosphere thanks to the generous efforts of volunteers while working within policies enhancing the professionalisation of youth-related engagement.
A vibrant, forward-looking young Church benefits the whole of society. To do this, we are inspired by Pope Francis’s bold invitation: “I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses. I want the noise to go out. I want the Church to go out onto the streets. I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves” (WYD, 2014).
Anthony Mifsud is president of the Diocesan Youth Commission.