A Church Accompanied by Young People
“Young Catholics have called for Church leaders and ministers to accompany and assist them to face the challenges of discipleship. They not only want to be accompanied by the Church, but also want to accompany the Church on its journey, hoping that their contributions can influence growth and change.”
Instrumentum Laboris of the Australian Plenary Council, 58
When I first became a youth ministry leader it was out of a deep desire to share the love of God with other young people. I had experienced God’s love in my own life and I wanted other young people to have an encounter with the person of Jesus and find belonging in the community of the beloved, the church. Two things happened that seemed greatly at odds in those early days.
As a young person myself, still in Uni and called to lead other young people, my parish community looked to me to not only guide younger teenagers, but to guide the parish on what it meant to be a young person in the church. They wanted to know my own experiences and insights into faith formation, evangelisation, and social action and justice. They weren’t afraid to praise me for my ‘wisdom and understanding’ or even to take on some of my crazy ideas to make church more accessible to young people. In a sense, they allowed me to accompany the parish community.
At the same time, I was running youth ministry programs for years 6 to 12 and a young adult group for 18 to 25 year-olds. As I mentioned, my intentions were good, But I could be heavy-handed in passing on ‘the Truth’. I could be non-receptive to what the experiences, questions and challenges from young people. In short, I was trying to direct (not accompany) young people, and I was certainly not allowing them to accompany me.
Thankfully, I had mentors who helped me to develop my own sensitivities and practice of youth ministry. I began to realise that as a leader, I was to serve in the model of Jesus, to be a servant. I did not need to provide all the answers to questions my young people didn’t have. I did not need to save them from their sinfulness or potential sinfulness – God already accomplished that! I learned that if I were to grow and develop as a youth minister, and as a person, I would need to allow young people to accompany me.
What is accompaniment?
Pope Francis has used the word accompany and accompaniment throughout his papacy to describe the way in which we are called to be in loving relationship with one another as the church community. In his letter, the Joy of the Gospel (AKA Evangelii Gaudium), Francis describes accompaniment as a ‘closeness’ with people that involves ‘listening’, discernment, ‘compassion’, and guidance that leads to ‘missionary discipleship’ (paragraphs 169-173). In other words, accompaniment is a relationship between someone seeking guidance and the guide, both on a journey to discern God’s plan for the one seeking guidance.
In Christus Vivit, Pope Francis’ letter on young people, he challenges the whole Church to recognise that young people are not simply the recipients of accompaniment by the Church (young people are not problems to be fixed, “All too often, there is a tendency to provide prepackaged answers and readymade solutions”, 65). He reminds us that young people are a gift to the Church, and that young people will guide the church on its own journey. That is, young people are, at times, the accompanists of the church!
Accompaniment leads to transformation
In my own ministry, when I allowed myself to be accompanied by young people, when I let go of my selfish desire to ‘create them in my own image,’ I received incredible gifts and learned things no one else could have taught me. I became a more compassionate, open-minded youth minister. I developed a great love for young people, their energy and passion. I learned to adore them for who they are now and their giftedness now rather than for their potential as adults in some distant future. I was transformed, converted, made anew. My ministry with young people took on a new life. It because much more authentic, relational, and life-giving.
A church that allows itself to be accompanied by young people is a church on the move, a church that is alive and responsive the realities of the world, a church that is transformed and that can transform the world.
Called to be accompanied.
In a few weeks we will be entering a new phase in the life of the Archdiocese of Adelaide, and a couple weeks after that, the life of the Australian Church. The 2021 Diocesan Assembly and Plenary Council offer our local and national Catholic community an opportunity to listen deeply to young people, to allow ourselves to be converted and experience a transformation of love. Young people are calling us out of the comfort of our church buildings and the confines of convention and into the streets, the homes and lives of everyday, ordinary people, of those in deep need, and to address the realities and challenges of our time. Will we listen? Will we have the humility to allow ourselves to be accompanied?
‘To be credible to young people, there are times when [the church] needs to regain her humility and simply listen, recognise that what other have to say can provide some light to help [the church] better understand the Gospel. A Church always on the defensive, which loses her humility and stops listening to others, which leaves no room for questions, loses their youth and turns into a museum. How, then, will she be able to respond to the dreams of young people? Even is she possesses the truth of the Gospel, this does not mean that she has completely understood it; rather [the Church] is called to keep growing in her its grasp of the inexhaustible treasure.’
-Christus Vivit, 41
The presence and role of young people at the Diocesan Assembly and Plenary Council is necessary and prophetic. Young people, therefore, have a responsibility to be open, honest and authentic. To be receptive to the questions of older people, to be open to the wisdom of the experienced, and to act in humility and mercy. Likewise, it is the responsibility of mature adults to do the same with young people.
I look forward to the Assembly and Plenary Council, not so much because I expect monumental change to the institutional structures of the Church, but because I know this is an opportunity for something much deeper – a conversion of heart and a response toward mission. In this we can change our church and move forward in hope for the future.
Peter Bierer is the Coordinator of the Catholic Office for Youth and Young Adults in the Archdiocese of Adelaide.