Saint Catherine of Siena
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Youth Ministry Goals

Youth ministry is a multidimensional reality, but all of its varied facets are brought into focus by a common dedication to the following goals:

  1. Ministry with Youth works
    to foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.
  2. Ministry with Youth seeks
    to draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the faith community.
  3. Ministry with Youth empowers
    young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today.

Julius shakes Fr. Kinane's handThe Church in ministry with youth is committed to the fullest personal development of young people, particularly those who face the greatest barriers in achieving this goal by reason of material poverty, loneliness, racial discrimination, social injustice, or physical or mental handicaps. This personal development encompasses relationship to self, others and God, particularly within the context of supportive community.

Many youths experience themselves as alienated from or out of place within the life and work of the whole parish community. Youth ministry seeks to draw young people into the supportive experience of Christian commu ity and to asist the parish community to welcome the young and share its ministry with them.

In these respects youth ministry is both a ministry WITHIN the church, ministering to believers, and a ministry OF the church that reaches out to serve others with the love and humility of Christ.