By Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB –
Along with the traditional educational agencies “new presences” emerge, which can transmit values to the young, especially towards holistic peace and harmony through vocational discernment and missionary discipleship. There are also new possibilities for formation and involvement towards such similar goal. A progressively secularised environment with discord and distrust presents new challenges to the marginalized youth and open the way to new opportunities for the integral education towards holiness, peace and unity.
This calls for new approaches in order to encounter the young. These ‘new presences’ require a new educative and pastoral approach, a new relationship with the Church and non-Church communities. Therefore, the dioceses need to renew their own presences and make them more significant (e.g. Schools, Vocational Training Centres, Clubs, Associations, Cells, Family, Youth Centres, etc.) and seek out ‘new frontiers’.
The Church sees herself in the young. “The Church has so much to talk about with youth, and youth have so much to share with the Church. This mutual dialogue, by taking place with great cordiality, clarity and courage, will provide a favourable setting for the meeting and exchange between generations, and will be a source of richness and youthfulness for the Church and civil society” (Christifidelis Laici, 46).
The difficulty consists, on the part of the clergy, due to over-clericalism, in assuming this important role of pastoral animation, which cannot be reduced to organising some activities “for youth”, or coordinating some events or areas. Instead, they need to accompany the local communities in their efforts to put into use the Youth Pastoral Plan (YPP), overcoming the tendency to compartmentalise, while growing in the joint-planning mentality and in the community dimension of the youth apostolate. The youth director, with the collaboration of the team, ought to coordinate all the areas of the youth activities of the region, ensuring that in each of them there are all the fundamental dimensions of the YM along with socio-political awareness. This requires a full-time director with the ability to be in contact with the local communities and in close connection in pastoral animation with the governing body/representatives of the diocese and parishes.
The structural plan laid out in the YPP (1996) was not easy to understand, and especially to put into practice in some places, where it took a long time to assimilate and implement the YPP. It has been seen that the dioceses which depended on a team for pastoral animation, managed to set up such structure on the basis of the renewed criteria, supported by a Diocesan Pastoral Council which devoted time to pastoral reflection, and continuous dialogue and an exchange of ideas with the department/commission and other intermediate bodies of animation. In fact, they make progress in developing an YM which is energetic, meaningful and corresponds to the new situations.
The present system and existing ‘content’ of YM, cannot achieve its purposes as proposed by the recent Synod on Youth, in the multireligious and multicultural context of India. The result of the analysis and the verification of the plans with its said content, necessarily require a dual fidelity to the evangelical message and to the recipient in the ‘place’ and in the ‘daily life’ of the young people.
Claiming to do the plans in the western-European style is to condemn the Christian young people to the superficiality and then betray the mission of the Church in India. One needs to evangelise the juvenile culture in Indian soil through an ‘incarnated’ YPP. It, therefore, proceeds from the doctrinal learning to a remarkable and expressive planning of evangelisation inclusive of the principal aspects of the life of the young and help the educators of the young people to bring their capacity of animation towards their maturation of faith. Some areas of the youth world are still to be evangelised: social, spiritual, religious, political, professional, cultural life, etc.
To be continued…
Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB is a Salesian priest from the Kolkata Province. He has a Licentiate in Catechetics and a Doctorate (Christian Education) from UPS, Italy. He has number of years of teaching experience in college and in the formation of future priests. Besides, he has written number of research papers and articles, and has 25 years of Ministry in India and abroad as Educator, Formator, Retreat Preacher, Editor and engaged in School, Parish Catechetical & Youth Ministry. He is now an assistant priest in Bandel Basilica, rendering pastoral and catechetical ministry to the parishioners and to the pilgrims. He can be contacted at [email protected].