Ensuring the future of our Church

Parent or not, anyone can tell you that the future lies in the hands of today’s youth: and the same is inevitably true for the Church. In western countries, many young Catholics are at best apathetic – at worst, hostile – towards their faith, but elsewhere the opposite is so often true. Throughout the developing world, children, teenagers and young adults in the Church are frequently bursting with vitality and enthusiasm. They join vibrant youth groups and choirs, and Mass is the high point of their week.
The problem comes when the clergy, religious and lay cannot afford to implement their plans and initiatives, simply due to lack of funds.
Sudan is a prime example. As Bishop Lodu of Yei diocese told me: “For the next 25 years, the Church is going to be very strong in Sudan because the youth now is so fervent.” Yet after nearly two decades of civil war, the people are poor – and so is the Church. But they are not deterred.
In the northern diocese of Khartoum, for example, under the direction of Archbishop Wako – also known as ‘Fr Courage’ – young Catholics have held youth congresses every year since 1995. “Their participation in all the Jubilee events was overwhelming,” we were told. “The all-night adoration held in the grounds of the Cathedral on the eve of that Jubilee brought together over 13,000 young people.”
An amazing and enviable figure. But most youths in Sudan have known nothing but war all their lives, and the damage this has caused to them is deep and extensive: “disorientation, hopelessness, helplessness, irresponsibility, cultural uprootedness and short-sightedness now characterise our youth. We want them to look to the future with hope and determination. Their enthusiasm is great: our main constraint is the funds to run these congresses.”
Two continents away, the challenges are similar: spiritual richness meets material poverty. The Church is oppressed and isolated in Myanmar (Burma), but Fr Albert Pho Kwah – the national director for the youth of Myanmar – was eager to send 38 representatives to this year’s World Youth Day in Toronto. “The vast majority of them have never set foot out of the country. And now – suddenly – this most beautiful of chances – this unique privilege has come their way! ‘Toronto’ is in the mouths of everyone… millions of youth will be present to witness to the whole world their decided choice of Christ as their only leader.”
With the help of ACN’s benefactors, we were able to answer Fr Albert’s ‘SOS Appeal’ and assist with the plane fares to Canada. For as their Bishop, Charles Bo, wrote of their own inability to find the funds: “For us who are having to arrange the whole itinerary, it is a tremendous source of worry. We are at a complete loss as to what to do! For our youth, it would be the most memorable event of their life.”
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the Catholic Ministry to Deaf People (CMDP) is the only agency which provides retreats for deaf Catholics in Manila, giving them “the opportunity to deepen their love and relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ”. Since 1995, the CMDP has conducted 12 “Days with the Lord” week-end retreats for deaf young people, who would never otherwise have any such opportunity for spiritual growth and renewal. For all of these, they depended on ACN’s benefactors, and keep them all in their prayers: “The world of our hearing-impaired brothers and sisters have been made a little brighter through these activities which have been made possible because of your big generous hearts.”
From Sudan to India, Ethiopia to Iraq, Myanmar to Haiti, ACN is helping Catholic youths become the salt and the light. For it would be a tragedy to allow a lack of resources to drive the world’s youth – our future – from our churches.

Cecilia Bromley-Martin works for Aid to the Church in Need